Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20 Page 21 Page 22 Page 23 Page 24 Page 25 Page 26 Page 27 Page 28 Page 29 Page 30 Page 31 Page 32 Page 33 Page 34 Page 35 Page 36 Page 37 Page 38 Page 39 Page 40 Page 41 Page 42 Page 43 Page 44 Page 45 Page 46 Page 47 Page 48 Page 49 Page 50 Page 51 Page 52 Page 53 Page 54 Page 55 Page 56 Page 57 Page 58 Page 59 Page 60 Page 61 Page 62 Page 63 Page 64 Page 65 Page 66 Page 67 Page 68 Page 69 Page 70 Page 71 Page 72 Page 73 Page 74 Page 75 Page 76 Page 77 Page 78 Page 79 Page 80 Page 81 Page 82 Page 83 Page 8412 Plough Quarterly • Autumn 2016 Isaiah – “They shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks” – he and Philip and six friends walked into a General Electric plant in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, and hammered on unarmed nuclear weapon nosecones. They were arrested, tried, convicted, and faced up to ten years in prison for destruction of government property. Berrigan exemplifies a Christianity that works for peace, speaks for peace, and wel- comes Christ’s gift of peace. His life work, he would say, was modest. But the cumulative effect of his writings and actions show us what the church might look like, what a Christian looks like in such times, indeed, what a human response looks like in an inhuman world. From the days of the “war on communism” to the even darker days of the “war on terror,” from the Cold War doctrine of “mutually assured destruction” to “shock and awe” in Iraq, Ber- rigan steadfastly said no to war, empire, and nuclear weapons. At the same time, through his poetry, books, retreats, and talks – indeed by his very life – he offered an affirming yes to the God of life and peace. He understood that you can’t have one without the other. I consider Daniel Berrigan not just a legend- ary peace activist but one of the greatest saints and prophets of modern times. He waged peace with his whole heart, will, and life, and paid the cost. Time and time again he was denounced and exiled, arrested and impris- oned, and yet he continued to stand at the center of the culture of war with the good news of Christ the peacemaker. In a world brimming with death he was a witness to resurrection. We don’t need to canonize him, but we need to take seriously his life, his commitment to the Word, his faith in the God of peace, and his steadfast resistance to evil. His witness gives us hope that we too can be instruments of God’s peace and join with the saints and martyrs of history to give birth to a new world without war, injustice, or nuclear weapons.  teaching on nonviolence; to promote nonviolent practices such as restorative justice, trauma healing, and unarmed civilian protection; to no longer use or teach just war theory; to continue advocating for the abolition of war and nuclear weapons; and to support and defend nonviolent activists whose work for peace and justice puts their lives at risk. I encourage you to read the full statement at nonviolencejustpeace.net. If it heeds this call, the Catholic Church could change course from the last seventeen hundred years, opening up a whole new history for Christianity and returning us to the spirit of the early church, where no Christian was allowed to participate in war, prepare for war, or kill another human being. If Pope Francis writes such an encyclical, it could have an impact far beyond the world’s one billion Catholics. He could help us all better understand how war has become obsolete, how nonviolence offers far better prospects for conflict resolution, and why the time has come to abolish war and nuclear weapons.  “The death of a single human is too heavy a price to pay for the vindication of any principle, however sacred.” Daniel Berrigan 12 Plough Quarterly • Autumn 2016