[Deathwatch] Philip Berrigan, anti-war activist, 79

[Deathwatch Central <cdw@slick.org>]

Anti-war activist Philip Berrigan dies
Saturday, December 7, 2002 Posted: 3:13 AM EST (0813 GMT)

http://www.cnn.com/2002/US/South/12/07/berrigan.obit.ap/index.html

BALTIMORE, Maryland (AP) -- Philip Berrigan, the former priest whose
fight against the Vietnam War and nuclear weapons helped ignite a
generation of anti-war dissent, died Friday night of cancer. He was 79.


Berrigan's family said he was diagnosed with cancer two months ago and
decided to stop chemotherapy last month. He died at Jonah House, the
communal residence for pacifists that he founded. 

His brother, the Rev. Daniel Berrigan, officiated over last rites
ceremonies November 30, attended by friends and peace activists, family
members said. 

Berrigan led the "Catonsville 9," a group that staged one of the most
dramatic protests of the 1960s. The group, including Daniel Berrigan,
doused homemade napalm on a small bonfire of draft records in a
Catonsville parking lot on May 17, 1968. 

In a statement given to his wife, Elizabeth McAlister, during the
Thanksgiving weekend, Philip 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." 

Berrigan was born October 5, 1923, and served as an artillery officer
in World War II. He was ordained a Catholic priest in the Josephite
Order in 1955. 

He participated in the civil rights movement in the South. Berrigan's
first public anti-war act was pouring blood on draft files in Baltimore
in 1967. 

In 1980, Berrigan and seven others poured blood and hammered warheads
at a GE nuclear missile plant in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania. That
action began the international Plowshares movement.

Berrigan, who had been arrested at least 100 times and served a total
of 11 years in prison for his anti-war and anti-nuclear activities,
once said he had no intention of retiring from his career as a peaceful
violator of U.S. laws. 

"We can't very well do that because of the state of the world, " he
said. "We're killing ourselves, and some of us are not making a murmur
about it." 

Berrigan was released from federal prison in Elkton, Ohio, in December
2001 for his most recent Plowshares activities. 

Besides his wife and brother, Berrigan is survived by three children:
Frida, Jerry and Kate.