More Megalomaniacal Meltdown at Ave Maria...

... a.k.a. don't send your kids to Ave Maria University:

Jesuit Father Joseph Fessio, a close friend of Pope Benedict XVI, and theologian-in-residence at Ave Maria University, was fired from AMU yesterday, after privately (mind you, that's PRIVATELY) expressing criticism over the university's finances.

***
The good Father's only mistake was crossing a man who thinks money may not buy happiness, but it can get you damn near everything else. Apparently the previous attempt at removing Fessio didn't teach certain people anything.

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The American Papist has additional information.

My Comments:
It's schizophrenic stuff like this that led me to recently counsel a young friend to consider attending law school at a secular state institution to which he'd been accepted, despite the full-ride scholarship he'd been offered to attend Ave Maria School of Law.


Previous Pro Ecclesia posts on this subject:
Mirror of Justice Law Profs Issue Statement on Ave Maria School of Law

Statement from Professor Charles E. Rice on Recent Events at Ave Maria School of Law

WSJ: "The Trials of Ave Maria School of Law"

Nightline Calls Ave Maria U "A Catholic Jonestown"

"Let's face it, ... Sir Thomas More would have been denied tenure today ..."

Ave Maria Law Faculty Speak Out - Substantial Majority of Faculty Have No Plans to Participate in Relocation

Orthodox Catholic Academics, Catholic Colleges and the Job Market

Washington Post Weighs in on Misguided Magnate of Mozzarella

Ave Maria to Keep Ex-Provost After Outcry (3 articles)

Understatement of the Day

Moneyman Monaghan's Megalomaniacal Meltdown

Professor Rice Responds

What If You Started a Law School Dedicated to the Study of Law in the Catholic Legal Tradition ...

A Priceless Takedown of America Magazine

Read Dale Price's priceless (pun intended) takedown of America Magazine's jesuitical nonsense regarding the opposition to Obama at Notre Dame. This is some of Dale's finest work.

(Hat tip: Don McClarey at The American Catholic)


[UPDATE: Okay, I changed the title of this post to something a little less provocative. I like the original better, but I can see how it might not be conducive to "dialogue".]

Newsworthy Dads: Another Catholic in the House

From the Fathers for Good website put out by the Knights of Columbus:

Another Catholic in the House

As a surprise victor in the congressional district that includes New Orleans, Anh Joseph Cao is the “man of the hour” in the current news cycle. Yet with his strong family values and Catholic faith, which he learned before escaping as a boy from war-torn Vietnam, he could also be a candidate for “father of the year.”

After all, he knows that his role as father will last long after the media glare fades and he settles with his family in the nation’s capital as a first-term congressman from Louisiana in the U.S. House of Representatives.

“My family is the center of my life. I could not live without my wife and two daughters,” said the 41-year-old Cao in an exclusive Fathers for Good telephone interview. [The "C" in his last name is pronounced as "G"]

He was married in 2001 to Hieu “Kate” Hoang, and they have two daughters, Sophia (age 5) and Betsy (age 4).

The most memorable event of his fatherhood was the birth of his daughters, he said.

“To watch them grow into beautiful girls has been the joy of my life,” he said. “I enjoy coming home to my wife, and reading to my daughters and teaching them piano.”

Late Election

In an election delayed more than a month due to the effects of Hurricane Gustav, Cao defeated incumbent William Jefferson, who was hampered by corruption allegations but still outspent his opponent by a wide margin. Cao, the first Vietnamese-American to be elected to Congress, is also the first Republican to win Louisiana’s 2nd District since 1890.

A man who has been through much tougher battles than a congressional election, Cao is taking his newfound celebrity in stride, keeping his message simple.

“My mission in office will be to rebuild the 2nd Congressional District which was ravaged by Hurricane Katrina and where many parts still need help,” he said.

Cao’s own home filled with eight feet of water during the 2005 storm, yet he and his family rebuilt and returned, only to be hit again by Gustav this past September, when more than a foot of water rolled into his house while he was serving as a delegate to the Republican National Convention in Minneapolis.

These are just two incidents in a personal history marked by struggles against tough odds.

In 1975, as the Southern capital of Saigon fell to the North Vietnamese, the 8-year-old Cao was separated from his parents and escaped with two siblings and an aunt, who pulled them aboard a U.S. military airplane.

He landed in Guam and later settled with relatives in the United States. His father, a South Vietnamese army officer, was imprisoned for eight years but was reunited with his family in the United States in 1991.

From the time he arrived here, Joseph Cao’s life has been a true American success story, written with hard work and intelligence. He learned English, settled in Houston, Texas, graduated from Baylor University and entered the Jesuits in hope of becoming a priest.

“I wanted to become a missionary and serve the people of God,” he explained.

He traveled as a Jesuit novice to many poor parts of the world, earned a master’s degree in philosophy at Fordham University in New York City, and in 1995 began teaching at Loyola, the Jesuit University in New Orleans. Soon afterward, he discerned that God was calling him to another mission field, and he left the Jesuit community.

He earned a law degree in 2000 from Loyola University and has served in New Orleans as an attorney and a community advocate.

Through all the challenges, his Catholic faith has been a rock of stability.

“My faith has been the center of my life all these years,” Cao said. “I go to church almost every day to discern what God is calling me to do with my life.”

Right now, Mr. Cao goes to Washington, as a Republican reformer.

Previous Pro Ecclesia posts on this subject:
I Didn't Know That ...

Young Faithful Catholics Jump into Political Ring

Jesuits Produce a Great Political Candidate

University of San Francisco Develops Health Plan for Students that Covers Abortion

The Cardinal Newman Society just sent out this press release:

The Cardinal Newman Society
For Immediate Release

December 11, 2008

Catholic University of San Francisco Develops
Health Plan for Students that Covers Abortion

Manassas, Va. – The University of San Francisco (USF), a Catholic institution, has a new student health insurance policy that provides coverage for abortion. Full-time USF undergraduate students are automatically enrolled in the university’s plan unless they request a waiver and are able to prove that they have other, comparable insurance.

According to the plan document, which is available on the USF website, the student health insurance was “developed especially for eligible University of San Francisco students and their eligible dependents.”

In other words, it appears that the USF coverage was included in a custom policy developed for the Catholic institution.

The Catholic Key, the newspaper of the diocese of Kansas City – St. Joseph, first reported this story on its Internet blog and notes that there is nothing in California law that would require USF to provide coverage for abortion.

The Cardinal Newman Society, which works to promote the renewal of Catholic higher education, calls on USF president Father Stephen Privett to immediately take action to remove the abortion coverage.

“Given the importance of life issues for Catholics, it is stunning that USF’s student health program would pay for abortions,” said Patrick Reilly, president of The Cardinal Newman Society. “I pray that this was a mistake and not a willful action of the Catholic university, but regardless of how the abortion coverage ended up in the policy, it clearly cannot remain.”

# # #

To schedule an interview with The Cardinal Newman Society, contact Adam Wilson at outreach@cardinalnewmansociety.org or 703/367-0333 ext. 102.

This news release is also available here.

I Didn't Know That ...

... I graduated from college with newly elected Louisiana Congressman Anh "Joseph" Cao:

... After fleeing Vietnam as a child, Cao bounced around homes in several states with his sister and a brother before settling with an uncle in Houston. One of eight children, he did not see his mother or father, a former Vietnamese army officer who was imprisoned by Ho Chi Minh's government, until 1991. Cao graduated from Baylor University in 1990 and began studying to become a Jesuit priest. He went on several missions before attending law school in New Orleans...

(emphasis added)

(Hat tip: Yet another Baylor guy, Terry Mattingly at GetReligion)


Previous Pro Ecclesia posts on this subject:
Young Faithful Catholics Jump into Political Ring

Jesuits Produce a Great Political Candidate

Jesuits Produce a Great Political Candidate

(Hat tip: Opinionated Catholic and Amy Welborn)

Deal Hudson writes at InsideCatholic:

Joseph Cao is a Catholic lawyer and former Jesuit scholastic from New Orleans. He is running as a Republican for the Congressional 2nd district seat in Louisiana presently held by Rep. William Jefferson (D-LA), who is best known for the $90,000 found in his freezer. The election will be held December 6.

Few candidates for public office are as forthright as Cao when asked about their position on abortion. “I am very anti-abortion,” he told me without hesitation. Cao would like to overturn Roe, but in the meantime, “We have to find a way to defeat Roe without having to overturn it.”

His solid pro-life credentials are attested to by the endorsement of the FRC Action PAC, among others.

At age 41, Cao has been married for seven years to Hieu, also called “Kate,” and has two children, Sophia 5 and Betsy 4. Kate is a pharmacist who works to “pay the bills while I play politician,” Joseph told me. They met at a Marian festival at Our Lady La Vang Parish, a Vietnamese Catholic congregation in New Orleans.

Cao was born in Vietnam but immigrated to the United States at age 8 with his older sister and younger brother. The Communists had jailed his father after the fall of Saigon in 1975, and Joseph was raised by an uncle in Houston where he attended middle and high school and was eventually reunited with his parents. Joseph attended Baylor University in pre-med, where he met a Catholic chaplain who introduced him to the Society of Jesus.

He entered the Jesuits in 1990, spending two years in the novitiate in Grand Coteau, Louisiana. While working as a Jesuit in Mexico he had an experience that led him out of the Order and into the world of politics.

“I went all over the world to work with the poor and experienced a crisis of faith in Mexico over human suffering and God. I asked my spiritual director, ‘What is God doing about all this suffering?’ He told me that ‘God sends people to help.’ That was when I began to realize my calling was politics.”

Cao earned his M.A., in philosophy at Fordham University and spent a year teaching ethics at Loyola University, but left the Jesuits in May 1996. He earned a law degree and continued teaching at Loyola before he began his legal career as an associate at the Waltzer Law Firm. Cao left Waltzer to become in-house counsel for Boat People SOS.

Cao lost his bid in 2007 to become a state representative in his home state, but he wasn’t discouraged. “I have a deep faith, and I believe that I am called to public service.”

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Time to Update the Rolodex

(Hat tip: Margaret Cabaniss)

An instant Amy Welborn classic in response to USAToday's quoting Thomas Reese, S.J., as saying “the Vatican insists we continue to explain the gospel in the language of the 13th century”:

... Again, reporters - when a source says something about the Vatican insisting that theological language be that of the 13th century - push . Ask what exactly that means. Request specific examples. Be conversant enough with recent documents - say, the last few encyclicals, from both Benedict and John Paul II - to question that statement in light of those documents. Know that Benedict’s encyclicals sell in the hundreds of thousands when they are published, his books are best sellers for any publisher who gets them and the Vatican website gets millions of hits a day.

Are all those people conversant in 13th-Centuryese?

And once again, add new names to the Rolodex...

(emphasis in original)

My Comments:
As an aside, Amy has penned a pamphlet on Pope Benedict XVI for Our Sunday Visitor, a copy of which I picked up in the vestibule at church the other day.

Jesuit President of USF Criticizes Denver Archdiocese, Defends Fr. Drinan's Legacy in Rebuttal to Weigel Column

Deal Hudson writes at InsideCatholic:

The February 20 issue of the Denver Catholic Register published a column on the Jesuits titled "Some Questions for Father General" by George Weigel. In response, the president of the University of San Francisco, Rev. Stephen A. Privett, S.J., published "Attack on Jesuits Out of Place" in Catholic San Francisco, the archdiocesan newspaper.

Father Privett not only attacked what he termed the "mean-spirited assault" of Weigel, but he was also sharply critical of the Denver archdiocese for publishing it. Father writes,

The readership of Catholic diocesan newspapers deserves more civil, balanced, and professional fare than that served up and passed around by the Denver Catholic Register.

I don't know of a single instance in the history of this country's Catholic Church when one diocesan newspaper attacked another by name.

***
Father Privett's outrage suggests that he is unaware that Weigel is merely speaking aloud questions that are shared by Catholics around the world. He specifically charges Weigel with making unfounded allegations about two Jesuits in particular, Rev. James Keenan, S.J., and the late Rev. Robert Drinan, S.J. Wiegel puts both forward as examples of Jesuit attitudes toward basic Church teachings on abortion and marriage.

About Father Drinan, Weigel writes, "He did more than anyone else to convince Catholic legislators that the settled teaching of the Church on the grave immorality of abortion had no bearing on their legislative work." Father Privett's reply to Weigel: "His stunningly sweeping statement . . . lacks any supporting evidence."

I'm sure that Weigel would be surprised to hear that he needed to document the career of Father Drinan, whom I call in my recent book the "Jesuit priest who invented the pro-abortion Catholic politician." Perhaps Father Privett needs to be reminded that, after being elected to Congress in 1970, Father Drinan wrote in support of Roe v. Wade and Clinton's veto of the ban against partial-birth abortion. After being forced by John Paul II to leave Congress in 1981, Father Drinan continued as a pro-abortion lobbyist both within the Democratic Party and as head of Americans for Democratic Action.

[More]

Previous Pro Ecclesia posts on this subject:
National Catholic Register: "Hope and the Politics of Abortion"

First Things: Robert Drinan, Infanticide, and the "Unthinkable"

Demythologizing Father Drinan

Fr. Drinan's Legacy ...

Fr. Robert J. Drinan, S.J. - Rest in Peace

Deal Hudson and Fr. Thomas Reese on Obama and the Catholic Vote

Deal Hudson writes at InsideCatholic:

Obama Must Win Over Catholics to be President

The astute Fr. Thomas Reese, S.J. surveys the Catholic vote in the Democratic primaries and finds it slowly moving from Clinton to Obama. He notes the success, thus far, of John McCain with Catholic voters, and concludes that Obama must win the Catholic vote to take the White House.

I don't think, in the long run, Obama can win Catholics away from McCain. He is far too liberal, as voters will find out, and will not be able to mount a true "social justice" agenda in time for November.

Joanna Bogle on Jesuits and Priestesses

(Hat tip: Rich Leonardi at Ten Reasons)

Auntie Joanna writes:

The Jesuits at London's famous Farm Street church sponsor an event called "Theology on tap", in which young people meet at a pub and discuss some aspect of the Catholic faith. Yesterday I was invited to be their speaker: "Women and the Church", at a pub in Grays Inn Road. A lively discussion, not without its amusing moments...at one point, a (male!) Jesuit was putting the case for priestesses, and was roundly opposed by the young women in the room, who said they supported the Church's traditional teaching!

Basketball Coach Majerus Defiant Toward Archbishop Burke on Abortion and ESCR

From The St. Louis Post Dispatch:

Surprised by the reaction to his pro-choice, pro-embryonic stem cell research comments made Saturday night at a Hillary Clinton political rally, St. Louis University basketball coach Rick Majerus spent part of Wednesday morning on the phone, trying to calm his elderly mother. [ED.: Nice emotional tug by bringing his "elderly mother" into it. How dare Archbishop Burke upset this nice little old lady?]

"She was upset, thinking I was going to be excommunicated from the Catholic Church, and that I would be denied Communion during Mass," [ED.: Well, wouldn't Archbishop Burke be completely justified in taking such action?] Majerus said Wednesday night, in his first public comments over a controversy that included a strong rebuke from St. Louis Archbishop Raymond Burke. "But she told me to keep doing what I thought was right, just as my parents taught me." [ED.: Hmmmm. Perhaps the "nice little old lady" is as much a dissident as her son.]

This week, Burke said St. Louis University should discipline Majerus for comments he made at the rally. Burke also said he'd deny Majerus holy Communion if the coach did not change his positions on abortion rights and embryonic stem cell research.

But if Burke is expecting an apology or silence from Majerus, it won't happen. If Burke hopes Majerus will fall in line with the Roman Catholic church's official positions on these two issues, it won't happen.

During an exclusive 90-minute conversation Wednesday, Majerus was civil and respectful in his comments made about Burke. But make no mistake: Majerus is unyielding, and defiant. [ED.: Non serviam!]

"I'm very respectful to the archbishop," Majerus said. "But I rely on my value judgments [ED.: The Church of I and Me], thanks to my education at Marquette, which is a Jesuit institution, just like St. Louis. [ED.: Another ringing endorsement of Jesuit education.] And that Jesuit education led me to believe that I can make a value judgment. And my value judgment happens to differ from the archbishop's.

"I do not speak for the university or the Catholic Church. These are my personal views. And I'm not letting him change my mind. I think religion should be inclusive. I would hope that all people would feel welcome inside a church, and that the church would serve to bring people together, even if they happen to disagree on certain things." [ED.: Oh, what a lovely sentiment. Too bad that mean old Archbishop is set on being so divisive over such a trivial matter as the death of innocents. Can't we all just get along?]

Majerus, in his first season at SLU, has never shied away from political activism. A lifelong Democrat, Majerus said he marched with his late father, a union leader in Milwaukee, at civil rights rallies during the 1960s. Majerus campaigned outside factory gates with Jimmy Carter in 1976. He campaigned for John Kerry in 2004. He's participated in death penalty protests outside prisons. [ED.: Let's see. Supports death for innocent babies, yet opposes it for convicted murderers. Interesting set of priorities Mr. Majerus has. Or perhaps he's just your typical leftist Catholic.]

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(emphasis and editorial commentary added)

My Comments:
It is quite apparent that Mr. Majerus is not a supporter of the Democrats and Hilliary! in spite of their pro-death policies, but rather because of them.

(See Archbishop Chaput's comments on when it is permissible to support a pro-abortion candidate: "Catholics can vote for pro-choice candidates if they vote for them despite—not because of—their pro-choice views." See also Archbishop Chaput's comments on voting one's conscience: "The way we get a healthy conscience is by submitting it and shaping it to God’s will; and the way we find God’s will is by conforming our lives to the counsel and guidance of the Church that Jesus left us. If we find ourselves disagreeing as Catholics with the teaching of the Church on a serious matter, it’s probably not the Church that’s wrong. The problem is much more likely with us.")

Georgetown Law School to Fund Pro-Abort Interns

Amy Welborn has the story:

Georgetown University Law School will now fund all student internships …no matter what the advocacy group involved.

From the university’s student newspaper:

Administrators at the university’s Law Center reversed earlier this month a policy prohibiting funding for students at summer internships at organizations that promote abortion rights, after a widely publicized case in the spring which drew protest from hundreds of students.

Under the new policy, announced by Law Center Dean T. Alexander Aleinikoff in a letter published in the Law Center’s student newspaper, the university will no longer consider the mission of each organization when determining grants provided by a student-run organization to students for summer internships.

***
After the incident became well-known, students from Georgetown’s Law Students for Choice circulated a petition that demanded that the Law Center alter their policy, issue an apology to Woodson and hold an open forum to discuss the issue. According to Joy Welan (LAW ’08), president of Georgetown’s Law Students for Choice, 360 students signed this petition...

From the blog of the organization Law Students for Reproductive Justice:

The proof is in the pudding: on-campus advocacy can get things done. And fast.

UPDATE
Read the press release from the Cardinal Newman Society:

Georgetown to Fund Abortion Advocacy

According to stories by Lifesitenews.com and the Georgetown University student newspaper The Hoya, the Georgetown law school has adopted a policy that will provide funding to law students to intern with public interest organizations regardless of their mission.

This change in policy was apparently made to accommodate students who had previously been denied funding for abortion advocacy work with Planned Parenthood. According to The Hoya report, Joy Welan, the president of the GeorgetownLaw Center’s student group Law Students for Choice, said “We think that this compromise is fantastic news, for students who are interested in pursuing careers in reproductive rights advocacy.”

Cardinal Newman Society Executive Vice President Tom Mead said of the abortion friendly policy, “I am absolutely stunned by Georgetown’s decision to fund abortion advocacy.

“Since the Catholic Church teaches that abortion is always wrong, perhaps a faithful law student can get an internship with a public interest organization that will sue Georgetown for false advertising regarding its Catholic identity.”

On behalf of its more than 20,000 members, the Cardinal Newman Society calls on Georgetown University President John DeGioia to exercise his authority as president of an institution that proudly identifies itself as a Catholic university and overturn this outrageous policy.

National Catholic Register: "Hope and the Politics of Abortion"

Jennifer Roback Morse writes in the August 19-25, 2007 issue of the National Catholic Register:

Anne Hendershott’s The Politics of Abortion offers hope and encouragement to the pro-life movement. She starts by asking simply: How did the party of the New Deal, of the underdog and the weak, become identified with abortion on demand, more than any other single topic?

Part of that story is that pro-abortion activists systematically schemed to neutralize Catholic opposition to abortion.

Hendershott, professor of sociology at the University of San Diego, describes the Democratic Party’s transformation as the “political equivalent of a sex-change operation.” Abortion advocates worked on persuading the Kennedys, the most visible and influential Catholic family in America.

In the summer of 1964, leading Catholic theologians visited the Kennedys in Hyannisport, she reports. They convinced the Kennedys that they could “tolerate legislation that would permit abortion under certain circumstances if political efforts to repress this moral error led to greater perils to social peace and order.” The theologians included Father Robert Drinan, Father Richard McCormick, Father Charles Curran and Father Giles Milhaven, men now known as dissenting Catholics, but who at the time were considered mainstream Catholic theologians.

These men’s views effectively neutralized Catholic opposition to abortion for the crucial period in the late 1960s and 1970s. By then, Roe v. Wade had changed both the law of the land and the political landscape.

In spite of the counter-cultural roots of the pro-abortion movement, in spite of the abortion lobby’s posturing as “progressives,” Catholics today are fighting an uphill battle against a firmly entrenched, well-funded foe that is for all practical purposes, The Establishment.

***
Most importantly, Anne Hendershott’s book shows signs of hope in the abortion wars.

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My Comments:
I question part of the Kennedy timeline in the above story. Which of "the Kennedys" were "convinced" back in 1964 to support abortion rights? Bobby Kennedy certainly fudged the issue in his 1968 presidential campaign, but he hardly came out in support of legalized abortion. And his brother The Swimmer was claiming to oppose abortion well into the 1970s. Sargent and Eunice Shriver to this day have always maintained a pro-life stance (notwithstanding their son-in-law's cynical use of Sargent's Alzheimer's Disease as a ploy to push embryonic stem-cell research).

That being said, there is little doubt that the Catholic theologians mentioned, especially Father/Congressman Robert J. Drinan, S.J., provided political cover for those Catholic politicians and voters who threw in their lot with the pro-abortion forces.

First Things: Robert Drinan, Infanticide, and the “Unthinkable”

(Hat tip: Amy Welborn)

Peter Sprigg, vice president for policy at the Family Research Council in Washington, D.C., and a former congressional aide to Fr. Robert J. Drinan, S.J., writes at the First Things blog On the Square:

On February 1, I joined perhaps a thousand other mourners in St. Aloysius Church in Washington for the funeral of the Reverend Robert F. Drinan, S.J. Among those eulogizing Fr. Drinan, who represented Massachusetts in Congress from 1971 to 1981, was Sen. Edward Kennedy. He was one of several speakers who mentioned how Congressman Drinan would lovingly and jokingly refer to his aides and volunteers as his “minions.” I smiled—and when Kennedy added that, “decades later, many remain passionately involved in public affairs,” I had to nod in agreement. I should know. I’m one of them.

That may come as a surprise to those more familiar with the work I do now, as vice president for policy of the Family Research Council in Washington. Fr. Drinan was known as one of the most liberal Democrats in Congress during his service there. The Family Research Council, on the other hand, is the most prominent organization of social conservatives in Washington. Needless to say, my political, social, and theological views have evolved (I would say matured) a good deal since 1981.

***
Then, in May 1980, when I had been working in his office for only four months, we learned the shocking news that Pope John Paul II had ordered Fr. Drinan to step down from office. (I have sometimes seen it erroneously reported that Drinan resigned. In fact, he immediately abandoned his bid for reelection but was permitted to complete his term, which ran until January 1981). I’ve sometimes joked that I may be the only American Baptist ever to lose his job because of an order from the pope.

One thing that Congressman Drinan said during that period has always stayed with me. In the immediate aftermath of the pope’s order, there were several meetings of Drinan supporters to discuss what to do next. I should note that many of his closest political supporters were not Catholic, despite Massachusetts’ large Catholic population. Instead, they were Jewish, Protestant like me, or essentially secular. One of those supporters asked the congressman the question that may have been on the minds of many of them—“Why not just ignore the pope?”

I have never forgotten Drinan’s simple, four-word answer: “That would be unthinkable.”

***
A quarter of a century after my relationship with Robert Drinan ended, those two single words I heard him speak are what I remember most. One was his acknowledgment that abortion is “infanticide.” The second was his declaration that with regard to the end of his congressional career, defying the pope would be “unthinkable.” How tragic it is that defying the pope’s teaching on such “infanticide” was not equally “unthinkable.”

[More]

Previous Pro Ecclesia posts on this subject:
Demythologizing Father Drinan

Fr. Drinan's Legacy ...

Fr. Robert J. Drinan, S.J. - Rest in Peace

Demythologizing Father Drinan

George Weigel writes in the Denver Catholic Register:

Before the gossamer threads of mythology being woven around the memory of the late Father Robert Drinan, S.J., harden into what some might take for facts, a visit to the historical record is imperative.

(1) In a memorial essay in the Washington Post, Colman McCarthy asserted that Drinan’s presence in the House of Representatives “had been sanctioned by...the U.S. episcopate, the cardinal of Boston, [and] his own Jesuit superiors...” That is false. An exhaustive study by historian James Hitchcock, “The Strange Political Career of Father Drinan,” was published in 1996 in Catholic World Report. Using documents from the archives of the New England Province of the Society of Jesus, Hitchcock demonstrated that the Father General of the Society, Pedro Arrupe, expressed serious concerns about Drinan’s political career numerous times. On several other occasions, Arrupe tried to communicate, through the New England Province leadership, his desire that Drinan leave electoral political life.

Arrupe eventually withdrew his objections, but as Hitchcock writes, this “occurred [in 1976] only after Drinan had several times run for Congress in defiance of the General’s express command.”

In 1972, Cardinal John Krol, president of the U.S. bishops’ conference, stated that Drinan’s presence in Congress was contrary to the policy and wishes of the U.S. bishops. That same year, Bishop Bernard Flanagan of Worcester informed Father Arrupe that both he and Archbishop Humberto Medeiros of Boston disapproved of Drinan serving in Congress. Arrupe reported this to Drinan in a letter, reiterating his command that Drinan cease and desist. Drinan did not reply. A reasonable reading of Hitchcock’s article suggests that Drinan defied or ignored his Jesuit superiors in Rome on a dozen occasions; he seems to have done the same with the relevant U.S. bishops at least four times.

(2) The Post’s McCarthy, like others, suggested that Pope John Paul II ordered Drinan to leave Congress because of pressure from “rankled American conservative Catholics.” That is also false. John Paul’s proscription on priests in elective politics, which was universal in scope, involved the theology of the priesthood. How, the pope asked, could a priest live out his sacramental ordination as an embodiment of the Church’s unity if he engaged in partisan politics? This was a problem in Latin America, where priests were engaged in sometimes-lethal partisanship; it was also a problem in the (somewhat) more genteel halls of Congress. Hitchcock’s article also offers a depressing reminder that Drinan’s New England Jesuit supporters insisted to Father Arrupe that there was no layman qualified to take Drinan’s seat in Congress – a breathtaking example of clericalism, and another falsehood to boot.

(3) Questions about the secular canonization of Robert Drinan as a forceful champion of human rights are also in order. The abortion license is the gravest (and certainly most lethal) violation of human rights in America today. Father Drinan was a consistent pro-abortion vote in Congress; in 1980, a National Abortion Rights Action League fundraising letter argued that Drinan’s re-election was essential. After becoming president of Americans for Democratic Action [ADA] in his post-congressional life, Drinan dispatched an ADA fundraising letter urging the election of pro-abortion members of Congress on moral (sic) grounds. In 1996, Drinan penned a New York Times op-ed attacking the partial-birth abortion ban, misrepresenting the facts about the medical “necessity” of this gruesome procedure, and thanking President Clinton for vetoing the bill.

How any of this comports with a devotion to “human rights” is unclear. On the great human rights and civil rights issue of American domestic politics these past three decades, Father Drinan was on the wrong side: consistently, persistently, and with no public evidence of regret. In the 1980s, the New England province Jesuit leadership claimed that Drinan’s was a uniquely moral voice in American politics. That was untrue then; recent, similar claims about Father Drinan’s legacy are also untrue.

There is no pleasure to be had in writing these things. The Drinan case is, however, an important cautionary tale about the corruptions of judgment that ensue when truths are fudged in service to political power, and when that power is thought to be of greater consequence than the truth.

Previous Pro Ecclesia posts on this subject:
Fr. Drinan's Legacy ...

Fr. Robert J. Drinan, S.J. - Rest in Peace

Fr. Robert J. Drinan, S.J. - Rest in Peace

The Cafeteria is Closed notes the passing of the man whose last public act was to celebrate Mass for Nancy Pelosi.


UPDATE
Regular Guy Paul minces no words about what he believes to be the eternal destination of Fr. Drinan's soul.

As I am in no position to make such a call, I will hope that Fr. Drinan had a conversion of heart at the end, and will pray for his soul.


UPDATE # 2
From Catholic World News:

Father Drinan, lawmaker who defied Rome, dead at 86

Washington, DC, Jan. 29, 2007 (CWNews.com) - Father Robert Drinan, a Jesuit priest and lawyer who defied directives from Rome to serve for a decade in the US Congress, died on Sunday, January 28, at the age of 86.

The combative Jesuit had been a lightning-rod for controversy throughout his political career. He came to Washington as an outspoken opponent of the war in Vietnam; later he became one of the most reliable votes in Congress in favor of unrestricted legal abortion.

His advocacy of legal abortion continued long after his tenure in Congress. In 1996 the priest-politician shocked many Catholics by praising President Bill Clinton for his veto of legislation banning partial-birth abortion.

A partisan Democratic legislator, Father Drinan filed the bill to impeach President Richard Nixon in 1973. Years later he would argue strenuously against the impeachment of President Clinton. After leaving Congress he became the president of the liberal political bloc, Americans for Democratic Action.

Father Drinan, who served as a Congressman from Massachusetts from 1971 to 1980, died of congestive heart failure at Sibley Hospital in Washington. He had lived in Washington, teaching at Georgetown and continuing his active involvement in liberal political causes, after relinquishing his seat in Congress.

In 1970 Father Drinan made his first run for Congress despite the explicit disapproval of Father Pedro Arrupe, then the head of the Jesuit order. With the help of local Jesuit leadership in Massachusetts he was able to forestall public reprimands from his superiors in Rome, or from the bishops in the Massachusetts dioceses covered by his Congressional district, until finally bowing to a papal directive in 1978 that barred priests from serving in elected public posts.

(emphasis added)

See also "The Strange Political Career of Father Drinan"