Daniel Berrigan

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Daniel Berrigan at the Third Annual Staten Island Freedom & Peace Festival, Oct. 28, 2006
Daniel Berrigan at the Third Annual Staten Island Freedom & Peace Festival, Oct. 28, 2006

Daniel Berrigan, S.J. (born May 9, 1921) is an internationally renowned poet, American peace activist and Roman Catholic priest. Daniel and his brother Philip performed non-violent actions against war and were for a time on the FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list.

Contents

[edit] History

Daniel Berrigan was born in Virginia, Minnesota, a Midwestern working class town. His father, Thomas Berrigan, was second-generation Irish-Catholic and proud Union man. Tom left the Catholic Church, but Berrigan remained attracted to the Church throughout his youth. He joined the Jesuits directly out of high school in 1939 and was ordained to the priesthood in 1952. He now resides in New York City and serves as the Fordham University poet in residence.

Berrigan appears briefly in the 1986 film, The Mission, directed by Roland Joffé and starring Robert De Niro and Jeremy Irons. He plays a Jesuit priest and also served as a consultant on the film.

[edit] Protests against the War in Vietnam

Berrigan, his brother Philip, and the famed Trappist monk Thomas Merton founded an interfaith coalition against the Vietnam War, and wrote letters to major newspapers arguing for an end to the war.

In 1969, Philip Berrigan was arrested for non-violent protest and sentenced to six years in prison. Afterwards, Daniel Berrigan seriously considered taking more direct action against the war. Howard Zinn, professor emeritus at Boston University, invited Berrigan to accompany him on a trip to Hanoi to negotiate the release of three U.S. pilots held prisoner by the North Vietnamese. Although the mission had a high chance of success, it was opposed by the FBI on the grounds that it violated their policy of non-negotiation with North Vietnam. J. Edgar Hoover went so far as to publicly call Zinn and Berrigan "traitors". U.S. planes even bombed locations where they were scheduled to be. Despite the opposition, three pilots were returned home. They were the first American POWs released unharmed by the North Vietnamese. The lack of acknowledgement and appreciation by the U.S. government helped to radicalize Berrigan.

In 1968, Berrigan decided to participate in a more radical non-violent protest. A local high-school physics teacher helped to concoct homemade napalm. Nine activists, who later became known as the Catonsville Nine, walked into the draft board of Catonsville, Maryland, and removed 378 draft files, which they brought outside and burned. The Catonsville Nine, who were all Catholic, issued a statement:

"We confront the Catholic Church, other Christian bodies, and the synagogues of America with their silence and cowardice in the face of our country's crimes. We are convinced that the religious bureaucracy in this country is racist, is an accomplice in this war, and is hostile to the poor."

Berrigan was arrested and sentenced to three years in prison, but he refused to serve his time. Instead, he went underground, living discreetly among like-minded individuals. The FBI, to its great embarrassment, was not immediately able to apprehend Berrigan, although he frequently showed up briefly at public events, made impromptu speeches, and went back into hiding. Berrigan spent periods of time on Block Island in Rhode Island. He was finally apprehended by FBI agents posing as duck hunters. His meditations during his exile can be found in his book of poetry entitled "Block Island." During this time Berrigan was also interviewed for a documentary titled "The Holy Outlaw," by Lee Lockwood.

Eventually, the FBI managed to find and arrest Berrigan. He was released from prison in 1972. After his release from prison, Berrigan spent time in France meeting with Thich Nhat Hanh, the exiled Buddhist monk peace activist from Vietnam.

He is interviewed in the 1968 anti-Vietnam War documentary film In the Year of the Pig.

[edit] The Plowshares Movement

On September 9, 1980, Berrigan, his brother Philip, and six others (the "Plowshares Eight") began the Plowshares Movement when they entered the General Electric Nuclear Missile Re-entry Division in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania where nose cones for the Mark 12A warheads were made. They hammered on two nose cones, poured blood on documents and offered prayers for peace. They were arrested and initially charged with over ten different felony and misdemeanor counts. On April 10, 1990, after nearly ten years of trials and appeals, the Plowshares Eight were re-sentenced and paroled for up to 23 and 1/2 months in consideration of time already served in prison. Their legal battle was dramatically re-created in Emile de Antonio's 1982 film In The King of Prussia, which starred Martin Sheen and featured appearances by the Plowshares Eight as themselves.

Since this action over seventy Plowshares actions have taken place around the world against weapons of war, several involving Berrigan himself.

Among the Plowshares Eight was Father Carl Kabat, 72, a fellow Roman-Catholic priest who is currently in prison. Kabat is the subject of the original play And Carl Laughed, written by two teachers at Clayton High School, in Clayton, MO. The play will debut this summer, performed by students from the school, at the 2007 Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

See also:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trident_Ploughshares

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pitstop_Ploughshares

[edit] Other activism

Berrigan has spoken out on many issues since then, and has been involved in many protests. He has led protests against American destabilization of Central America, the 1991 Gulf War, the Kosovo War, the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan, and the 2003 invasion of Iraq. He is also a prominent pro-life activist. He had been a guest speaker at Regis High School, a Jesuit college preparatory school in Manhattan.

[edit] Further reading

Berrigan later wrote the play The Trial of the Catonsville Nine, which ran on Broadway for 29 performances in 1971 and was made into a movie in 1972.

Berrigan also wrote many books, including

  • Words Our Savior Gave Us (Springfield: Templegate, 1978, ISBN 0-87243-081-2);
  • Prison Poems (Greensboro: Unicorn Press, 1973, ISBN 0-87775-049-1);
  • Hole in the Ground: A Parable for Peacemakers (Minneapolis: The Honeywell Project, 1987, ISBN 0-9619003-1-8);
  • And the Risen Bread: Selected Poems 1954-1997 (New York: Fordham University Press, 1998, ISBN 0-8232-1821-X);
  • Daniel: Under the Siege of the Divine (Farmington, PA: Plough Publishing House, 1998, ISBN 0-87486-952-8); and
  • Uncommon Prayer: A Book of Psalms (1998, ISBN 1-57075-193-5). Absurd Convictions, Modest Hopes. Geography of Faith. Time Without Number (won the Lamont Prize). Night Flight to Hanoi. Trial Writings (with Tom Lewis).
  • The Raft Is Not the Shore: Conversations Toward a Buddhist/Christian Awareness, Daniel Berrigan/Thich Nhat Hanh, Orbis Books, 2000, ISBN 1-57075-344-X
  • Swords into Plowshares: A chronology of plowshares disarmament actions 1980-2003 Edited by Arthur J. Laffin (2003, ISBN 0-9636224-8-X);

The documentary film Investigation of a Flame is about the Berrigan Brothers and the Catonsville Nine. http://www.investigationofaflame.com/

Daniel Berrigan was interviewed about his life and activism for Generation on Fire: Voices of Protest from the 1960s, an Oral History (2006, University Press of Kentucky, ISBN 0-81312-416-6) by Jeff Kisseloff.

[edit] Awards and recognition

See, too, Murray Polner and Jim O'Grady, "Disarmed and Dangerous: The Radical Life and Times of Daniel and Philip Berrigan," (Basic Books, 1997) and Westview (1998.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:
Persondata
NAME Berrigan, Daniel
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION Priest and anti-war activist
DATE OF BIRTH May 9, 1921
PLACE OF BIRTH Virginia, Minnesota, United States
DATE OF DEATH living
PLACE OF DEATH
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