Anti-war activist Philip Berrigan dies with 'conviction'

Atlanta Journal-Constitution ^ | December 7, 2002 | The Associated Press

[LurkedLongEnough]

BALTIMORE -- Philip Berrigan, the former priest whose fight against the Vietnam War and nuclear weapons helped ignite a generation of anti-war dissent, has died of cancer. He was 79.

Berrigan's family said he was diagnosed with cancer two months ago and decided to stop chemotherapy last month. He died Friday night at Jonah House, the communal residence for pacifists that he founded.

His brother, the Rev. Daniel Berrigan, officiated over last rites ceremonies Nov. 30, attended by friends and peace activists, family members said.

Berrigan led the "Catonsville 9," a group that staged one of the most dramatic protests of the 1960s. The group, including Daniel Berrigan, doused homemade napalm on a small bonfire of draft records in a Catonsville, Md., parking lot on May 17, 1968.

In a statement given to his wife, Elizabeth McAlister, during the Thanksgiving weekend, Philip Berrigan said:

"I die with the conviction, held since 1968 and Catonsville, that nuclear weapons are the scourge of the earth; to mine for them, manufacture them, deploy them, use them, is a curse against God, the human family, and the earth itself."

Berrigan was born Oct. 5, 1923, and served as an artillery officer in World War II. He was ordained a Catholic priest in the Josephite Order in 1955.

He participated in the civil rights movement in the South. Berrigan's first public anti-war act was pouring blood on draft files in Baltimore in 1967.

"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," he said at the time. "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 expanded those views to include opposition to almost any form of established government that would wage war, deploy nuclear weapons or even use nuclear power.

Following the 1968 anti-war protest in Catonsville, the demonstrators were convicted of conspiracy and destruction of government property, but remained free on bail for 16 months until the Supreme Court of the United States declined to reconsider the verdict.

On the day they were supposed to begin serving their sentences, the Berrigan brothers and two others went into hiding. Philip Berrigan was found 12 days later at a church in New York City and was taken to federal prison in Lewisburg, Maine.

FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, told the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee in November 1970 that Philip and Daniel Berrigan were leaders of a plot to blow up Washington power lines and kidnap a high White House official. In January 1971, Philip Berrigan, McAlister, and four others were indicted on charges of plotting to kidnap then-Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and blow up the heating systems of federal buildings in Washington.

Berrigan and McAlister, who was a former nun, were found guilty in April 1972 only of smuggling of letters in and out of Lewisburg prison.

In 1980, Berrigan and seven others poured blood and hammered warheads at a GE nuclear missile plant in King of Prussia, Pa. That action began the international Plowshares movement.

Berrigan, who had been arrested at least 100 times and served a total of 11 years in prison for his anti-war and anti-nuclear activities, once said he had no intention of retiring from his career as a peaceful violator of U.S. laws.

"We can't very well do that because of the state of the world, " he said. "We're killing ourselves, and some of us are not making a murmur about it."

Berrigan was released from federal prison in Elkton, Ohio, in December 2001 for his most recent Plowshares activities.

Besides his wife and brother, Berrigan is survived by three children: Frida, Jerry and Kate.

[Cicero]

I don't feel too bitter about the Berrigan brothers, although they were certainly mischievous and deluded. I hope that at the end he was not too misled by confidence in his own righteousness to make a good confession.

[Illbay]

"I die with the conviction, held since 1968 and Catonsville, that nuclear weapons are the scourge of the earth; to mine for them, manufacture them, deploy them, use them, is a curse against God, the human family, and the earth itself."

A list of things that AREN'T a "curse against God, the human family, and the earth itself" includes mortar shells, artillery of all kinds, SAMs, heat-seeking missiles, machine gun rounds, "full metal jacket" rounds, nerve gas, napalm and other incindiaries, and rocket propelled grenades, to name just a few.

It's funny how the Left loves to focus on individual targets as "outrageous" and "beyond the pale." Nuclear weapons are no more a "curse against God" as the many other armaments the Bible speaks of. The difference is the INTENT of the person or nation wielding the weapons, not the weapons themselves.

Guns, bombs (even nuclear ones), tanks, helicopter gunships, jet fighters, B1 bombers and all the arsenal of modern war are "evil things" when used by evil people.

But when they are the arsenal of a free people intent on maintaining their freedoms in the face of evildoers, however, they are BEAUTIFUL things.

"And the LORD shall utter his voice before his army: for his camp is very great: for he is strong that executeth his word: for the day of the LORD is great and very terrible; and who can abide it?" [Joel 2:11]

[tallhappy]

The coverage of this is crazy.

Last night I turned on the radio and caught the tail end of the ABC news report. The anchorette said, "and to repeat our top story...". My ears perked up because usually this means a relatively significant event has taken place -- a big story.

So she says this guy had died. That was their big top story worth repeating at the end of the broadcast in case anyone missed it.

[Fintan]

Where do these people get the $$ to live and travel etc.

Follow the cash.

I too have often wondered how high-profile anti-captialists, leftists and socialists live so well. Be interesting to find out...

[Valin]

True you have to go back a couple of years to the 'beats' to see who the leaders were. Actually if you want you can take it back to the bohemians of the 18th century.

[pabianice]

I assume 'dying with conviction' is distinct from 'not sure you're dying'...

[ikka]

He was such a good priest that he married a nun.

He directly gave aid and comfort to our enemies and covered for them. Did he protest Pol Pot? The Cultural Revolution? The killing of half a million on Rwanda? Not that I heard of.

Goodbye, useful idiot.

[joesnuffy]

God is his Judge now...if he died outside the Mercy of Our Lord Jesus Christ..
I do not bear him any more malice..but for the grace of God go I
( I being one of those Vietnam combat vets he and his ilk spit on some 35 yrs ago)

[Atomic Vomit]

Berrigan was born Oct. 5, 1923, and served as an artillery officer in World War II. He was ordained a Catholic priest in the Josephite Order in 1955

So, he infiltrated the church at the age of 32 during the early height of the Cold War.

I wonder how many others like him did at the same time?

He was communist before he was "Catholic".

Mr. Atomic Vomit

[gcruse]

Good riddance.

[mombonn]

More of the hippie generation dying off.

I'm of the same generation. The first time I PROTESTED was in 1998, at the March for Justice. Don't paint all survivors of the 60's with the same broad brush.

There were a lot of us geezers there.

[sneakypete]

Ah, but if you are a pacifist, you feel so self righteous.

He wasn't a pacifist. He was a radical Marxist.

[sneakypete]

Burn in hell hippie.

He wasn't a hippie. He was a radical Marxist. Hippies mostly wanted to have fun and be left alone. His goal was Marxist world domination.

[bert]

American Taliban.

[don-o]

I'm of the same generation. The first time I PROTESTED was in 1998, at the March for Justice. Don't paint all survivors of the 60's

There are many of us who marched against the VietNam war in '68, who now march on January 22.

[livius]

Actually, I always thought that, deluded though he was, Philip was a lot more honorable than his brother, Daniel. He even left the priesthood legitimately and married - and in fact, had three children, which was more than most Catholics a lot younger than he bothered to have.

Philip believed in what he was doing, although I certainly think he was wrong in what he believed. Daniel, on the other hand, was a media swan, and would have done anything that got him headlines and groupies.

A few prayers for the deceased might be in order; God is even now "sorting them out."

[I_Love_My_Husband]

You were a commie in 1998? Of course you're with all those other dumb hippie geezers!

[Mark17]

He wasn't a pacifist. He was a radical Marxist.

I have no doubt that is true. Do you suppose he went around masqerading as a pacifist, just to fool em?

[Little Bill]

I hated the both of them, I still do, I hope it was slow and painful. The misery that these people caused is beyond comprehention, He who turns his eyes from the Lord.....