Remembering Robert F. Drinan, S.J.

Georgetown Journal of Legal Ethics, The, Spring 2007 by Rotunda, Ronald D

Robert Frederick Drinan, S.J., departed from this life on Sunday, 28 January 2007-86 years after he had entered it on November 15, 1920. During that time, he engaged in so many activities and touched so many people that it seemed he lived at least three lives, not one. It was the gift of celibacy, he said, that allowed this Jesuit priest the time to do so many different things.

At Boston College, he earned his B.A. and M.A. in 1942.' He entered the Society of Jesus that same year, studying at the Weston Jesuit School of Theology in Massachusetts.2 Even then, he was not finished adding letters after his name. Bob Drinan subsequently earned an LL.B. in 1949, and his LL.M. in 1951-both from Georgetown. In 1953, he was ordained a Jesuit priest, and earned his theology doctorate in 1954 from Gregorian University in Rome. To that list, we should add the 22 honorary degrees that schools awarded him throughout his life.3

Father Drinan returned to Boston College in 1955 as Assistant Dean of the law school. The school named him Dean in 1956, at the ripe old age of 36. He held the post until 1969, converting the place from what a federal judge once called a "moribund institution" into a highly regarded law school.4 As Dean of Boston College Law School, Bob Drinan strongly opposed the de facto segregation of the Boston Public School System. This made him no stranger to controversy. From 1969 to 1970, he was Vice President and Provost of Boston College. Then he ran for Congress in 1970, vying for one of Massachusetts's seats in the House of Representatives.5 He ran mainly because he thought that the Democratic incumbent was insufficiently opposed to the Vietnam War. Father Drinan won the election on an anti-war platform and unseated the 14-term incumbent,6 becoming the first Roman Catholic priest to become a voting member of Congress.7 The initial election was not easy, and his victory was an upset.8 Many of his own constituents expressed concern about a man of the cloth sitting in Congress. Protestant ministers had served before, but Father Drinan was the first priest with a vote. Bob did not shy away from the controversy, however. One of his 1970 campaign posters declared, "Father Knows Best."9 He always wore his Roman collar when campaigning and when serving in the House. "It is the only suit I own," he said.

Bob Drinan served in Congress from 1971 to 1981 as one of its most liberal Democratic members. He supported federal funding for abortions and he was a strong pacifist. Like Milton Friedman-the Nobel Laureate who also recently died-Father Robert Drinan supported a voluntary army and opposed the draft. He introduced the first resolution to impeach President Nixon in 1973-not because of Watergate, but because of the President's bombing of Cambodia.

When Pope John Paul II decided to enforce a rule that forbade priests from holding elective office, Bob's choice was either to leave the priesthood or to leave Congress. For him, the answer was simple: he left Congress and started teaching at Georgetown University Law Center, his alma mater. When asked about this decision, he said, "As a person of faith, I must believe that there is work for me to do which somehow will be more important than the work I am required to leave."10

In addition to being a devout Jesuit and active politician, Bob Drinan was a gifted scholar. Barney Frank, who was elected to Bob's vacant seat in the House of Representatives, once remarked, "Bob Drinan wrote more books than many of his congressional colleagues have ever read."11 An exaggeration perhaps, but an understandable one: Bob published a dozen books in his lifetime. When he started teaching at Georgetown Law in 1981, he was already 60 years old-an age when many people start planning for retirement. But not Bob Drinan. From that time until his death, he wrote 9 books-published by academic presses like Yale University and Loyola University Press, and general presses, like Harper & Row.12 For Bob's words could reach very distinct audiences-the general public as well as academics and the practicing bar.

And, of course, he wrote articles. Many articles. Not counting his more popular works-including his op-eds in various newspapers and his columns in the National Catholic Reporter and America-Bob Drinan authored nearly 140 law review articles.13 He did so after he started teaching at Georgetown Law.

While writing, he remained very active in the classroom. Some professors seek ways to escape the burden of teaching, or brag about how they have managed to reduce their teaching load. Bob never did. Over the years, he taught over 6,000 students. He was teaching a course on religion and government and an advanced seminar on legal ethics this semester. While he taught, Father Drinan always motivated his students to explore and implement their learning outside the classroom.

Somehow, Bob Drinan still found-or made-time to be active beyond the law school campus. He was a member of the Board of Directors for the People for the American Way Foundation and the Center for Arms Control & Non-Proliferation. He served as a member of the National Governing Board for Common Cause and the boards of directors for Bread for the World and the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund. He founded the Lawyers Alliance for Nuclear Arms Control, and was honorary President of the World Federalist Association, Vice Chairman of the National Advisory Council for the ACLU, and a member of the Helsinki Watch Commission. And the list eoes on.