Remembering Father Daniel Berrigan, a Prophet of Peace

Remembering Father Daniel Berrigan. He was born on May 9, 1921, 100 years ago today in Virginia, MN. His joining the antiwar movement against the Vietnam War inspired many  Americans to become part of the movement. His brother Philip Berrigan was also very active in the antiwar movement, but Dan Berrigan also leaves a legacy of powerful writing, both poetry and prose, that remains with us still as a testament and inspiration to us all.

​We begin today’s broadcast remembering the life and legacy of the legendary antiwar priest Father Daniel Berrigan. He died on April 30, just short of his 95th birthday. Berrigan was a poet, pacifist, educator, social activist, playwright and lifelong resister against what he called “American military imperialism.” Along with his late brother Phil, Dan Berrigan played an instrumental role in inspiring the antiwar and antidraft movement during the late 1960s, as well as the movement against nuclear weapons. Today we air Father Berrigan in his own words, including previously unaired sections of his 2006 interview on Democracy Now!

Posted on Democracy Now! May 31, 2016. http://democracynow.org

Some – a poem by Daniel Berrigan

(to the Plowshares 8, with love)
by Daniel Berrigan

Some stood up once, and sat down.
Some walked a mile, and walked away.

Some stood up twice, then sat down.
“It’s too much,” they cried.
Some walked two miles, then walked away.
“I’ve had it,” they cried,

Some stood and stood and stood.
They were taken for fools,
they were taken for being taken in.

Some walked and walked and walked –
they walked the earth,
they walked the waters,
they walked the air.

“Why do you stand?” they were asked, and
“Why do you walk?”

“Because of the children,” they said, and
“Because of the heart, and
“Because of the bread,”

“Because the cause is
the heart’s beat, and
the children born, and
the risen bread.”

+–+–+–+ From The Nuclear Resister

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To read Daniel Berrigan’s The Hole in the Ground: A Parable for Peacemakers click here.

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Tags: Catonsville, Catonsville 9, daniel berrigan, j edgar hoover, Liz McAllister, Philip Berrigan, Plowshares Movement, Vietnam War, Vietnam War protests