Philip Berrigan

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Philip Berrigan bigraphy, stories - Priest and anti-war activist

Philip Berrigan : biography

October 5, 1923 – December 6, 2002

Philip Francis Berrigan (October 5, 1923 – December 6, 2002) was an American peace activist and former Roman Catholic priest. He was nominated six times for the Nobel Peace Prize. Along with his brother Daniel Berrigan, he was for a time on the FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list for acts of vandalism including destruction of government property.

The Plowshares Movement

On September 9, 1980, Berrigan, his brother Daniel, 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.Essential Catholic Social Thought (2008) Bernard V. Brady, Orbis Books, p27 ISBN 9781570757563Commonwealth v. Berrigan, 501 A.2d 266, 509 Pa. 118 (1985). On 10 April 1990, after nearly ten years of trials and appeals, the Plowshares Eight were re-sentenced and paroled for up to 23 months in consideration of time already served in prison. Berrigan helped set up Jonah House as the community headquarters of the organisation, a terraced house in, Reservoir Hill, later moved to St. Peter the Apostle Cemetery in West Baltimore.

Berrigan’s last Plowshares action occurred in December 1999, when a group of protesters hammered on A-10 Warthog warplanes held at the Warfield Air National Guard Base. He was indicted for malicious destruction of property and sentenced to 30 months in prison. American Dissidents: An Encyclopedia of Activists, Subversives, and Prisoners of Conscience: An Encyclopedia of Activists, Subversives, and Prisoners of Conscience (2011) Kathlyn Gay ABC-CLIO p66 ISBN 9781598847659He was released on 14 December 2001. In his lifetime he had spent about 11 years in jails and prisons for civil disobedience.

In one of his last public statements, Berrigan said, The American people are, more and more, making their voices heard against Bush and his warrior clones. Bush and his minions slip out of control, determined to go to war, determined to go it alone, determined to endanger the Palestinians further, determined to control Iraqi oil, determined to ravage further a suffering people and their shattered society. The American people can stop Bush, can yank his feet closer to the fire, can banish the war makers from Washington D.C., can turn this society around and restore it to faith and sanity.

Death

On December 6, 2002, Philip Berrigan died of liver and kidney cancer at the age of 79 at Jonah House in Baltimore, Maryland. In a last statement, he 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.

Howard Zinn, Professor Emeritus at Boston University, paid this tribute to Berrigan saying "Mr. Berrigan was one of the great Americans of our time. He believed war didn’t solve anything. He went to prison again and again and again for his beliefs. I admired him for the sacrifices he made. He was an inspiration to a large number of people."

The funeral was held at St. Peter Claver Church in West Baltimore and he was buried in West Baltimore cemetery. Berrigan’s widow, Elizabeth McAlister, and others still maintain Jonah House in Baltimore and a website that details all Plowshares activities. Baltimore Sun. He is survived by four brothers Daniel, John, Jim and Jerome, and also his wife, Elizabeth McAlister, and their three children, who are all activists.

Early life

Philip Berrigan was born in Two Harbors, Minnesota, a Midwestern working class mining town. He had five brothers, including the Jesuit fellow-activist and poet, Daniel Berrigan. His mother, Frieda (née Fromhart), was of German descent and deeply religious. His father, Tom Berrigan, was a second-generation Irish-Catholic, trade union member, socialist and railway engineer.