Pickup Carries Peace Activist, Fr. Berrigan's Coffin

Yahoo News ^ | December 9, 2002 | Foster Pflug

[NYer]

BALTIMORE (AP) _ Carrying puppets, signs and roses, hundreds accompanied a pickup truck carrying the coffin of peace activist Philip Berrigan as it wound its way Monday through the rough neighborhood where he once served as a priest.

Family members stood in the back of the truck along with the plain wooden coffin, hand-painted with red roses, as bagpipers played ``Amazing Grace'' while the procession marched to the funeral at St. Peter Claver Catholic Church in west Baltimore. ``He was bigger than life _ extremely human and heroic and committed,'' said actor Martin Sheen, who marched in the funeral parade. ``He was a great inspiration and a mentor to me and others.''

Berrigan, a former Roman Catholic priest who staged some of the most dramatic anti-war protests of the 1960s, died of cancer Friday at age 79. He staged some of the most dramatic anti-war protests of the 1960s and was arrested at least 100 times, serving a total of 11 years in prison for his anti-war activities. He led the ``Catonsville 9,'' a group that doused a small bonfire of Selective Service draft records in homemade napalm at a parking lot in the Baltimore suburb on May 17, 1968. His brother, the Rev. Daniel Berrigan, also was a member of the group.

Some mourners carried sticks topped with cloth birds with tattered wings, while others sang Christian hymns and Buddhist monks chanted and beat drums. Ched Myers, 47, an activist, writer and teacher from Los Angeles, said Berrigan was ``a historic pioneer in the act of civil disobedience.''

In the church, mourners held signs reading ``Arm the world with hugs,'' ``Wage Peace,'' and ``Plowshares versus Depleted Uranium,'' a reference to the name of Berrigan's Plowshares for Peace. ``He was a great prophet of peace,'' said the Rev. John Dear, 43, a Jesuit priest who lives in Cimarron, N.M. ``He spoke the truth against war.''

[mg39]

So I wouldn't have minded that the Vietnamese et al would have been killed by our Frankensteinian creation, Pol Pot? Pull your head out of that dark place, dude, because now you're talking ignorant trash.

Besides, you're on the here defending a rotten war, not me.

[sinkspur]

Calm down. Your anger is entirely out of proportion to the question asked. I'm happy with the answer. I'm not a fan of Berrigan's, but I think many on this thread are rude and disrespectful of him in death.

You're on the verge of hysteria.

[Station 51]

It is quite strange that there are harsher words here for a priest that protested the Vietnam War than there are for priests and the Catholic Hierarchy that condoned molesting children.

[Revolting cat!]

Next thing, we'll hear is that Jimmy Carter is a "decent person". Wonder if the admirers of the Berrigans would be defending them if they (the Berrigans) had been well meaning, sincere supporters of, oh say, Generalissimo Franco, or general Pinochet, instead of the bloodiest butchers of the past century.

So the Berrigans protested the "unjust" Vietnam War, huh? Did they protest the Cambodian Holocaust? We know the answer to that one!

Good riddance to bad rubbish!

[saminfl]

Were the re-education camps going on during the war? I guess I don't remember us creating Pol Pot? I'm not necessarily defending the war, I am arguijng against providing aid and compfort to the enemy. You head is where you can't see that. I've had enough of your type of self-rightousness. Go pat yourself on the back some more for being a useful idiot.

[mg39]

Maybe those millions of pounds of bombs we dropped (illegally) on Cambodia had something to do with setting the stage for Pol Pot, ya think? (Stupid question, as thinking does not seem to be your forte).

[dighton]

... anything to avoid actually taking up arms in defense of one's home, family, country, or way of life.

To give the devil his due (and he has much to answer for), Berrigan served as an artillery officer in World War II.

[Fintan]

``He was bigger than life _ extremely human and heroic and committed,'' said actor Martin Sheen, who marched in the funeral parade. ``He was a great inspiration and a mentor to me and others.''

By all means, Marty baby.

I'm sure Berrigan showed you how a mediocre actor could make millions and live lavishly while smugly trashing and debasing the very country that has provided you that opportunity.

[mg39]

The Americans who fought and died in Vietnam did their duty and will always be honored.

The leaders who sent them there are at fault.

[Chad Bagwell]

Aww, that's sick!

[genefromjersey]

Interesting to note Berrigan was still being described as a "priest" - something he hadn't been in 20-30 years.

[RobbyS]

Berrigan began as a prophet and ended as an activist for a political cause. Quite a comedown. In the end he seems to have been more socialist than Catholic, a man of the world despite his humble trappings.

[Saundra Duffy]

Family members stood in the back of the truck along with the plain wooden coffin

Isn't that against the law? You can't ride in the back of a pick-up truck! The dead body, yes, but live people? No way.

[saminfl]

Maybe those millions of pounds of bombs we dropped (illegally) on Cambodia had something to do with setting the stage for Pol Pot, ya think? (Stupid question, as thinking does not seem to be your forte).

Aha!! Making up "facts." We dropped bombs, so we created Pol Pot. Typical liberal type argument, make up some asinine "fact" and use it. Now I know where you are coming from. Go back to DU. I am not wasting my time on your ignorance anymore.

[NMFXSTC]

Orraaggggggghhhhh (and WELCOME HOME), Brother!

[SMEDLEYBUTLER]

Berrigan was a convicted felon who plotted to kidnap Kissinger and bomb power plants. There are a lot of pacifists who don't resort to crime to deliver their message.

Philip Berrigan Gets 1 Year In Prison

[secretagent]

Berrigan was a convicted felon who plotted to kidnap Kissinger and bomb power plants.

Those charges didn't stick.

Supposedly the "kidnap plot" stemmed from a joke, written while drunk, in a letter sent from supporters to P Berrigan in jail.

[Rollee]

Oxen emit methane, just like the deceased did all through his deluded life.