Initiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life

As the popularity of the Vietnam War began to decline, Robert Drinan won a seat in Congress to oppose the war. The pinnacle of Drinan’s short-lived congressional appointment came when he filed the papers to impeach President Nixon. Yet, in the business of his schedule as a politician, he still found time to perform transubstantiation on Sundays. Father Robert Drinan, S.J., was the embodiment of the union of church and state.

Last week, the Initiative hosted Mark Shriver for a conversation about his return to his faith in the Catholic Church and his journey to discover Pope Francis’ roots, as detailed in his recently published book Pilgrimage: My Search for the Real Pope Francis (2016). This Dialogue was about two rather prominent figures: Pope Francis, as head of one of the world’s major religions, has become one of the most influential people on the planet. Mark Shriver, for his part, is a member of the Kennedy dynasty. His mother, Eunice Kennedy, is the sister of the late John F. Kennedy. He served in the Maryland House of Delegates, is the president of the Save the Children Action Fund, and wrote a best-selling book about his late father, Sargent Shriver.