February 2003

Views expressed are those of the authors, not necessarily of the AFSC.

In Memoriam: Philip Francis Berrigan, 1923-2002

Erin Miller is a writer and a member of the Peacework program committee.

Blessed are the Peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God.

On December 6, 2002, Philip Berrigan, friend, husband, brother, and mentor to an entire generation of peace activists, died of cancer at Jonah House, surrounded by friends and family. In his last statement, 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."

On a crystal-clear, ice cold day, hundreds of friends, supporters, and family members followed a flatbed truck carrying Philip's rose-strewn coffin through the streets of Baltimore. Many friends and family members, including his brother Daniel, spoke at the funeral.

Philip was the first Roman Catholic priest to be arrested. In 1968, he and Daniel transformed the landscape of the American political scene forever when they and seven others entered the draft office in Catonsville, MD, removed draft files, and burned them in the parking lot. In 1980, Philip and Daniel participated in the first Plowshares action, which sparked an international movement of activists seeking to disarm and transform nuclear weapons.

In an interview from federal prison in 2001, Philip said: "There are times when I'd like to just sit back in my rocking chair, but I'm going to fight all the way and hopefully die with my boots on." Philip spent a total of about eleven years of his life in prison for non-violent resistance to the American nuclear empire.

In the last years of his life, Philip contemplated the idea of a National Strike for Peace: "I wonder if we have reached the historical point of saying 'enough is enough,' and of seeking together our nonviolent options. I wonder whether it is time to decide that living with the Bomb for half a century is enough, enduring a war every year is enough, the bloated Pentagon system is enough, an environment poisoned by nuclearism is enough, a government run by the rich and their corporate lobbyists is enough. In the lunatic lunge for world domination, the bosses have threatened nuclear war repeatedly. Meantime they sow the planet with nuclear rubbish. All of us have relatives or friends victimized by cancer. All of us carry radioactive elements in our bodies.

"A question: how are we to halt this harvest of death? Nuclear deaths are global, constantly accelerating in momentum, out of all rational control. I do suggest that we take seriously the possibility of a nation-wide strike through nonviolent non-cooperation. It would shut down the overbearing Domination System, whose hallmarks are human misery, despair, and degradation of the cosmos.

"The strike would underscore the great issues of our time (presently obscured and ignored by the bosses and their subverted media)"issues like war and nukes, high offices prostituted, disgraceful stewardship, international arms huckstering, globalization"issues that are off the radar of the present incumbents and their politics of frivolity, greed, and contempt. The strike would challenge people of faith, injecting a transfusion of life into moribund congregations. In forging a history, an exodus from spiritual enslavement, politically inert people would discover that they too count for something, and greatly so."

Several months before his death, Philip was invited to speak at an anti-war rally, but was unable to attend. He sent this statement: "The American people can stop Bush, can yank his feet closer to the fire, can banish the war makers from Washington, can turn this society around and restore it to faith and sanity. Keep the Pledge and put flesh on it. And please, please, please, don't get tired."

Philip Berrigan spent almost a century as our friend, our advocate, and our conscience. Our thoughts are with Philip's family: his wife, Elizabeth McAlister, his children Frida, Kate, and Jerry; his brothers Daniel, Jerome, John, and Jim.

May we remember Philip and his life by continuing his work to eradicate nuclear weapons, war, racism, and violence.

Previous Article    Next Article