Daniel Berrigan
Born: May 9, 1921
Died: April 30, 2016
On May 17, 1968, during the thick of the Vietnam War, nine Catholic activists went to the draft board’s offices in Catonsville, Maryland, poured homemade napalm over draft files, and set them alight. Among the nine was Jesuit priest Daniel Berrigan.
The Catonsville Nine’s willingness to risk incarceration represented a new public face for the Catholic pacifist movement. These activists, lay and clergy working together, would go on to stage disruptive protests as part of what became the Plowshares movement, an antiwar and antinuclear group that still performs actions today.
More about Daniel Berrigan:
Meet the pioneers who made way for Catholic activists today
The legacy of towering figures such as Dorothy Day and Daniel Berrigan still guides the work of Catholic activists today.
Read some of Daniel Berrigan’s work here.
Image: NLN Dan Berrigan 2008.jpg:, Thomas Good derivative work: Innisfree987, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
