University of Virginia Library

Peace Activist Father Berrigan
To Discuss 'Conscience, Law'

BY CHRIS KOHAN

The controversial Catholic
peace activist Daniel Berrigan,
S.J., who recently concluded a
prison term for his alleged part
in the burning of draft records
in Catonsville, Maryland, will
speak Wednesday at 8:30 p.m.
in University Hall on
"Conscience and the Law."

Father Berrigan has
achieved national prominence
through his activities as an
outspoken critic of the
Vietnam War, receiving both
admiration for his dedication
to his beliefs and censure for
his unconventional methods.

CD/Dave Ritchie

Father Berrigan:

"There Are No Makers Of Peace"

Father Berrigan, a Jesuit
priest, has said that peace is a
difficult end to achieve.

"There are no of peace,
because the making of peace is
at least as costly as the making
of war at least as liable to bring
disgrace and prison and death
in its wake," he said

After participating with his
brother, the Reverend Phillip
Berrigan, and seven others in
the destruction of draft records
in a Catonsville government
office in April 1968. Father
Berrigan willfully submitted to
arrest and, after a brief escape
underground, began a
three-year prison sentence in
Danbury federal prison. He
recently received parole after
serving only 18 months.

Father Berrigan was also
named as a co-conspirator in an
alleged plot in 1971 to kidnap
presidential advisor Henry
Kissinger, but he was not
indicted.

Joined Movement In 1964

Father Berrigan first began
taking active interest in the
peace protest in 1964, after
traveling abroad in Western
Europe and Africa. He was one
of the first American priests to
obtain a visa for travels in
Hungary, the Soviet Union and
Czechoslovakia.

Father Berrigan views his
role as a Jesuit priest as one of
going out and working with
people. "The first generation
of Jesuits worked in the
streets; the second generation
bought a house; the third
generation air-conditioned it. I
belong to the first generation,
and the men inside don't like
my facon d'agir."

Award Winning Poet

Father Berrigan is also a
prize-winning poet, having
received two awards

Father Berrigan's
appearance is sponsored by the
Student Legal Forum, who
have also scheduled for this
month U.S. Senator John
Tower, on March 12, CBS
newsman Walter Cronkite on
March 17, U.S. Senator Charles
Percy on March 20 and U.S.
Congresswoman Shirley
Chisolm on March 26.