Philip Berrigan

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Philip Berrigan (born October 5, 1923 in Two Harbors , Minnesota , † December 6, 2002 in Baltimore , Maryland ) was a well-known American peace activist and former Roman Catholic priest. Because of his non-violent, illegal activities against war measures in the USA, he and his brother Daniel Berrigan were on the FBI's “Ten Most Wanted List” for a while . Both were nominated twice for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Life

Origin and education

Philip Berrigan was born in Two Harbors, Minnesota, the younger brother of Daniel Berrigan . Her father, Tom Berrigan, was an Irish Catholic, second generation US citizen and active in the trade union movement .

After a semester at college , Philip Berrigan was drafted into military service in 1943 and later became an officer. He later described how deeply he was preoccupied with the violence of the war, but also the racism in the training camp in the southern United States.

After the war, Philip Berrigan attended a Josephine theological seminary and later became active in the civil rights movement of the 1960s: he took part in anti- segregation demonstrations and sit-ins during the legendary Montgomery Bus Boycott .

Protests against the war in Vietnam

In the late 1960s, Philip Berrigan's nonviolent activities became increasingly radical. On October 26, 1967, Berrigan and three others went to a state office in Baltimore and poured blood (including his own) on official sample papers; they distributed Bibles to those present and explained the reasons for their behavior to the officials: "This sacrificial and constructive act is intended to be a protest against the miserable loss of American and Vietnamese blood in Indochina." (Berrigan). Berrigan became the first priest in America to be jailed for an act of civil disobedience . Berrigan was later sentenced to six years in prison.

Released on bail, Berrigan repeated this protest on May 17, 1968 in a modified form in Catonsville, Maryland : he and eight others burned 378 draft files. All nine participants were Roman Catholics and issued a statement: “We confront the Catholic Church, other Christian institutions and the synagogues of America with their silence and cowardice in the face of the crimes of our country. We are convinced that the religious bureaucracy in this country is both racist and complicit in this war, and hostile to the poor. ”Berrigan was arrested again and sentenced to three and a half years in prison.

The ploughshare movement

The ploughshare movement was founded in 1980 by Philip and Daniel Berrigan and six others. They broke into the General Electric warehouses in King of Prussia , Pennsylvania , where parts for nuclear warheads were being made. They damaged parts with a hammer, poured blood on documents, and prayed for peace. They were arrested and initially charged with ten different offenses. After nearly ten years of trial, they were ultimately sentenced in 1990 to up to 23 and a half months in prison, which they had already served. At least 70 plowshare actions have taken place around the world since 1980, including six with Philip Berrigan himself. His last action was in December 1999: with others he broke into the Middle River Air National Guard Base and damaged war planes; he was arrested and sentenced to 30 months, from which he was released in December 2001.

death

Philip Berrigan died of cancer on December 6, 2002 in Baltimore, Maryland, leaving behind his wife Elizabeth McAlister and three children.

Sayings

Howard Zinn , Professor Emeritus, Boston University : “Mr. Berrigan was one of the greatest Americans of our time. He believed that war was not a solution. He went to prison repeatedly for his belief. I admire him for the sacrifice he made. He was an inspiration for a lot of people. "

In one of his last statements, Berrigan himself wrote: “The American people are increasingly speaking out against Bush and his warrior clones. Bush and his aides are spiraling out of control; they are fixated on starting wars, going it alone, continuing to threaten the Palestinians, controlling Iraqi oil, and further devastating a suffering people and their broken societies. The American people can stop Bush, they can get the warmongers out of Washington , they can turn this society around and bring it to faith and reason. "

literature

  • Philip Berrigan: Christians Against Society. US priests in prison ( Prison Journals of a Priest Revolutionary , 1970, Ger.). With a foreword by Reinhold Iblacker. Reinbek near Hamburg: Rowohlt Taschenbuch Verl., 1971, 156 pages. ISBN 3-499-11498-4 (Contains Philip Berrigan's prison diaries, two underground letters by Daniel Berrigan and documents of the radical Catholic resistance to the Vietnam War)
  • Cross versus war. The Berrigan brothers. German edition of a special issue of the American magazine Holy Cross Quarterly , Vol 4, No. January 1, 1971 entitled The Burden of the Berrigans . Munich: Kösel-Verlag, 1971, 157 pages. ISBN 3-466-42023-7
  • Michael Schroeren: Life in the Resistance. A portrait of the Berrigan brothers . In: Umweltmagazin , magazine of the Federal Association of Citizens' Initiatives Environmental Protection (BBU), 5th year, No. 4 (July / August 1982), pp. 14-17. ISSN  0172-973X
  • Michael Schroeren: Life in the Resistance. In memory of Philip Berrigan. In: moral courage. The magazine for pacifism and antimilitarism of the DFG-VK, No. 1, February 2003, p. 14/15.
  • Hans-Jürgen Benedict / Hans-Eckehard Bahr (Hg): Churches as carriers of the revolution. A political model of action using the example of the USA. Hamburg: Furche-Verlag, 1968, 190 pages.

Web links

Wikiquote: Philip Berrigan  - Quotes
personal data
SURNAME Berrigan, Philip
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American peace activist and Roman Catholic priest
DATE OF BIRTH October 5, 1923
PLACE OF BIRTH Two harbors
DATE OF DEATH December 6, 2002
Place of death Baltimore