|
CounterPunch
December
7, 2002
Philip Berrigan,
1923 - 2002
Blessed are the Peacemakers
by RON JACOBS
Philip Berrigan died yesterday. As a young person
growing up in the Catholic faith during the 1960s and 1970s,
this man, his brother and those like them were all that convinced
me to give the Church a try. In the long run, their inspiration
was not enough to keep me in the fold, but their moral sense
guides me to this day. Philip's consistency of moral conviction
and his willingness to put his freedom on the line showed me
(and many others) who saw the contradictions between the teachings
of Jesus and the practice of the Catholic hierarchy, that even
the Church was subject to well-deserved criticism. Nowadays,
this is not much of a revelation, especially in light of the
sex abuse scandal rocking the American church. In 1968, it was
a revelation of a very high order, what with Cardinal O'Connor
blessing the mass murder in Vietnam and parish priests blasting
the rebel theologians who dared to see Jesus as a revolutionary
figure who would have challenged the Vatican if he was alive.
I remember reading the Washington Post
the day after the two brothers and seven of their friends poured
blood and napalm on the draft board files in Catonsville, Md.
My father was appalled. A military officer and a conscientious
Catholic, this act must have torn at his soul. He was getting
ready to go to Vietnam that year. I'm pretty certain that he
had asked for, and received, some counsel from our parish priests
and perhaps a military chaplain or two. From what I remember
of the parish priests, chances are he was told that he must do
as he was commanded. As for the military chaplains, well, I never
understood how they could be in the military and in the priesthood
at the same time. If Jesus was the Prince of Peace, then how
the hell could they be encouraging men to go to war. There was
a song that came out around that time by Eric Burdon and the
Animals called "Sky Pilot." This song pointed out that
very contradiction.
As for my reaction to the Catonsville
action. Let's say I was intrigued. The boldness of it proved
to me that these men and women were not wimps. After all, it
required a certain amount of gall to remove files from their
storage place and destroy them in front of the whole world. You
knew you were facing some serious federal charges. In addition,
it was nonviolent. Nobody was hurt and some information that
was important to the government's war machine had been destroyed.
If only this could be done throughout the country_ maybe the
entire Selective Service system would collapse.
As I became more politically involved,
I understood the limitations of these types of acts. Moral witness
had its purpose. It stirred the moral conscience of those citizens
who had a conscience. Hopefully, it stirred these folks to take
some kind of action of their own. The downside to these types
of acts is that the masters of war have no conscience. Symbolic
acts of conscience do nothing to change their minds. This doesn't
mean they do not have a purpose in any movement for social justice.
It only means they have their limitations.
As it turned out, Philip Berrigan left
the priesthood. Perhaps he too found the Catholic religion unable
to support his moral convictions. In the long run, his departure
from the Church made little difference to his public life. He
continued fighting against war and the structure that it feeds
until the end.
Ron Jacobs
lives in Burlington, VT. He can be reached at: rjacobs@zoo.uvm.edu
Yesterday's
Features
Jeffrey St. Clair
Panda
Porn:
The Marriage of WWF & Weyerhaeuser
Saul Landau
Bush the Comedian:
Poindexter, Abrams and Now Henry K.
Romi Mahajan
Malign
Money and Misguided Multiculturalism
Jan Oberg
Time for an Intellectual Intifada!
Margie Burns
Another Lucky Bush Brother
Pierre Tristam
Woodward's Bush
Edward Lazarus
FISA, Conservatives, National Security & States' Rights
Jack McCarthy
Amos King: a Buddhist Warrior on Death Row
Alexander Cockburn
American
Journal:
Kissinger & the Great Beast: 666
CounterPunch Available Exclusively
to Subscribers:
- CounterPunch Special:
The Persecution of Gershon Legman by Susan Davis: Smut, the Post Office, Commies
and the FBI;
- Reeling Democrats: Is Pelosi the Answer?
- Gandhi v. Hitler: the Secret Race for the Nobel
Prize;
- Sullying Mario Savio's
Memory;
- Lynching Then and Now;
- Earn While You Learn: Chris Whittle and Child Labor;
The Case of the Pompous
Professor;
- The Class Struggle in
Boston: All that
Effort, But What Did They Get?
Remember, the CounterPunch website is
supported exclusively by subscribers to our newsletter. Our worldwide
web audience is soaring , with about seven million hits a month
now. This is inspiring, but the work involved also compels us
to remind you more urgently than ever to subscribe and/or make
a (tax deductible) donation if you can afford it. If you find our site useful please: Subscribe
Now!
Or Call Toll Free 1 800 840 3683
home / subscribe
/ about us
/ books
/ archives
/ search
/ links
/
|
December 1,
2002
Alexander
Cockburn
American
Journal
Gabriel Kolko
Another
Century of War?
Jeffrey St.
Clair
Rockets,
Napalm, Torpedoes & Lies: The Attack on the Liberty Revisited
Steve Perry
Spank
the Democrats
M. Shahid
Alam
A Predatory
Orientalism
Kurt Nimmo
The Murder
of Iain Hook
Ali Abunimah
Death
& Lies in Palestine
Anthony Gancarski
The
Return of Al Gore?
Joanne Mariner
In Defense
of the Filibuster
Ahmad Faruqui
The Apocalyptic
Vision of the Neo-Con Ideologues
Dave Marsh
Eminem's
Body & Soul
David Vest
On the Lam
from Uncle Sam
Julian Samuel
Bowling
for Columbine
Adam Engel
Piss Off,
NSA!
Behzad Yaghmaian
The Grassroots
Challenge to Iran's Theocracy
Wayne Saunders
This
Mad, Limitless War
Dan Brook
Celebrate
Genocide!
Uri Avnery
"Likud
Has Failed"
Philip Farruggio
Turkeys
Resources:
100s of Links
About 9/11
CounterPunch:
Complete
Coverage of 9/11 and Its Aftermath
Five
Days That
Shook The World:
Seattle and Beyond
By
Alexander Cockburn
and Jeffrey St. Clair
Photos by Allan Sekula
(Click Here to Order from CounterPunch
Online at 20% Off Amazon.com's price!)
Read
Whiteout and Find Out
How the CIA's Backing of the Mujahideen Created the World's Most
Robust Heroin Market and Helped to Finance the Rise of the Taliban
and Osama bin Laden
Whiteout:
CIA, Drugs & the
Press
by Alexander
Cockburn
and Jeffrey St. Clair
|