View source for Philip Berrigan

{{short description|American anti-war activist (1923–2002)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=October 2024}}
{{Infobox clergy
| name = Phil Berrigan
|image=Philip Berrigan.jpg
|image_size=
|caption=
|birth_name=Philip Francis Berrigan
|birth_date={{birth date|1923|10|5}}
|birth_place=[[Two Harbors, Minnesota]], U.S.
|death_date ={{death date and age|2002|12|6|1923|10|5}}
|death_place=[[Baltimore]], Maryland, U.S.
|resting_place=
|resting_place_coordinates=
|education={{ubl|[[College of the Holy Cross]] ([[Bachelor of Arts|BA]])|[[Loyola University of the South]]|[[Xavier University of Louisiana]] ([[Master of Arts|MA]])}}
|occupation= 
|employer=
|known_for=
|title=
|spouse={{marriage|[[Elizabeth McAlister]]|May 28, 1973}}
|children=3
|relatives=[[Daniel Berrigan]] (brother)
|website=
|footnotes=
|alma mater =
|burial_place=St. Peter the Apostle Cemetery|honorific prefix=[[The Reverend]]|honorific suffix=[[Society of St. Joseph of the Sacred Heart|SSJ]]}}

'''Philip Francis "Phil"  Berrigan''' {{post-nominals|list=[[Society of St. Joseph of the Sacred Heart (Josephites)|SSJ]]}} (October 5, 1923&nbsp;– December 6, 2002) was an American peace activist and [[Catholic priest]]<ref>{{Cite news|last=Lewis|first=Daniel|date=December 8, 2002|title=Philip Berrigan, Former Priest and Peace Advocate in the Vietnam War Era, Dies at 79|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2002/12/08/us/philip-berrigan-former-priest-peace-advocate-vietnam-war-era-dies-79.html|access-date=June 14, 2021|issn=0362-4331|archive-date=March 19, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170319230728/http://www.nytimes.com/2002/12/08/us/philip-berrigan-former-priest-peace-advocate-vietnam-war-era-dies-79.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|date=December 12, 2002|title=Obituary: Philip Berrigan|url=http://www.theguardian.com/news/2002/dec/12/guardianobituaries|access-date=June 14, 2021|website=the Guardian|language=en|archive-date=June 14, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210614233415/https://www.theguardian.com/news/2002/dec/12/guardianobituaries|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Remembering Jesuit Priest And Anti-War Activist Daniel Berrigan|url=https://www.npr.org/2016/05/03/476607893/remembering-jesuit-priest-and-anti-war-activist-daniel-berrigan|access-date=June 14, 2021|website=NPR.org|date=May 3, 2016 |language=en|archive-date=June 14, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210614233411/https://www.npr.org/2016/05/03/476607893/remembering-jesuit-priest-and-anti-war-activist-daniel-berrigan|url-status=live}}</ref> with the [[Josephites (Maryland)|Josephites]].<ref name="obit" /><ref name=":0">{{cite book |title=Religion and war resistance in the Plowshares Movement |date=2008 |first=Sharon Erickson |last=Nepstad |publisher=Cambridge University Press |page=51 |isbn=978-0-521-71767-0}}</ref> He engaged in nonviolent, civil disobedience in the cause of peace and nuclear disarmament and was often arrested.<ref name=":2">{{Cite book |last1=Berrigan |first1=Frida |title=It Runs in the Family: On Being Raised by Radicals and Growing into Rebellious Motherhood |date=2015 |language=en |isbn=978-1-5318-2610-9|oclc=947798459 |publisher=OR Books  }}</ref><ref name=":1" />

In 1973, he married a former nun, [[Elizabeth McAlister]]. Both were subsequently [[excommunicated]] by the Catholic Church before being reinstated. For 11 years of their 29-year marriage they were separated by one or both serving time in prison.<ref name=":3">{{cite web|title=Philip Berrigan and Elizabeth McAlister papers, DePaul University Special Collections and Archives|url=http://libguides.depaul.edu/ld.php?content_id=10136109|access-date=May 18, 2019|publisher=DePaul University Libraries|archive-date=February 6, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200206210029/https://libguides.depaul.edu/ld.php?content_id=10136109|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name=":2" />

== Biography ==

===Early life and education===
Berrigan was born in [[Two Harbors, Minnesota]], a Midwestern, working-class 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.<ref Name=obit/><ref name=":2" />

Philip Berrigan graduated from high school in [[Syracuse, New York]], and was then employed cleaning trains for the [[New York Central Railroad]]. He played with a semi-professional baseball team. In 1943, after a semester of schooling at [[St. Michael's College, Toronto]], Berrigan was drafted into combat duty in {{nowrap|[[World War II]]}}. He served in the [[artillery]] during the [[Battle of the Bulge]] (1945) and later became a [[second lieutenant]] in the [[infantry]].<ref Name=obit/> He was deeply affected by [[racial segregation]] and [[racism]] during [[military recruit training|boot camp]] in the [[American South]].<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Lombardi |first1=Chris |title=I Ain't Marching Anymore: Dissenters, Deserters, and Objectors to America's Wars |date=2020 |language=en |isbn=978-1-62097-318-9 |publisher=The New Press |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0Z_LDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA121 |page=121 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |editor-last1=Shearer |editor-first1=Benjamin F. |title=Home Front Heroes |date=2006 |language=en |isbn=978-0-313-04705-3 |publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IzBxCP9QUo0C&pg=PA79 |page=79 |quote=Boot camp in the South made him a civil rights activist. |access-date=December 27, 2021 |archive-date=December 27, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211227201200/https://books.google.com/books?id=IzBxCP9QUo0C&pg=PA79 |url-status=live }}</ref> Berrigan graduated with an English degree from the [[College of the Holy Cross]], a Jesuit college in [[Worcester, Massachusetts]].

=== Josephites and early priesthood ===
In 1950, he joined the [[Josephites (Maryland)|Society of St. Joseph of the Sacred Heart]], better known as the Josephites, a religious society of priests and [[lay brother]]s dedicated to serving [[African Americans]] (who were still dealing with the repercussions of slavery and daily [[Racial segregation|segregation]] in the United States). After studying at the theological school of the Society, [[St. Joseph's Seminary (Washington, D.C.)|St. Joseph's Seminary]] in [[Washington, D.C.]], he was [[holy orders|ordained]] a priest in 1955.

He went on to gain a degree in [[secondary education]] at [[Loyola University of the South]] (1957) and then a [[Master of Arts]] degree at [[Xavier University of Louisiana]] in 1960, during which time he began to teach at [[St. Augustine High School (New Orleans)|{{nowrap|St. Augustine}} High]].<ref name="obit" />

In addition to his academic responsibilities, Berrigan became active in the [[Civil Rights Movement]]. He marched for [[Desegregation in the United States|desegregation]] and participated in [[sit-in]]s and [[Montgomery bus boycott|bus boycotts]]. His brother Daniel wrote of him:

{{blockquote|
From the beginning, he stood with the urban poor. He rejected the traditional, isolated stance of the Church in black communities. He was also incurably secular; he saw the Church as one resource, bringing to bear on the squalid facts of racism the light of the Gospel, the presence of inventive courage and hope.<ref Name=obit/>}}

Berrigan was first imprisoned in 1962/1963. During his many prison sentences, he would often hold Bible study class and offer legal educational support to other inmates. As a priest, his activism and arrests met with deep disapproval from the leadership of the Catholic Church, and Berrigan was moved to [[Epiphany Apostolic College]], the Josephite [[minor seminary]] in [[Newburgh, New York]], but he continued his protests. Working with [[Jim Forest]], in 1964 he founded the [[Fellowship of Reconciliation|Catholic Peace Fellowship]] in [[New York City]]. He was moved again to St. Peter Claver Parish in [[West Baltimore]], [[Maryland]], from where he started the Baltimore Interfaith Peace Mission, leading lobbies and demonstrations.<ref Name=obit/>

===Protests===

====Baltimore Four====
Berrigan and others took increasingly radical steps to bring attention to the anti-war movement. The group, later known as the Baltimore Four, occupied the [[Selective Service Board]] in the [[United States Custom House (Baltimore)|Custom House, Baltimore]], on October 27, 1967.<ref Name=Four>{{cite book |title=Religion and War Resistance in the Plowshares Movement |date=2008 |first=Sharon Erickson |last=Nepstad |publisher=Cambridge University Press |page=48 |isbn=9780521717670}}</ref> "The Four" were Berrigan, artist Tom Lewis, writer [[David Eberhardt]], and the Rev. James L. Mengel III. Mengel was a [[United States Air Force]] veteran and a [[United Church of Christ]] pastor. Performing a sacrificial, blood-pouring protest, they used their own blood and that from poultry and poured it over selective service (draft) records.<ref Name=Four/><ref name="wstrabala2002">{{cite book |title=Prophets Without Honor: A Requiem for Moral Patriotism |url=https://archive.org/details/prophetswithouth00stra |url-access=registration |author=Strabala |author2=Palecek |publisher=Algora Publishing |year=2002 |isbn=978-1892941992 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/prophetswithouth00stra/page/57 57–61]}}</ref> During their trial, Mengel stated that U.S. military forces had killed and maimed not only humans, but also animals and vegetation. Mengel agreed to the action and donated blood, but decided not to actually pour blood. Instead he distributed the paperback book version of the [[New Testament]] to draft board workers, newsmen, and police.<ref name=":0" /><ref Name=Four/> Berrigan, in a written statement, noted that his sacrificial and constructive act was meant to protest "the pitiful waste of American and Vietnamese blood in Indochina".<ref Name=obit/>

The trial of the four defendants was postponed due to the assassination of [[Martin Luther King Jr.]] and the subsequent riots in Baltimore and other U.S. cities. Eberhardt and Lewis served jail time, and Berrigan was sentenced to six years in federal prisons.<ref>{{cite court |litigants=United States v. Eberhardt |reporter=F.2d |date=1969 |url=https://casetext.com/case/united-states-v-eberhardt-3 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171019195419/https://casetext.com/case/united-states-v-eberhardt-3 |url-status=dead |archive-date=October 19, 2017 |vol=417 |opinion=1009 |court=4th Cir. |access-date=June 24, 2017}}</ref><ref name=":1" /><ref name=":3" />

====Catonsville Nine====
In 1968, six months after the Baltimore draft records protest, while out on bail, Berrigan decided to repeat the protest in a modified form. A high school physics teacher, Dean Pappas, helped to concoct homemade [[napalm]]. Nine activists, including Berrigan's Jesuit brother Daniel, later became known as the [[Catonsville Nine]] when they walked into the offices of the local [[draft board]] in [[Catonsville, Maryland]], removed 600 draft records, doused them in napalm and burnt them in a lot outside of the building.<ref Name=Four/><ref name="nine">{{cite book |title=The Catonsville Nine: A Story of Faith and Resistance in the Vietnam Era |last=Peters |first=Shawn Francis |date=2012 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=9780199942756 |page=35}}</ref> The Catonsville Nine, who were all Catholics, issued a statement:
{{blockquote|
We confront the Roman 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.<ref Name=Four/><ref name="nine" />
}}

Berrigan was convicted of conspiracy and destruction of government property on November 8, 1968, but was bailed for 16 months while the case went to the [[U.S. Supreme Court]]. The court rejected the appeal, and Berrigan and three others went into hiding. For a time, Liz McAlister, the nun who would later become his wife, helped hide Berrigan in [[New Jersey]].<ref>{{Cite book |title=The Catonsville Nine |last=Peters |first=Shawn Francis |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2012 |isbn=978-0199827855 |location=New York City |pages=[https://archive.org/details/catonsvillenine0000pete/page/272 272] |url=https://archive.org/details/catonsvillenine0000pete/page/272}}</ref> Twelve days later, Berrigan was arrested by the FBI and [[Federal Correctional Institution, Lewisburg|jailed in Lewisburg]].<ref Name=obit/><ref name=":2" /> All nine were sentenced to three years in prison.<ref Name=Four/><ref Name=nine/><ref>{{cite court |litigants=United States v. Moylan |reporter=F.2d |date=1969 |url= https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=8977019992891102745 |vol=417 |opinion=1002 |court=4th Cir. |access-date=June 24, 2017}}</ref>
[[File:LizMcalisterArrest2001.jpg|thumb|Elizabeth McAlister's arrest in 2001]]

====The Harrisburg Seven====
Berrigan attracted the notice of federal authorities again when he and six other anti-war activists were caught trading letters alluding to kidnapping [[Henry Kissinger]] and bombing steam tunnels.<ref>{{cite magazine |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,944463-1,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101028121240/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,944463-1,00.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=October 28, 2010 |title=No again on the conspiracy law |magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]] |date=April 17, 1972 |access-date=September 8, 2007 |issn=0040-781X |volume=99 |issue=16 |id={{EBSCOhost|53809591}} }}</ref> They were charged with 23 counts of conspiracy including plans for [[kidnap]] and blowing up heating tunnels in Washington.<ref Name=obit/> The government spent $2&nbsp;million on the 1972 [[Harrisburg Seven]] trial but did not win a conviction.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Schmidt |first1=Jeff |title=Disciplined Minds: A Critical Look at Salaried Professionals and the Soul-battering System that Shapes Their Lives |date=2001 |language=en |isbn=978-0-7425-1685-4 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |page=10 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4aScfMumCMoC&pg=PA10 |access-date=December 27, 2021 |archive-date=December 27, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211227201153/https://books.google.com/books?id=4aScfMumCMoC&pg=PA10 |url-status=live }}</ref> This was one of the reversals suffered by the U.S. government in such cases, another being [[the Camden 28]] in 1973.

====Other actions====
Berrigan organized or inspired many additional operations. The [[D.C. Nine]], in March 1969, consisted of mostly priests and nuns disrupting the Washington [[Dow Chemical]] offices by scattering their files.{{r|Nobile}} The group protested Dow's production of napalm for use in the [[Vietnam War]]. The D.C. Nine were later tried in Washington, D.C., but an appeal was won in their favor. Some jail time was served.<ref>''The Catonsville Nine: A Story of Faith and Resistance in the Vietnam Era'' (2012) Shawn Francis Peters, Oxford University Press, p. 246 {{ISBN|9780199942756}}</ref> Later in May 1969, the Chicago 15 Catholics protested napalm and burned 40,000 draft cards.{{r|Nobile}}

Berrigan helped the [[Milwaukee 14]] in a protest against the Milwaukee Draft Boards on September 24, 1968. The Fourteen men burned 10,000 1-A draft files. After being arrested, they spent a month in prison, unable to raise bail set at $415,000. Father [[James Groppi]] came to their aid, co-chairing the Milwaukee 14 Defense Committee. Members were later placed on trial, and many did considerable jail time.<ref>''The Catonsville Nine: A Story of Faith and Resistance in the Vietnam Era'' (2012) Shawn Francis Peters, Oxford University Press, p. 157 {{ISBN|9780199942756}}</ref>

Berrigan supported the [[Citizens' Commission to Investigate the FBI]], the burglary of an FBI field office in [[Media, Pennsylvania]], to expose the methods of [[J. Edgar Hoover]] against war protesters.<ref>{{cite book |title=The Burglary: The Discovery of J. Edgar Hoover's Secret F.B.I. |first=Betty |last=Medsger |publisher=Alfred A. Knopf |location=New York |isbn=978-0-307-96295-9 |year=2014 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780307962959}}</ref>

He was also involved with [[the Camden 28]], who took action against the [[Camden, New Jersey]], draft board. The group was arrested, and the trial resulted in acquittal on all charges. A book has been written about this action by Ed McGowan and a documentary made by Giacchino, which appeared on PBS TV.<ref>{{cite book |last=Kairys |first=D. |title=Philadelphia Freedom: Memoir of a Civil Rights Lawyer |date=2009 |publisher=University of Michigan Press |isbn=9780472021369}}</ref>

Berrigan likewise supported the [[Harrisburg Seven]], whose plan was to put people in the government like [[Henry Kissinger]] under citizens arrest for the waging of an illegal war. Philip Berrigan and others were arrested for conspiracy. They had only gathered together to discuss the idea.<ref>{{cite book |title=The Hidden 1970s: Histories of Radicalism |date=2010 |editor-first=Dan |editor-last=Berger |publisher=Rutgers University Press |page=261 |isbn=9780813548746}}</ref>

In 1968, Berrigan signed the ''[[Writers and Editors War Tax Protest]]'' pledge, vowing to refuse tax payments in protest against the Vietnam War.<ref>{{citation |title=Writers and Editors War Tax Protest |date=1968 |publisher=FBI |url=https://archive.org/stream/WritersAndEditorWarTaxProtest/Writers%20and%20Editor%20War%20Tax%20Protest |access-date=June 25, 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=http://archives.nwtrcc.org/history/writers-and-editors-names.php | title=Writers and Editors War Tax Protest Names | location=Brooklyn, NY | publisher=National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee | access-date=June 25, 2017 | archive-date=October 19, 2017 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171019195245/http://archives.nwtrcc.org/history/writers-and-editors-names.php | url-status=live }}</ref>

===Marriage===
Berrigan, while still a priest, married former nun [[Elizabeth McAlister]] in 1969 by mutual consent.<ref name=":2" /> In 1973, they legalized their marriage, and were subsequently [[excommunication|excommunicated]] by the Catholic Church, though their excommunication was later lifted.<ref>{{cite web |last1=O'Grady |first1=Jim |title=The passionate lives of Dan and Phil Berrigan |url=https://www.americamagazine.org/issue/culture/brotherly-love |website=America Magazine |date=November 23, 2016 |access-date=October 27, 2020 |archive-date=November 1, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201101051542/https://www.americamagazine.org/issue/culture/brotherly-love |url-status=live }}</ref> Together they founded [[Jonah House]] in Baltimore, a community to support resistance to war.

===Plowshares Movement===
{{Main|Plowshares Movement}}
On September 9, 1980, Berrigan, his brother Daniel, with Sister [[Anne Montgomery (peace activist)|Anne Montgomery RSCJ]], Elmer H. Maas, Rev. [[Carl Kabat]], O.M.I., John Schuchardt, Dean Hammer and [[Molly Rush]],<ref>{{Cite book |title=Hammer of Justice: Molly Rush and the Plowshares Eight |last=Norman |first=Liane Ellison |date=2016 |publisher=WIPF & STOCK Publishers |isbn=978-1532607646 |oclc=959034499}}</ref> known as the [[Plowshares Eight]], entered the [[General Electric]] Re-entry Division<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://minutemanmissile.com/documents/GEReentryVehicles.pdf|title=GE Re-entry systems, Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) |last=Paige |first=Hilliard W. |website=American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics |access-date=November 9, 2019 |archive-date=May 1, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200501213244/https://minutemanmissile.com/documents/GEReentryVehicles.pdf |url-status=live}}</ref> in [[King of Prussia, Pennsylvania]], where Mark 12A reentry vehicles<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://nuclearweaponarchive.org/Usa/Weapons/W78.html |title=The W-78 Warhead, Intermediate yield strategic ICBM MIRV|date=September 1, 2001 |website=nuclearweaponarchive.org |access-date=November 9, 2019}}</ref> for the Minuteman III Intercontinental Ballistic missiles (ICBMs) were made. They hammered on two reentry vehicles, poured blood on documents, and offered prayers for peace. This is considered the beginning of the [[Plowshares Movement]]. They were arrested and charged with ten different felony and misdemeanor counts.<ref>{{cite court |litigants=Commonwealth v. Berrigan |date=1985 |url=https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=6991323227073321014 |reporter=A.2d |vol=501 |opinion=226 |court=Pa. 118 |access-date=June 24, 2017}}</ref> On April 10, 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 organization, a terraced house in [[Reservoir Hill, Baltimore]]. The headquarters later was moved to St. Peter the Apostle Cemetery in West Baltimore.<ref name=":2" /><ref name="Four" /> The story is partly told in the book ''ARISE AND WITNESS: Poems by Anne Montgomery, RSCJ, About Faith, Prison, War Zones and Nonviolent Resistance,'' published in 2024.<ref>{{Cite book |title=ARISE AND WITNESS: Poems by Anne Montgomery, RSCJ, About Faith, Prison, War Zones and Nonviolent Resistance |date=15 September 2024 |publisher=New Academia/SCARITH |isbn=979-8-9900542-4-0 |editor-last=Laffin |editor-first=Arthur |location=Washington, DC |editor-last2=Sargent |editor-first2=Carole}}</ref>

Berrigan's last Plowshares action occurred in December 1999, when a group of protesters hammered on [[A-10 Thunderbolt II|A-10 Warthog]] warplanes held at the [[Warfield Air National Guard Base]] in Maryland. He was indicted for malicious destruction of property and sentenced to 30 months in prison.<ref Name=obit/><ref name=":1">{{cite book |title=American Dissidents: An Encyclopedia of Activists, Subversives, and Prisoners of Conscience |date=2011 |first=Kathlyn |last=Gay |publisher=ABC-CLIO |page=66 |isbn=9781598847659}}</ref> He was released on December 14, 2001. In his lifetime he had spent about 11 years in jails and prisons for civil disobedience.<ref Name=obit/><ref name="Peacework">{{cite journal |last=Watson |first=Patrica |date=December 2002 – January 2003 |title=From the editor's desk |url=http://www.peaceworkmagazine.org/pwork/0212/021202.htm |url-status=dead |publisher=[[American Friends Service Committee]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061011151702/http://www.peaceworkmagazine.org/pwork/0212/021202.htm |archive-date=October 11, 2006 |journal=Peacework Magazine}}</ref>

In one of his last public statements, Berrigan said,
{{blockquote|The American people are, more and more, making their voices heard against [[George W. Bush|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.<ref name=":0" />}}

===Death===
On December 6, 2002, Philip Berrigan died of liver and kidney cancer at the age of 79 at Jonah House in Baltimore.<ref Name=obit>{{cite news |last1=Kelly |first1=Jacques |last2=Schoettler |first2=Carl |title=Philip Berrigan, apostle of peace, dies at age 79 |work=Baltimore Sun |date=December 7, 2002 |url=https://www.baltimoresun.com/2002/12/07/philip-berrigan-apostle-of-peace-dies-at-age-79/ |access-date=June 25, 2017 |archive-date=October 19, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171019195242/http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2002-12-07/news/0212070391_1_philip-berrigan-vietnam-war-jonah |url-status=live }}</ref> In a last statement, he said
{{blockquote|
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.<ref Name=obit/>
}}

[[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."<ref Name=obit/>

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.<ref Name=obit/><ref>{{cite news |last=Pietila |first=Antero |url=https://www.baltimoresun.com/2004/06/14/resurrecting-a-cemetery-demonstrating-for-peace/ |title=Resurrecting a cemetery, demonstrating for peace |date=June 14, 2004 |work=Baltimore Sun |access-date=June 25, 2017 |archive-date=October 19, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171019195712/http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2004-06-14/news/0406140065_1_philip-berrigan-peter-cemetery-jonah |url-status=live }}</ref> His four brothers, Daniel, John, Jim, and Jerome; his wife, Elizabeth McAlister; and their three children, [[Frida Berrigan|Frida]], Jerry, and Kate, are or were all also activists in the peace movement.<ref Name=obit/>

==Personal life==
With his wife Liz he had three children: Frida (b. 1974), Jerry (b. 1975), and Kate (b. 1981).<ref name="obit" /><ref name=":3" /><ref name=":2" />

==Works==
* ''No More Strangers, Punishment for Peace'' {{ISBN|0-345-22430-2}}
* ''Prison Journals of a Priest Revolutionary'' {{ISBN|0-03-084513-0}}
* ''Punishment for Peace'' {{ISBN|0-345-02430-3}}
* '' Disciples and Dissidents'', 2000 Haley's, edited by Fred Wilcox, authors Steven Baggarly, Philip Berrigan, Mark Coville, Susan Crane, Steve Kelly, S.J.. Tom Lewis-Borbely<ref>{{Cite book|title=Disciples & dissidents : prison writings of the Prince of Peace Plowshares|date=2001|publisher=Haley's|others=Baggarly, Stephen, 1965–, Wilcox, Fred A. (Fred Allen), Prince of Peace Plowshares (Group)|isbn=1884540422|location=Athol, MA|oclc=44634298}}</ref>
* ''Widen the Prison Gates'' {{ISBN|0-671-21638-4}}
* ''Fighting the Lamb's War,'' 1996 (autobiography) {{ISBN|1-56751-101-5}}
* ''The Times' Discipline'', written with his wife about Jonah House
* ''A Ministry of Risk: Writings on Peace and Nonviolence'', 2024 edited by Brad Wolf {{ISBN|978-1-5315-0628-5}}

==See also==
* [[Christian anarchism]]
* [[Christian pacifism]]
* [[List of peace activists]]

==References==
{{reflist|refs=
<ref name=Nobile>{{Cite news |last1=Nobile |first1=Philip |title=The Priest Who Stayed Out in the Cold |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=June 28, 1970 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1970/06/28/archives/the-priest-who-stayed-out-in-the-cold-father-berrigan.html |issn=0362-4331 |access-date=November 5, 2017 |archive-date=November 7, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171107114253/http://www.nytimes.com/1970/06/28/archives/the-priest-who-stayed-out-in-the-cold-father-berrigan.html |url-status=live }}</ref>
}}

==Further reading==
* ''The Berrigan brothers: the story of Daniel and Philip Berrigan'' (1974) the University of Michigan
* Murray Polner and Jim O'Grady, ''Disarmed and Dangerous: The Radical Lives & Times of Daniel & Philip Berrigan'' (Basic Books, 1997; Westvew Press, 1998)
* Jerry Elmer, ''Felon for Peace'' Vanderbilt University Press, 2005 {{ISBN|9780826514950}}
* [[Francine du Plessix Gray]], ''Divine Disobedience: Profiles in Catholic Radicalism'' ([[Alfred A. Knopf|Knopf]], 1970)
* Daniel Cosacchi and Eric Martin, eds., The Berrigan Letters: Personal Correspondence between Daniel and Philip Berrigan (Orbis Books, 2016)

==External links==
{{wikiquote}}
* [http://libguides.depaul.edu/ld.php?content_id=10136109 Philip Berrigan and Elizabeth McAlister papers], DePaul University Special Collections and Archives
* [http://libguides.depaul.edu/ld.php?content_id=10135849 Murry Polner Papers], DePaul University Special Collections and Archives (notes and documents from writing ''Disarmed and Dangerous: The Radical Lives & Times of Daniel & Philip Berrigan)''
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20040805003745/http://www.democracynow.org/berrigan.shtml Archive of Philip Berrigan on ''Democracy Now!'']
* [http://www.jonahhouse.org Jonah House website]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20160601055114/http://www.investigationofaflame.com/ DVD on Philip & Daniel Berrigan and the story of the Catonsville Nine.]
* [https://archive.org/details/BerriganBrothersAndTheHarrisburgSevenTrial Berrigan Brothers And The Harrisburg Seven Trial, 1970–1989] at the [[Internet Archive]]

{{Authority control}}

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