Prison Journals of a Priest Revolutionary by Philip Berrigan

By Berrigan’s reckoning, social justice and the elimination of racism were inextricably tied to peace activism. He became an outspoken advocate for racial justice, and in the Sixties he became active in the burgeoning antiwar movement-particularly after the Cuban Missile crisis of 1962. In the late 1950s Berrigan began teaching at a Josephite high school for black male students in central New Orleans. He subsequently earned degrees from Loyola University (bachelor’s in secondary education) and Xavier University (master’s in education).

Joseph’s Society of the Sacred Heart in 1955. He then committed himself to the priesthood and was ordained in St. Indeed, he grew to view himself as no less guilty of murder than the Germans and Japanese, and he condemned nationalistic propaganda where “white Europeans” always triumphed over “anyone else.”After finishing his military service in 1946, Berrigan enrolled at the College of the Holy Cross in Massachusetts and went on to earn a degree in English literature (1950). And on the battlefield, Berrigan gradually concluded that armed warfare could not be justified under any circumstances. The racist mistreatment of black soldiers aboard the troop ship to Europe subsequently angered him further. During his basic training in Georgia, he was appalled by the poor living conditions of local black sharecroppers. Philip Berrigan was drafted into the U.S. The family moved to Syracuse, New York when Philip was a child, and he was raised there. The boys’ father, Thomas Berrigan, was a socialist farmer, railroad engineer, and radical labor organizer. He was the younger brother of Daniel Berrigan.

Philip Berrigan was born in New Harbors, Minnesota on October 5, 1923.

Prison Journals of a Priest Revolutionary by Philip Berrigan