Phil Berrigan

Today Marquette University agreed to allow us to have peaceful, nonviolent protest against the presence of military training on campus. This is a major victory in our struggle of resistance to Marquette’s Teaching War and Violence on campus but does not end ROTC on Marquette campus. It will make it easier to educate students, faculty and staff of military training on campus which violates the values and traditions of this Catholic Jesuit institution.

This victory motivates me to update the history of this 44 year history of resistance to ROTC on campus.
In my note of gratitude to friends for this step forward in our struggle I expressed gratitude to Dorothy Day and Phil Berrigan. One friend wrote back questioning why I mentioned these two persons. Simply stated these are two persons I personally met and knew who were strong opponents of ROTC on a Catholic campus. Researching Dorothy Day’s writings in the Catholic Worker archives at Marquette I saw what a strong opponent of ROTC on Catholic campuses Dorothy was, refusing awards and honoree degrees from any Catholic University that hosted ROTC on campus. Phil Berrigan I knew from the sixties but the last time he was in the Milwaukee area I went up to him after his speech and reintroduced myself. He told me how he was denied a room on campus that day, due to his opposition to ROTC, to speak to a small group of peace and justice students. He was a strong resister of ROTC on campus and strongly encouraged me to do something about the military at Marquette. It was hard to say no to Phil and I finally gave him a weak yes, saying I would look into it.

He got sick and died not so long after this meeting and I felt a strong moral obligation to follow thru on my promise. When I took a good look at what the military was teaching and training for on campus I felt a strong commitment to follow in footsteps of Dorothy and Phil to end ROTC on campus.

There are many others, living and decease, I could thank and expressed gratitude for the formation of my conscience. I chose these two because I was blessed to know briefly these two strong resisters of military training on campus.

Today Brain and I made four St. Vincent De Paul home visits to people in need of basic items, like beds, stove and refrigerator. We had to limit what we wrote vouchers for because the officials on Catholic Church are deciding to put the 1.1 million dollars given one church due to closing of a Catholic church in North Central Milwaukee into an endowment fund, hide it away over using it to provide a sustainable fund for works of mercy in North Central Milwaukee. In the pastor’s letter today he writes of the ‘abundance’ we share in this fall harvest season as well as the upcoming vote to put money intended for those in need into an endowment trust fund.

The flip side of Dorothy Day’s and Phil Berrigan’s resistance to military on campus was their love and sharing of abundance with people in need and marginalized by society. They both were based in a Catholic Worker house of hospitality. They are both deceased but in spirit are with us begging us to resist evil and share our abundance.

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