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  • Bob Drinan: The Controversial Life of the First Catholic Priest Elected to Congress
  • Eugene J. Halus Jr.
Bob Drinan: The Controversial Life of the First Catholic Priest Elected to Congress. By Raymond A. Schroth, S.J. New York: Fordham University Press, 2010. 432 pp. $32.95.

Raymond Schroth has tackled a difficult subject here, and there is no doubt that he has achieved his goal of developing an initial portrait of his Jesuit colleague Bob Drinan. That fact is both the strength and the weakness of this book. Schroth does a good job of sketching out the major themes, events, and issues in Drinan's life as a Jesuit, lawyer, professor, and the first priest to ever serve in the United States Congress, but because this work is a sketch it leaves many major issues surrounding Drinan's life unresolved. This point is less a criticism of Schroth's efforts and more a warning to the reader that significant issues such as Drinan's position on abortion, which was always controversial, and his relationship with some American bishops and the Vatican are left somewhat inconclusive. At the same time Schroth deals with Drinan's efforts in relation to Vietnam, refugees, civil rights, Watergate, and events in Latin America and the Middle East quite well. He clearly develops a picture of a man who was deeply concerned with the ethical and legal implications of public policy, and who took the Jesuit charism of finding God in all things as a central principle on which to focus his efforts as a congressman and priest. It is also clear that while Drinan was prone to rambling speeches and could be curt and even condescending at times, he could also be quite warm and enjoyed electioneering. He was a complicated man who was in some ways very private and reserved in spite of his public life. Dialogue was not one of Drinan's strengths.

The central challenge of writing about Bob Drinan as a Jesuit and as a congressman is his position on abortion. Throughout his time in Congress he never fully developed a coherent position that reconciled his roles as both priest and Democratic congressman. Critics often claimed that he was pro-choice, but Drinan's position was clearly more complicated. Drinan did not help this matter either. He regularly refused to engage in the issue when questioned directly by [End Page 78] constituents, political opponents, and fellow Catholics. Schroth clearly evidences that Drinan struggled with this issue and could never articulate his position very well. In the end, he rallies enough evidence to prove that ascribing Drinan with the moniker of pro-choice is really insufficient in describing his position on abortion.

Schroth faced serious challenges in writing this book, especially in writing about Drinan's more personal traits. Drinan's papers are held at Boston College, Georgetown University, and the College of the Holy Cross. Papers related to Drinan's life as a Jesuit are located at Holy Cross, and Schroth's access was extremely limited. The papers at Georgetown are not fully archived and typically remain closed to researchers. Schroth only had limited access. His primary archival sources came from Boston College, which has over 400 boxes of files related to Drinan. Schroth has given us a worthy first attempt at a biography of Bob Drinan, but it is clear that as access increases to the Drinan papers at the College of the Holy Cross and Georgetown University scholars will need to return to this subject to fully frame out the proverbial picture. [End Page 79]

Eugene J. Halus Jr.
Immaculata University
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