Nation: The House: Matters of Morality

Fighting the Church

When the Vatican ordered Massachusetts Democrat Robert Drinan, a Jesuit priest, to withdraw from public office last May, 15 politicians lunged for his seat in Congress. By August, polls indicated that Barney Frank, 40, a Harvard-educated former aide to Boston Mayor Kevin White and a popular state legislator for eight years, was the clear favorite. Frank had been endorsed by Drinan and Senator Edward Kennedy. Moreover, voters in the largely liberal district, which includes wealthy Boston suburbs and factory towns in central Massachusetts, liked the rumpled candidate's advocacy of more...

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