Robert F. Drinan, S.J.

THE REV. ROBERT F. DRINAN, who died this week, is best known as a five-term congressman forced to leave office by an edict of Pope John Paul II. He ought to be remembered as well as a Catholic from Boston who extended the boundaries of the institution that nurtured him to serve the needs of the broader society.

He grew up in Hyde Park and was educated at Boston College when it was a small school atop the heights of Chestnut Hill. He became a Jesuit, got his law degree at Georgetown, and became dean of the BC Law School in 1956 as it was moving from a downtown location to a new building near the college. He could have been content to let the law school serve a Catholic population in more spacious surroundings, but he had greater ambitions.

"He stood for inclusivity, opening up the law school to faculty and students of all faiths, colors, and genders," professor Sanford Katz said in a telephone interview yesterday. Drinan set up a presidential scholars program to attract top students from around the country. He established the law review and a legal aid clinic in Waltham to help the poor. He was in the vanguard of those who transformed Boston College into a national institution.

"He had great intellectual curiosity, energy, and enthusiasm," recalled history professor emeritus Thomas O'Connor. Drinan extended his influence across the city, calling for the desegregation of the Boston schools as part of a broader campaign to secure civil rights for minorities. "The school committee has to realize . . . that racially imbalanced schools are bad for the Negro child," he said in 1965.

And he came to oppose the Vietnam War. He favored "withdrawal with some conditions. We should give the people the right to go elsewhere."

With all the goodwill he generated, Drinan was a natural to run as an anti war candidate in 1970. He defeated the Democratic incumbent and was invulnerable to conventional opposition during his 10 years in office. But he remained a Jesuit to the core, one of those remarkable men who used the skills acquired in the order to improve the world. When the pope insisted that priests could not serve in governmental office, Drinan chose the priesthood over more traditional ambition.

He became a professor at Georgetown Law School, headed Americans for Democratic Action, and worked on international issues for the American Bar Association. He returned often to Boston College, notably in October 2004, when he received the Distinguished Service Medal on the 75th anniversary of the law school. He urged the students to consider a career in international law. "Think beyond Boston," he said, "and if you don't want to go to Beijing [or London or Nairobi] to work, stay in Boston to help the poor get the legal aid they deserve." Drinan honored Boston by encouraging his hometown and his alma mater to stretch for greatness.