Disarmed and dangerous

About this book

What transformed Daniel and Philip Berrigan from conventional Roman Catholic priests into "holy outlaws" - for a time the two most wanted men of J. Edgar Hoover's FBI? And how did they evolve from their traditionally pious, second-generation immigrant beginnings to become the most famous (some would say notorious) religious rebels of their day? Disarmed and Dangerous, the first full length unauthorized biography of the Berrigans, answers these questions with an incisive. and illuminating account of their rise to prominence as civil rights and antiwar activists. It also traces the brothers' careers as constant thorns in the side of church authority as well as their leadership of the ongoing Plowshares movement - a highly controversial campaign of civil disobedience against the contemporary arms trade and nuclear weapons. In the spring of 1968, the Berrigans stood side by side in a Catonsville, Maryland, parking lot, praying over the. flames from a basket of draft files that they had just seized from a nearby Selective Service office, doused with napalm, and ignited. Their fire soon sparked a nationwide series of draft-file burnings, all aimed at halting the bitterly divisive Vietnam War. This initial protest led to harsh prison terms for the Berrigans and seven others, but it publicly established the Berrigans in roles they still fulfill: men of moral conscience who would suffer to confront the. enormous power of the state. Murray Polner and Jim O'Grady plumb the Berrigans' contradictions: among them, Philip's secret marriage, while he was still a Josephite priest, to Elizabeth McAlister, then a Catholic nun, which led to their dismissals by their respective religious orders and Philip's excommunication from the church; and Daniel's speech faulting Israel's treatment of Palestinians, and the resulting criticism loosed upon him from pro-Israeli Americans and many. of his allies on the left.