WASHINGTON (ABP) — Former Rep. Robert Drinan (D-Mass.), whose activism against the Vietnam War led him to become the first Catholic priest to vote in Congress, died Jan. 28.
A statement from Georgetown University, where Drinan lived in campus housing for priests from his Jesuit order, said the 86-year-old had suffered for several days from pneumonia and congestive heart failure.
He was elected to the House in 1970 and served there from 1971 until 1981, when he stepped down to comply with a papal order forbidding priests from serving in public office.
However, Drinan often publicly opposed official church teachings both during and after his congressional career. He held views at odds with the Catholic hierarchy on issues such as birth control and abortion rights.
He wore his clerical robes and lived with his fellow Jesuits at Georgetown during his service in Congress.
He ran for Congress after discovering that the South Vietnamese were holding many political prisoners during a trip to that nation — contrary to State Department assurances. He then used his congressional seat to argue against the continuation of American involvement in the Vietnam conflict. He also urged the Vatican and Catholic officials in the United States to speak out against the war.
Drinan was long a hero to progressive Catholics and other liberal Christians. He was the first person in Congress to call for the impeachment of President Richard Nixon — prior to the Watergate scandal. In 1998, Congress invited him to a hearing on the potential impeachment of President Bill Clinton. While Drinan condemned Clinton for the sex-and-purgery scandal in which he was embroiled, the priest also spoke against the impeachment.
Drinan's most recent public spotlight came on Jan. 3, when he celebrated Mass at a Catholic college chapel in Washington for incoming House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).
Drinan was not the first priest to serve in Congress — that honor belonged to a non-voting delegate from Michigan who served prior to Michigan's statehood in 1823.
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