[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 20 (Thursday, February 1, 2007)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1540-S1541]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




HONORING THE LIFE, ACHIEVEMENT AND DISTINGUISHED CAREER OF THE REVEREND 
                         ROBERT J. DRINAN, S.J.

  Mr. REID. I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the 
consideration of S. Res. 66.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report the resolution by title.
  The assistant legislative clerk read as follows:

       A resolution (S. Res. 66) honoring the life, achievement 
     and distinguished career of the Reverend Robert J. Drinan, 
     S.J.

  There being no objection, the Senate proceeded to consider the 
resolution.
  Mr. KERRY. Mr. President, today we pay our respects to a great son of 
Massachusetts who passed away on Sunday, an inspiration to me and a 
leader beloved by many, Father Robert Drinan.
  In all his life's endeavors, from the church pulpit to the halls of 
Congress to the classroom, Father Drinan was guided by a firm and 
unwavering moral compass. He lived out in public life the whole cloth 
of Catholic teachings.
  In religion and politics alike, he followed his sense that we are all 
put on this Earth for something greater than ourselves. Wherever he 
went, he was led there by a concern for the weak, the helpless, the 
downtrodden. In religion and politics alike, that was his calling.
  And as he walked between these worlds, on a path unique in our 
Nation's history, he was always unmistakably and wonderfully true to 
himself.
  Father Drinan was a forever gentle, resilient, tenacious advocate for 
social justice and fundamental decency. In the most divisive days of 
Vietnam, when things were coming apart, this incredible man, this most 
unlikely of candidates, showed America how a man of faith could be a 
man of peace.
  As a politician, Father Drinan is best remembered for his spirited 
opposition to the Vietnam war. That's what brought him to Congress in 
the first place and it is how our paths first crossed. In 1970, after 
we first met as opponents in the Peoples' Caucus, I was honored to 
support, campaign, and to work with and learn from committed Democrats 
like Jerome Grossman, John Marttila, Tom Kiley, John Hurley, and Tom 
Vallely. Together, many of these committed activists would spend the 
next decades championing the great progressive causes that marked the 
Drinan campaign.
  Father Drinan's slogan was ``Father Knows Best.'' I began studying 
law at Boston College--where Father Drinan had been the youngest law 
school Dean in the country--while he was down here, in Congress, making 
law, and making history.
  Father Drinan's testimony against the war was remarkably powerful. He 
toured jails in Saigon and met a South Vietnamese politician there who 
had been jailed after placing second in an

[[Page S1541]]

election. In the religious language of just war doctrine and the plain 
language of common decency, he helped us to see the flaws of our policy 
in Vietnam and urged the Church to speak out with great moral 
authority.
  And even before his own words found their way into FBI files, even 
before his own name made its way onto Nixon's enemies list, Father 
Drinan was a champion for dissent and he had a special understanding of 
the obligations of patriotism. He helped eliminate the House Committee 
on Un-American Activities, the scene of one of the Cold War's ugliest 
chapters. He met with famous Soviet dissidents like Sharansky and 
Sakharov and founded the National Interreligious Task Force for Soviet 
Jewry. Angered by the treatment of Soviet dissidents, he was the first 
Congressman to call for a boycott of the Moscow Olympics.
  And he sought to hold the President of the United States accountable 
for his behavior. As a member of the Judiciary Committee, he questioned 
witnesses in the Watergate hearings. But even before then he became the 
first Congressman to urge the impeachment of President Nixon, not for 
the Watergate coverup but for the illegal bombing of Cambodia. That, he 
thought, was the far greater crime. ``Can we be silent about this 
flagrant violation of the Constitution?'' he asked. ``Can we impeach a 
president for concealing a burglary but not for concealing a massive 
bombing?''
  After 10 years in Congress, Father Drinan was forced to choose 
between the two passions of his life: politics and the Catholic Church. 
He chose to remain in the priesthood and spent the rest of his life 
outside government as a passionate advocate for human rights and a 
much-loved law professor. ``As a person of faith,'' he said, ``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.''
  As president of the Americans for Democratic Action, he traveled and 
spoke widely on hunger, civil liberties and the dangers of the nuclear 
arms race. He cofounded the Lawyers' Alliance for Nuclear Arms Control, 
and served as vice chair of the ACLU's National Advisory Council and a 
member of the Helsinki Watch Committee.
  Father Drinan's life of political activism was in the best tradition 
of what it means to be a Jesuit--love of learning and a commitment to 
justice. Jesuits were among the first to speak out against the Vietnam 
war and later against illegal interventions in Central America. As a 
professor and an activist, Father Drinan lived the ideals of his faith.
  Asked about his activism, Father Drinan once said ``it goes back to 
the fact that you're a Christian and a Jesuit. . . . It means you have 
to love each other and that you can't persecute people. You have to be 
compassionate to everyone in the world.'' It was as simple as that for 
him. When asked if he was planning to slow down in old age, Drinan 
recently told a reporter, ``Jesuits don't ordinarily retire. You just 
do what you do.''
  His leadership helped give a new moral authority to the antiwar 
movement, and he was a mentor to a generation of Massachusetts 
politicians. People like Barney Frank, who stepped into Father Drinan's 
congressional seat with big shoes to fill--and has spent the last 25 
years there honoring Father Drinan's legacy with his own dogged fight 
for social justice.
  Father Drinan leaves behind a sister-in-law, three nieces, over 6,000 
adoring students, legions of supporters in the fourth district of 
Massachusetts, and those across the State and the Nation whose lives he 
touched.
  Father Drinan once said, ``If people are really Christians, they are 
involved in life, and politics is part of life. I feel if a person is 
really a Christian, he will be in anguish over global hunger, 
injustice, over the denial of educational opportunity.'' It was the 
defining mission of his truly remarkable life.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the resolution 
be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, the motion to reconsider be 
laid on the table, and any statements be printed in the Record.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The resolution (S. Res. 66) was agreed to.
  The preamble was agreed to.
  The resolution, with its preamble, reads as follows:

                               S. Res. 66

       Whereas the Reverend Robert F. Drinan, S.J. was a talented 
     scholar, who received a bachelor's degree in 1942 and a 
     master's degree in 1947 from Boston College, a bachelor's 
     degree in law in 1949 and a master of law degree in 1951 from 
     Georgetown University, and a doctorate in theology in 1954 
     from Gregorian University in Rome, Italy;
       Whereas Father Drinan entered the Society of Jesus in 1942, 
     completed his seminary work at Weston College in Cambridge, 
     Massachusetts, and was ordained as a Jesuit priest in 1953;
       Whereas Father Drinan was an influential educator who 
     served as the Dean of the Boston College Law School from 1956 
     to 1970 and transformed it into one of the leading 
     educational institutions in the United States;
       Whereas Father Drinan was elected in 1970 to represent 
     Massachusetts in the House of Representatives;
       Whereas Father Drinan represented Massachusetts in the 
     House of Representatives from 1971 to 1981, the first Roman 
     Catholic priest ever to serve in Congress as a voting Member;
       Whereas Father Drinan, during his service in the House of 
     Representatives, was an advocate for social justice, a 
     fighter for civil rights, and a champion in the cause of 
     international human rights;
       Whereas Father Drinan drew on his legal expertise to make 
     significant contributions in the areas of copyright law 
     reform, consumer protection, and criminal justice;
       Whereas Father Drinan renewed his commitment to education, 
     after his service in Congress, as a professor at Georgetown 
     University Law Center, where he specialized in constitutional 
     law and human rights and taught more than 6,000 students;
       Whereas Father Drinan was the founder and faculty adviser 
     to the Georgetown Journal of legal Ethics and was the author 
     of 12 books on major public policy issues;
       Whereas Father Drinan was the recipient of 22 honorary 
     degrees and was a visiting professor at 4 universities;
       Whereas Father Drinan's service led the American Bar 
     Association (ABA) to award him the ABA Medal in 2004, the 
     organization's highest honor, given to individuals who make 
     exceptionally distinguished contributions to the 
     jurisprudence of the United States; and
       Whereas Father Drinan's lifelong leadership in promoting 
     greater awareness of the importance of international human 
     rights resulted in 2006 in the establishment by the 
     Georgetown University Law Center of an endowed chair in his 
     honor, known as the Robert F. Drinan, S.J. Chair in Human 
     Rights Law: Now, therefore, be it
       Resolved, That the Senate--
       (1) honors the life, achievements, and distinguished career 
     of the Reverend Robert F. Drinan, S.J.;
       (2) offers its appreciation for Father Drinan's devoted 
     work on behalf of the thousands of Massachusetts residents he 
     represented in the House of Representatives and the millions 
     of people worldwide who benefitted from his human rights 
     initiatives; and
       (3) expresses its condolences to Father Drinan's family and 
     friends.

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