Robert F. Drinan, S.J., Chair in Human Rights

FRONT ROYAL, Va., Oct. 23 /Christian Newswire/ — The Rev. Thomas J. Euteneuer, STL, president of Human Life International, issued the following statement in response to Georgetown University Law Center’s announcement that they have established the Robert F. Drinan, S.J., Chair in Human Rights:

“It is deeply disturbing that a university that claims to honor and perpetuate the Catholic faith would establish a human rights chair in the name of a heretical priest who has spent much of his lifetime advocating for the most heinous of human rights violations: abortion. Sadly, Georgetown University—a Jesuit institution—has a long history of mocking the Faith, including hosting pornographer and social degenerate Larry Flynt, and at one point removing crucifixes from the classroom in spite of student protests to keep them.

“Referring to Fr. Drinan as a human rights hero is like calling Attila the Hun a diplomat. Given the school’s history, I wouldn’t be surprised if the college posthumously awarded Attila the lifetime achievement award for humanitarianism.

“While the Law Center’s announcement is an amazing study in misdirection and spin when describing Fr. Drinan’s checkered past, it clearly fails to address the fact that he was ordered by Pope John Paul II to relinquish his seat in the U.S. Congress because of the unrepentant aid and comfort he consistently gave to the purveyors of the culture of death.

“At age 85, Fr. Drinan doesn’t need another hypocritical award. He needs to be in a monastery praying for the salvation of his soul. While he’s at it, he should also pray for Georgetown’s return to full communion with the Catholic Church.

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If the University is confused as to why this award is hypocritical at best, they need only reflect upon the words of Pope John Paul II in Christifideles Laici where he directly addressed situations like this: ‘The common outcry, which is justly made on behalf of human rights—for example, the right to health, to home, to work, to family, to culture—is false and illusory, if the right to life, the most basic and fundamental right and the condition of all other personal rights, is not defended with maximum determination.’ (n.38).

“It is my sincere prayer that the leaders of Georgetown University will reflect upon these words and come to the obvious conclusion that they must rescind this award and fully embrace their Catholic heritage by defending the most vulnerable members of our society, the unborn.”

What’s next a Judas chair for Financial Oversight? Or and Arian chair for Christology?

For those unaware of Fr. Drinan was at one time a Congressmen whose policies totally supported abortion, but would write to pro-life constituents that the Church’s position was correct. He was the first of the "Personally opposed, but.." politicians. When he first ran in 1970 the Father General of the Society of Jesus Father Pedro Arrupe had pretty much commanded that Drinan not be allowed to run and if elected to not serve. Unfortunately there was much obfuscation by Drinan’s superiors in this matter leading to a lot of confusion and the circumventing of the local bishop. When Drinan ran for reelection the Father General formally told him he could not run, not that this matted to Fr. Drinan. Shortly after Roe v Wade, Drinan wrote that the decision had flaws but that he found it on the whole a beneficial judgment.

Pope John Paul II in 1980 issued a general order banning priests from political office and Fr. Drinan did leave office. He later wrote articles in the New York Times and what I guess could be called its sister publication the National Catholic Reporter attacking the partial birth abortion ban and supporting President Clinton’s veto of it. New York’s John Cardinal O’Connor in his diocesan newspaper called Drinan to account and later James Cardinal Hickey, archbishop of Washington, D.C., demanded that Drinan clarify his position and saying that he had "caused public confusion about Church teaching on abortion."

There hasn’t been much good news on the Catholic identity front at Georgetown in recent years and the Drinan chair only shows that it has sunk to new lows.