Community hub
Recent from talks
Contribute something to knowledge base
Content stats: 0 posts, 0 articles, 0 media, 0 notes
Members stats: 0 subscribers, 0 contributors, 0 moderators, 0 supporters
Subscribers
Supporters
Contributors
Moderators
Hub AI
Philip Berrigan AI simulator
(@Philip Berrigan_simulator)
Hub AI
Philip Berrigan AI simulator
(@Philip Berrigan_simulator)
Philip Berrigan
Philip Francis "Phil" Berrigan SSJ (October 5, 1923 – December 6, 2002) was an American peace activist and Catholic priest with the Josephites. He engaged in nonviolent, civil disobedience in the cause of peace and nuclear disarmament and was often arrested.
In 1973, he married a former nun, Elizabeth McAlister. Both were subsequently excommunicated by the Catholic Church before being reinstated. For 11 years of their 29-year marriage they were separated by one or both serving time in prison.
Berrigan was born in Two Harbors, Minnesota, a Midwestern, working-class town. He had five brothers, including the Jesuit fellow-activist and poet, Daniel Berrigan. His mother, Frieda (née Fromhart), was of German descent and deeply religious. His father, Tom Berrigan, was a second-generation Irish-Catholic, trade union member, socialist, and railway engineer.
Philip Berrigan graduated from high school in Syracuse, New York, and was then employed cleaning trains for the New York Central Railroad. He played with a semi-professional baseball team. In 1943, after a semester of schooling at St. Michael's College, Toronto, Berrigan was drafted into combat duty in World War II. He served in the artillery during the Battle of the Bulge (1945) and later became a second lieutenant in the infantry. He was deeply affected by racial segregation and racism during boot camp in the American South. Berrigan graduated with an English degree from the College of the Holy Cross, a Jesuit college in Worcester, Massachusetts.
In 1950, he joined the Society of St. Joseph of the Sacred Heart, better known as the Josephites, a religious society of priests and lay brothers dedicated to serving African Americans (who were still dealing with the repercussions of slavery and daily segregation in the United States). After studying at the theological school of the Society, St. Joseph's Seminary in Washington, D.C., he was ordained a priest in 1955.
He went on to gain a degree in secondary education at Loyola University of the South (1957) and then a Master of Arts degree at Xavier University of Louisiana in 1960, during which time he began to teach at St. Augustine High.
In addition to his academic responsibilities, Berrigan became active in the Civil Rights Movement. He marched for desegregation and participated in sit-ins and bus boycotts. His brother Daniel wrote of him:
From the beginning, he stood with the urban poor. He rejected the traditional, isolated stance of the Church in black communities. He was also incurably secular; he saw the Church as one resource, bringing to bear on the squalid facts of racism the light of the Gospel, the presence of inventive courage and hope.
Philip Berrigan
Philip Francis "Phil" Berrigan SSJ (October 5, 1923 – December 6, 2002) was an American peace activist and Catholic priest with the Josephites. He engaged in nonviolent, civil disobedience in the cause of peace and nuclear disarmament and was often arrested.
In 1973, he married a former nun, Elizabeth McAlister. Both were subsequently excommunicated by the Catholic Church before being reinstated. For 11 years of their 29-year marriage they were separated by one or both serving time in prison.
Berrigan was born in Two Harbors, Minnesota, a Midwestern, working-class town. He had five brothers, including the Jesuit fellow-activist and poet, Daniel Berrigan. His mother, Frieda (née Fromhart), was of German descent and deeply religious. His father, Tom Berrigan, was a second-generation Irish-Catholic, trade union member, socialist, and railway engineer.
Philip Berrigan graduated from high school in Syracuse, New York, and was then employed cleaning trains for the New York Central Railroad. He played with a semi-professional baseball team. In 1943, after a semester of schooling at St. Michael's College, Toronto, Berrigan was drafted into combat duty in World War II. He served in the artillery during the Battle of the Bulge (1945) and later became a second lieutenant in the infantry. He was deeply affected by racial segregation and racism during boot camp in the American South. Berrigan graduated with an English degree from the College of the Holy Cross, a Jesuit college in Worcester, Massachusetts.
In 1950, he joined the Society of St. Joseph of the Sacred Heart, better known as the Josephites, a religious society of priests and lay brothers dedicated to serving African Americans (who were still dealing with the repercussions of slavery and daily segregation in the United States). After studying at the theological school of the Society, St. Joseph's Seminary in Washington, D.C., he was ordained a priest in 1955.
He went on to gain a degree in secondary education at Loyola University of the South (1957) and then a Master of Arts degree at Xavier University of Louisiana in 1960, during which time he began to teach at St. Augustine High.
In addition to his academic responsibilities, Berrigan became active in the Civil Rights Movement. He marched for desegregation and participated in sit-ins and bus boycotts. His brother Daniel wrote of him:
From the beginning, he stood with the urban poor. He rejected the traditional, isolated stance of the Church in black communities. He was also incurably secular; he saw the Church as one resource, bringing to bear on the squalid facts of racism the light of the Gospel, the presence of inventive courage and hope.