Council for a Livable World

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Father Robert F. Drinan National Peace and Human Rights Award

ABOUT THE DRINAN AWARD

The Father Robert F. Drinan National Peace and Human Rights Award was established in 2006. The award is annually presented by the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation and Council for a Livable World to individuals who exemplify the late Father Drinan's commitment to peace and human justice.

The award broadly focuses on U.S. politics, political science, physical science, biology, peace studies, and peace and human rights activism.

Click here for information on the 2009 Father Robert F. Drinan National Peace and Human Rights Awards, held on June 2, 2008 to honor Congressman Barney Frank and Ambassador Robert Gallucci.

Click here to see photos from the 2008 awards reception with Sen. Dianne Feinstein and actor Richard Schiff.

ABOUT FATHER DRINAN

In 1970, Father Robert F. Drinan became the first Roman Catholic priest to be elected to the United States Congress. He served five terms as a congressman before an edict by Pope John Paul II forced him to choose between politics and his faith. He consistently championed legislation promoting peace and justice worldwide.

Drinan grew up in Hyde Park and was educated at Boston College. He became a Jesuit, got his law degree at Georgetown, and became dean of the Boston College Law School in 1956. 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.

Drinan had great intellectual curiosity, energy, and enthusiasm, and later he 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. He also came to oppose the Vietnam War.

With all the goodwill he generated, Drinan was a natural to run as an anti-war candidate for Congress 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.

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's founding.

Drinan was a longtime member of Council for a Livable World's Board of Directors.

2009 RECIPIENTS OF THE DRINAN AWARD

Congressman Frank has represented Massachusetts’ 4th Congressional District since 1981, when he succeeded Father Drinan. Last year he recommended cuts to U.S. nuclear weapons programs. This year, even as he has been in the middle of working for solutions facing the financial system, he has been leading the fight for a 25% cut in the military budget.

Amb. Gallucci is the Dean of Georgetown University's Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service and will soon become president of the MacArthur Foundation. His career in arms control and nuclear non-proliferation has included service as U.S. Special Envoy, as Deputy Executive Chairman of the UN Special Commission on Iraq, as the lead Ambassador responsible for the negotiation of the 1994 Agreed Framework (which significantly impacted North Korea's nuclear weapons program), and as Assistant Secretary of State for Political-Military Affairs.