photo by Thomas Good .. Dan Berrigan reads from his latest book.
In my ongoing pilgrimage to uncover and rediscover “the Other America and Poverty in the United States” I pause to celebrate the life of one of the poor’s most loyal advocates.
Father Daniel Berrigan.
On May 9th renegade Jesuit priest Daniel Berrigan turned 90 years old. He has opposed violence in its many forms for almost seventy years. Along with his late brother Phillip he stood vigilant against the prevailing western logic of retributive violence. Father Berrigan is an icon of the social justice movement of the 20th century.
He publicly opposed aid to the alleged anti-Communist forces in Southeast Asia as well as the use of American forces in Grenada, and the installation of Pershing missiles in West Germany. He openly resisted America’s aid to the Contras in Nicaragua, our intervention in Afghanistan during the Soviet invasion, the Cold War, and the ultimately both Gulf Wars. Berrigan has vocally contested the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Christianity for Father Berrigan, has been a counter-cultural practice directly at odds with our prevailing national culture of retributive justice.
Phillip and Daniel Berrigan burning Draft files 1968.
On his birthday he noted that he had been arrested more times than he can count — but “fewer than I should have been,” Berrigan says — he has spent over half a century digging mock graves on the Pentagon’s front lawn, pouring vials of his own blood on Capitol Hill, vandalizing army airplanes, hammering on nuclear nosecones, turning his back on judges during his sentencing hearings, staging hunger strikes in prisons, undergoing strip searches for educating his fellow inmates, and standing in court on charges ranging from “criminal mischief” to “destruction of government property” to, most egregiously, “failure to quit.”
Berrigan fears moral suicide over physical death and regards moral autonomy as more liberating than physical freedom.
In a world still wracked by violence, Berrigan’s peace testimony remains largely unheard and his pacifist views are too often dismissed as naïve.
We can celebrate Father Dan’s lifelong commitment to social justice activism on his birthday, but we must remember that his startlingly clear message that violence is never the answer even when it’s seems most tempting and most justified.
Deena Guzder pointed out in Common Dreams that ..
Gentle Prophet.
Berrigan reminds us that “our convictions matter most when they’re tested on the crucible of life — not when they are easy, safe, and fashionable. If we believe in a world in which international law triumphs over unilateral action; mercy triumphs over vengeance; and clemency over sacrifice ..” then the gentle prophet and his lifelong testimony will teach us that there are no exceptions.
Last December 8th, in rare public appearance on Staten Island, NY honoring the late Catholic activist, Dorothy Day , Father Berrigan told those gathered to .. “persevere.”
“You have no right to tie yourself in knots because you want to know the outcome of what you are doing. Don’t, no, no. Let it go. Let it go into history. Let it go into Christ. Let it go into generations. Let it go into the children. Play it and pray it well,” he said.
One observer pointed out that his was pure Berrigan.
There he stood speaking in a soft and wispy voice that those who had gathered often needed to lean forward to hear. Wearing an old sweater and with blue long johns visible under the tattered cuffs of his khaki pants, this unassuming man reached into ancient scripture. He cited the second chapter of Isaiah — “They shall beat their swords into plowshares” — as he reflected on Day’s long-ranging impact on him as well as on the wider world.
Berrigan noted Day’s cautionary wisdom that “we may never see the good outcome of the good we do,” adding, as Day taught, that we must “do it anyway.”
Each of us must think, Berrigan told the audience, that ..
Happy birthday Father Dan.
“I am going turn swords into plowshares and spears into pruning hooks. I may never see the transformation myself. It makes no difference. I shall do it. I shall do it.”
God Bless You ..
