Pro-life, anti-war activist Daniel Berrigan dies

Daniel J. Berrigan, an American Jesuit priest best known for his countercultural peace activism, died over the weekend after suffering from an undisclosed “long illness. He was 94. Berrigan was a writer and poet who won the Lamont Prize for his book of poems, Time Without Number.

In the 1960s and ’70s, Berrigan and his brother Philip led anti-Vietnam War demonstrations. They participated in a 1968 raid on a draft board office in Catonsville, Md., where they destroyed draft records. In 1980, they broke into a General Electric nuclear missile plant and damaged nuclear warheads.

Berrigan was born in Minnesota to a mother of German descent and an Irish Catholic father. He became a priest in 1952, taught at institutions including Le Moyne College and Fordham University, and pastored the Cornell Catholic Community at Cornell University.

Berrigan continued his anti-war activities into his 80s. He objected to America’s role in the 1991 Gulf War and spoke out against U.S. military action in Kosovo, Afghanistan, and Iraq. He was also a pro-life activist and opponent of capital punishment.

After spending seven years in prison between 1970 and 1995, he did not hesitate at age 85 to engage in new protest. Police arrested him in 2006 outside the United States Mission to the United Nations.