Father Robert Drinan S.J., Requiescat in pace.

Father Drinan was a leftist fool of monumental proportions. I hope he was a better priest than he was a congressthing. Either way, he now knows The Truth.

May God have mercy on his soul.

The Rev. Robert Drinan, a Jesuit who, over the objections of his superiors, became the first Roman Catholic priest to serve as a voting member of Congress, died yesterday.

The Rev. Drinan, 86, had suffered from pneumonia and congestive heart failure during the previous 10 days, according to a statement by Georgetown University.

"His death was peaceful, and he was surrounded by his family," said the Rev. John Langan, rector of the Georgetown University Jesuit Community where the Rev. Drinan lived.

An internationally known human rights advocate, the Rev. Drinan represented Massachusetts in the U.S. House for 10 years during the turbulent 1970s, and he stepped down only after a worldwide directive from Pope John Paul II barring priests from holding public office.

He was elected in 1970, after he beat longtime Democratic Rep. Philip J. Philbin in a primary, and again in the November election, when Philbin was a write-in candidate. The only other priest to serve in Congress was a non-voting delegate from Michigan in 1823.

Although a poll at the time showed that 30 percent of the voters in his district thought it was improper for a priest to run for office, the Rev. Drinan considered politics a natural extension of his work in public affairs and human rights.

His run for office came a year after he returned from a trip to Vietnam, where he said he discovered that the number of political prisoners being held in South Vietnam was rapidly increasing, contrary to State Department reports. (Thanks to the Lexington Herald-Leader for this obituary.)