Priest’s Book Tells Sad Tale of Jesuits’ Abortion Complicity in the US
National Catholic Register, 07 January 2022
The late Jesuit Father Paul Mankowski knew how badly some of his brother priests and his superiors had betrayed the Society of Jesus.
Need a prominent cleric to give cover to Catholic politicians who vote to preserve and expand abortion access? For more than 50 years, the Jesuits have had a man at the ready. It is a grave scandal in one of the Church’s most venerable orders.
Jesuit Father Pat Conroy, who served as chaplain of the House of Representatives from May 2011 to January 2021, gave an interview published this week in The Washington Post, in which he defended Catholic politicians who promote abortion access. He went so far as to cite St. Thomas Aquinas on conscience to defend his position, which is both embarrassing and beneath the dignity of a proper Jesuit formation.
For those with longer memories, the idea of a prominent Jesuit from the House of Representatives defending permissive abortion laws is not new. Father Conroy is a rather low-budget version of the late Jesuit Father Robert Drinan, but he remains a standard-bearer for what his brethren are wont to call “the Jesuit tradition.”
It was 15 years ago this week that Father Drinan was back in the spotlight. Recall the circumstances. In early 2007, Nancy Pelosi became the first woman Speaker of the House of Representatives, the capstone to a remarkable political career. That she is Speaker again 15 years later is further evidence of the formidable political force she remains.
Pelosi, cognizant of the milestone she had achieved in 2007, organized a four-day gala to mark her accession to the speakership. It began with a Mass “in recognition of House Speaker-Elect Nancy D’Alesandro Pelosi,” at her alma mater Trinity University in Washington, D.C. The main celebrant and homilist was Father Drinan, then 86 years old. It was his last major public event. He died later that same month.
Therein lies a scandalous tale of Jesuit complicity in abortion in America, a tale more completely told in an important new book from the late Jesuit Father Paul Mankowski, who knew how badly some of his brother Jesuits and his superiors had betrayed the Society of Jesus.
Father Robert Drinan was prodigiously talented, even by the high standards for which the 1960s Jesuits were known. He was dean of the law school at Boston College at age 36, and led that school to new heights over 14 years. In 1970 he ran for Congress from Massachusetts and was elected five times as a Democrat, serving from 1971 to 1981.
In May 1980, Pope St. John Paul II ordered him not to run for re-election that November, and thus Father Drinan left Congress in January 1981. John Paul’s decision was issued as part of a wider prohibition on clerics holding political office. When definitive word came from the Pope, Father Drinan obeyed, saying that defiance was “unthinkable.” Defiance had been his modus operandi for a decade, in fact.
Father Drinan ran in 1970 on a strong anti-Vietnam War platform and was the first congressman to introduce articles of impeachment against President Richard Nixon. After Roe v. Wade in 1973, he defended the decision and was a reliable vote in favor of expanding the abortion license, including taxpayer funding, for the duration of his congressional service.
The Jesuit priest was the godfather of the Democrats becoming the party of abortion, a transformation led by Catholic Democrats — Ted Kennedy, Joe Biden, Mario Cuomo and later Pelosi herself. No Catholic priest ever did more to promote abortion in law than Father Drinan.
The Mass 15 years ago this week was a fitting valedictory, passing on the baton of pro-abortion politics to Pelosi, who looked to him as an inspiration of how a faithful Catholic could promote abortion access.
“Father Drinan was an inspiration to so many in Congress, not just those who served with him but those of us who came after,” the new Speaker said upon his death. “I am particularly honored that earlier this month, Father Drinan presided over a Mass at my alma mater, Trinity University, before I was sworn in as Speaker. He celebrated that Mass in honor of the children of Darfur and Katrina, preaching that ‘the needs of every child are the needs of Jesus Christ himself.’ Throughout his life, Father Drinan not only preached that message of justice and human rights; he embodied it.”
Yes, Father Drinan’s last public event was to announce that “the needs of every child are the needs of Jesus Christ himself” while feting the most pro-abortion Speaker in U.S. history.
Throughout the 1970s, it was often asked how Father Drinan could have served in Congress as a priest, let alone a priest who used his legislative vote and public position to promote abortion. Father Drinan and his Jesuit confreres repeatedly gave the impression that he had received approval from his Jesuit superiors and his local bishops.
It was a lie.
We now know that more fully, thanks to Father Mankowski, a Jesuit even more brilliant than Father Drinan, who died suddenly in September 2020.
Ignatius Press, founded by Father Joseph Fessio, another Jesuit eager for the truth to be known, published recently Jesuit At Large: Essays and Reviews by Paul V. Mankowski, S.J., edited by George Weigel.
The posthumous collection makes available some of Father Mankowski’s scintillating essays and reviews, which are both fierce and hilarious, sometimes simultaneously. The collection is a worthy introduction for those who haven’t read Father Mankowski — and a cause for regret that they didn’t read him earlier.
The most remarkable part of the book is a previously unpublished memorandum from April 2007, sent by Father Mankowski to some of his friends, entitled: “The Drinan Candidacy and the New England Province Archives.” Though he never published it himself, given his troubles with his Jesuit superiors, he clearly wanted an accurate record to be available for posterity.
That record is now available. It makes clear what many Catholics regarded as a scandal in the 1970s was actually much worse.
Continue reading at the National Catholic Register.