Nancy Pelosi delivers dissident priest's eulogy

“I am particularly honored that earlier this month, Father Drinan celebrated a Mass at my alma mater, Trinity College, before I was sworn in as Speaker.”
The office of Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, has released a copy of a eulogy she delivered for Fr. Robert Drinan at a Feb. 1 funeral Mass at St. Aloysius Church, just nine blocks from the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. (A second funeral Mass was held on Feb. 3 at St. Ignatius Church in Chestnut Hill, Mass., followed by Fr. Drinan’s burial at the Campion Center in Weston, Mass.) Drinan, a liberal Jesuit priest who once represented a Massachusetts congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives, died on Jan. 28 following a 10-day illness. He had been suffering from pneumonia and congestive heart failure. He was 86. Drinan represented the 3rd Congressional District of Massachusetts from 1971 until 1981, but agreed not to run for re-election after Pope John Paul II in 1980 demanded that priests not seek or serve in elected political office. As a congressman, Drinan consistently supported “abortion rights,” and spoke out publicly in favor of artificial contraception.