A Ministry of Risk

John Dear S.J. (Afterword By) John Dear is a long- time peace activist, priest, and author of 40 books on peace and nonviolence. He is the director of BeatitudesCenter.org and was a close friend of Philip Berrigan. He is the executor of the Daniel Berrigan Literary Trust and lives in California. For more information about John and his work, visit www.johndear.org. Philip Berrigan (Author) Philip Berrigan, an American peace activist and Catholic priest, spent 11 years in prison for advocating nonviolent resistance to war. Notably part of the Baltimore Four and Catonsville Nine, he protested wars from Vietnam to Iraq. The author of numerous books, he was a Nobel Peace Prize nominee. Brad Wolf (Edited By) Brad Wolf, former prosecutor and professor, co- founded Peace Action Network of Lancaster, PA. He coordinated the Merchants of Death War Crimes Tribunal and writes for numerous publications. Bill Wylie-Kellermann (Foreword By) Bill Wylie- Kellermann is a retired Methodist pastor, nonviolent community activist, teacher, and author. His books include Celebrant’s Flame: Daniel Berrigan in Memory and Reflection (2021); A Keeper of the Word: Selected Writings of William Stringfellow (1996), Principalities in Particular: A Practical Theology of the Powers that Be (2017), and Seasons of Faith and Conscience (1991). He was also a contributing editor of Sojourners. Frida Berrigan (Preface By) Frida Berrigan lives in New London, CT, with her husband and three children. She is an urban farmer and community activist, organizing around affordable home ownership with the Southeastern Connecticut Community Land Trust, and against the ever-stretching shadow of militarism with the Connecticut Committee on Nuclear Prohibition. She writes periodically for WagingNonviolence.org, TomDispatch.com and In These Times, and is the author of the 2015 book It Runs In The Family: On Being Raised By Radicals And Growing Into Rebellious Motherhood.

Foreword: Witness and Wisdom

Bill Wylie- Kellermann | xv

Preface

Frida Berrigan | xxi

Introduction

Brad Wolf | xxvii

Prologue: Worlds on Fire

Philip Berrigan | xxxix

Part I: A Catholic Trying to Be a Christian, 1957–67

Christ in Our Midst | 3

What’s It Going to Be with You? | 5

The Freedom Rides | 7

JFK and the Cuban Missile Crisis | 9

The Nature of Christian Witness | 11

Segregation and the Nuclear Arms Race | 13

Questioning the Christian “Credo” | 15

I Will Take My Stand, Come What May | 17

Peace Is the Duty of Our Time | 19

Faithful Enough to Suffer, Daring Enough to Serve | 23

The Priest and Society | 26

Liberation from the Pathology of War | 28

Pacifist or Peacemaker | 29

The Gospel Means Peacemaking | 31

Part II: Resisting the Vietnam War, 1967– 73

Diary from the Baltimore City Jail | 37

Christianity and Revolution Are Synonymous | 40

Trying to Serve Love | 43

Times for Confronting Injustice | 46

All of Us Are Prisoners | 48

We Claim a Higher Law | 54

The Christian Roots of Protest | 56

After the Trial, Hope | 58

Truth Creates Its Own Room | 60

Liberation from Fear | 64

Acts of Faith | 65

Our Responsibility to Each Other | 66

We Have Trouble with Surrender | 68

The Sinless One Continues to Haunt Me | 70

Following the Man of Calvary | 75

Resistance Is Essential | 77

Withstanding the Attacks | 80

Marriage with Liz | 82

Smear and Ridicule | 85

The USA vs. Philip Berrigan | 86

Revolution, Berrigan Style | 87

Obeying God’s Word Can Get You Killed | 88

We Constitute the Church in Chains | 89

Fasting in Prison | 95

Resistance, Liberation, and Fear | 97

Prayer, Risk, and Generosity | 99

The Strength and Faith of Liz | 101

Renewing Wedding Vows | 103

Truth and Peace Mean Resistance | 104

An Enemy of the State | 106

Our Acts Are Nonviolent 107

On Self- Pity While in Prison | 109

What We Do to the Vietnamese, We Do to Ourselves | 110

The Plastic Goliaths | 116

Acquittal | 118

To Create Hope Is to Wrestle with Death | 120

Dealing with the “Blahs” in Prison | 124

Thanksgiving 1972 | 126

Finally Free . . . for a While | 127

Part III: Community, Plowshares, and the Bomb, 1973–2002

Paying Dearly for Our Love | 131

Religion and Politics | 134

A Ministry of Risk and Liberation | 136

Disarm or Dig Graves | 140

Resisting Nuclear Suicide | 143

A Leaflet at Christmas: Christ or the Bomb | 145

A Time When No Leader Can Buy Us | 147

The Kenosis of Christ | 149

Fools on Christ’s Account | 151

Thoughts from Alexandria Jail | 153

Prophecy and Life | 155

Hostage to the Bomb | 159

Back to the Pentagon | 160

We Cannot Be Silent if We Want Peace | 162

Letter from Prison to Dorothy Day | 164

A Call to Faithfulness | 166

Naming the Beast | 168

Tribute to Liz | 169

Liz in Prison | 171

Beating Swords into Plowshares | 172

Liz Resists the Arms Race, Again | 177

Disarming the Nuclear Navy— and Ourselves | 183

Empire and the Super-rich | 186

Free Enough to Go to Jail | 189

Commemorating Martin Luther King Jr. | 192

Isaiah in North Carolina | 194

Hellholes, Courts, Jails: A Triple Source of Resistance | 197

Suffering Servanthood | 200

Working for the Long Haul | 203

My Roots Are in the Church | 205

“From Prison, Old Militant Struggles On” | 206

Reliance on Community | 207

Ash Wednesday Action | 209

Agenda for Renewal | 212

No Freedom without Love | 215

Loving Our Enemies | 217

We Aren’t Doing OK by Ourselves | 220

A Harvest of Death | 224

The Trial of Depleted Uranium | 227

God Becomes Light to Us | 229

The Healing Act of Forgiveness | 231

Doing Good and Resisting Evil | 233

Time for a National Strike | 236

Notes from Prison on 9/11 | 238

Final Journal Entries 2002 | 241

Phil’s Last Statement, Unfinished, November 2002 | 243

Afterword

John Dear | 245

Acknowledgments | 253

Contributors | 255

Photographs follow page 154