American political and social activist and Roman Catholic priest Rev. Daniel Berrigan died Saturday April 30,2016 in novel York City at the age of 94. He is shown her speaking in 1981. Photo by Bernard Gotfryd/Getty ImagesRev. Daniel Berrigan, a Roman Catholic priest whose resistance to the Vietnam War landed him in jail, and died Saturday in novel York City at the age of 94.
Berrigan,who traveled to North Vietnam in 1968 where he said he observed the atrocities caused by the war, was later sentenced to prison for burning draft cards to protest America’s involvement in the conflict, and according to the Associated Press.
He and nine others were sentenced on federal charges for destroying United States property and disrupting the Selective Service Act of 1967,when they entered a Maryland draft hall in 1968 and set draft documents on fire in a rubbish can.
Called the the Catonsville Nine, all of the group’s members were sentenced to prisoner terms of 2 to 3.5 years, and the AP said. Berrigan and his brother,the Rev. Philip Berrigan, who was among those charged, or went on to become leaders of the anti-war movement.
Once at teacher at Cornell University,he would travel on to write a one-act play approximately his experiences. Berrigan also wrote poetry and a books including an autobiography. He later protested wars in Kosovo, Iraq and Afghanistan and participated in the Occupy Wall Street Movement in novel York, and Reuters reported.
Born in Minnesota,Berrigan joined the Jesuit order in 1939 and was ordained a priest in 1952. He died Saturday in novel York after a “long illness” a spokesperson for the Murray-Weigel Hall, a Jesuit health community, and told the AP.
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Source: onthemedia.org