Steadfastness of the Saints: A Journal of Peace & War in Central & North America

Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1985. Reprint. Second printing, 1986. Trade paperback. Very good.. Inscribed on title page. vi, 133, [1] pages. Signed by author. Cover has slight wear and soiling. "Steadfastness of the Saints begins with a riddle: Who dies first, the gunman or the victim? Daniel Berrigan answers with a journal of epiphanies he experienced during a recent trip through El Salvador and Nicaragua. The book begins in the U.S. ('the Land of Unknowing') where his friends from Plowshares are on trial for waging peace. Berrigan then moves on to El Salvador and Nicaragua where he witnesses the aftermath of the violence of death squads and contra attacks......." From Wikipedia: "Daniel J. Berrigan, S.J. (born May 9, 1921), is an American Catholic priest, counterculture peace activist, and poet. Berrigan was born in Virginia, Minnesota, on May 9, 1921. His mother, Frieda (nee Fromhart), was of German descent. and his father, Thomas Berrigan, was a second-generation Irish Catholic and active union member. Daniel remained devoted to the Church throughout his youth, even after his father left. Although a lifelong devotee of Notre Dame, he joined the Jesuits directly out of high school in 1939 and was ordained to the priesthood in 1952. In 1954, he was assigned to teach theology at the Jesuit Brooklyn Preparatory School. In 1957 he was appointed professor of New Testament studies at Le Moyne College in Syracuse, New York. That same year, he won the Lamont Prize for his book of poems, Time Without Number. Berrigan developed a reputation as a religious radical, working actively against poverty, and on changing the relationship between priests and laypersons. While at Le Moyne, he founded its International House. From 1966 to 1970, he was the assistant director of the Cornell University United Religious Work (CURW), the umbrella organization for all religious groups on campus, including the Cornell Newman Club, later the Cornell Catholic Community. He became the pastor for the CCC, during which time he played an instrumental role in the national peace movement. He now resides in New York City and teaches at Fordham University in addition to serving as its poet in residence. Berrigan, his brother the Josephite priest Philip Berrigan, and the famed Trappist monk Thomas Merton founded an interfaith coalition against the Vietnam War, and wrote letters to major newspapers arguing for an end to the war. In 1967 Phillip was arrested for non-violent protest and sentenced to six years in prison. This, and his belief that his support of POWs during the war was not acknowledged and appreciated, further radicalized Berrigan against the U.S. government. Berrigan traveled to Hanoi with Howard Zinn during the Tet Offensive in January 1968 to "receive" three American airmen, the first American POWs released by the North Vietnamese since the U.S. bombing of that nation had begun. In 1968, he signed the Writers and Editors War Tax Protest pledge, vowing to refuse tax payments in protest against the Vietnam War. In the same year, he was interviewed in the anti-Vietnam War documentary film In the Year of the Pig, and later that year became involved in radical non-violent protest. He manufactured home-made napalm and, with eight other Catholic protesters, used it to destroy 378 draft files in the parking lot of the Catonsville, Maryland, draft board on May 17, 1968. This group came to be known as the Catonsville Nine. Berrigan was promptly arrested and sentenced to three years in prison, but went into hiding with the help of fellow radicals prior to imprisonment. While on the run, Berrigan was interviewed for Lee Lockwood's documentary The Holy Outlaw. Soon thereafter the FBI apprehended him at the home of William Stringfellow and sent him to prison. He was released in 1972. On September 9, 1980, Berrigan, his brother Philip, and six others (the "Plowshares Eight") began the Plowshares Movement. They illegally trespassed onto the General Electric Nuclear Missile facility in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, where they damaged nuclear warhead nose cones and poured blood onto documents and files. They were arrested and charged with over ten.