Daniel Berrigan

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Daniel Joseph Berrigan, 1921-born, was an American Jesuit priest, anti-war protester, Christian pacifist, playwright, and author. Berrigan's active resistance against the Vietnam War earned him both scorn and admiration during his lifetime, but it was his participation in the Catonsville Nine that made him popular.

It also put him on the Federal Bureau of Investigation's "most wanted list" (the first-ever priest on the list), on the front of Time magazine and in jail.

Berrigan's special blend of militancy and radical spirituality in the service of social and political justice was enough to "shape the tactics of resistance to the Vietnam War" in the United States for the remainder of his life.

He founded Plowshares, an anti-nuclear advocacy group, in 1980, bringing him right back to the national spotlight.

He was also a winner and prolific author of more than 50 books, a mentor, and a university educator.

In 1998, he and his activist brother Philip Berrigan were nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by 1976 Laureate Mairead Maguire.

Early life

Berrigan was born in Virginia, Minnesota, the son of Thomas Berrigan, a second-generation Irish Catholic and active trade union member, and Frieda Berrigan (née Fromhart), who was of German ancestry. He was the fifth of six sons. Philip Berrigan, a fellow peace activist, was his younger brother.

Berrigan's family immigrated to Syracuse, New York, at the age of 5. Berrigan received a bachelor's degree from St. Andrew-on-Hudson, a Jesuit seminary in Hyde Park, New York, in 1946. He received a master's degree from Woodstock College in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1952.

Berrigan was dedicated to the Catholic Church from his youth. He opted for the Jesuits straight out of high school in 1939 and was ordained to the priesthood on June 19, 1952.

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Career

Berrigan taught at St. Peter's Preparatory School in Jersey City from 1946 to 1949.

In 1954, Berrigan was assigned to teach French and theology at the Jesuit Brooklyn Preparatory School. In 1957 he was appointed professor of New Testament studies at Le Moyne College in Syracuse, New York. The same year, he won the Lamont Prize for his book of poems, Time Without Number. He developed a reputation as a religious radical, working actively against poverty and on changing the relationship between priests and lay people. While at Le Moyne, he founded its International House.

While on a sabbatical from Le Moyne in 1963, Berrigan traveled to Paris and met French Jesuits who criticized the social and political conditions in Indochina. Taking inspiration from this, he and his brother Philip founded the Catholic Peace Fellowship, a group that organized protests against the war in Vietnam.

On October 28, 1965, Berrigan, along with the Rev. Richard John Neuhaus and Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, founded an organization known as Clergy and Laymen Concerned About Vietnam (CALCAV). The organization, founded at the Church Center for the United Nations, was joined by the likes of Dr. Hans Morgenthau, the Rev. Reinhold Niebuhr, the Rev. William Sloane Coffin, and the Rev. Philip Berrigan, among many others. The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who delivered his 1967 speech Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence under sponsorship from CALCAV, served as the national co-chairman of the organization.

From 1966 to 1970, Berrigan was the assistant director of the Cornell University United Religious Work (CURW), the umbrella organization for all religious groups on campus, including the Cornell Newman Club (later the Cornell Catholic Community), eventually becoming the group's pastor. Berrigan was the first faculty advisor of Cornell University's first gay rights student group, the Student Homophile League, in 1968.

Berrigan at one time or another held faculty positions or ran programs at Union Theological Seminary, Loyola University New Orleans, Columbia, Cornell, and Yale. His longest tenure was at Fordham (a Jesuit university located in the Bronx), where for a brief time he also served as poet-in-residence.

Berrigan appeared briefly in the 1986 Warner Bros. film The Mission, playing a Jesuit priest. He also served as a consultant on the film.

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Awards and recognition

• 1956: Lamont Poetry Selection
• 1974: War Resisters League Peace Award
• 1974: Gandhi Peace Award (accepted then resigned)
• 1988: Thomas Merton Award
• 1989: Pax Christi USA Pope Paul VI Teacher of Peace Award
• 1991: The Peace Abbey Foundation Courage of Conscience Award
• 1993: Pacem in Terris Award
• 2008: Honorary Degree from the College of Wooster
• 2017: Daniel Berrigan Center at Benincasa Community, 133 W. 70th Street, New York, NY 10023