Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 1211 Plough Quarterly • Summer 2015 The Catonsville Nine, as they were called, received prison sentences of two to six years. The Berrigan brothers and three others refused to surrender and went underground. Dorothy considered this a major breach of nonviolent principles. She, together with other prominent pacifists who had re-launched the Ameri- can peace movement after World War II, were committed to nonviolent direct action in the tradition of Mohandas Gandhi. This tradition required acting in “openness and truth” – including a willingness to stand before the courts and to accept whatever punishment they impose. The Berrigans did not agree. Consistent with Dorothy’s reservations, the Catholic Worker newspaper remained largely silent about the Catonsville action and the trial that followed, despite widespread coverage in the mainstream media. (An article in June 1968 was the lone exception.) And in the four decades that followed, we published virtually nothing on the Berrigans and the Plowshares movement that, in 1980, they would help launch. This brave and occasionally spectacu- lar antiwar and antinuclear campaign remains a going concern to this day. Forging Plowshares In July 2012, three Plowshares activists includ- ing Sister Megan Rice, age eighty-two, broke into the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, which houses the world’s biggest supply of enriched, weapons-grade uranium. Cutting through four perimeter fences, they reached the site’s Protected Area without being apprehended, hammering on the uranium storage structure, pouring out human blood they had brought in baby bottles, and hanging banners and crime-scene tape. The action garnered international attention, partly because it exposed the vulnerability of nuclear-weapons sites. Charged with federal felonies including sabotage, the three activists remain in prison. Sister Megan, who is housed in a dormitory-style cell with sixty other pris- oners, has become an eloquent advocate for her fellow inmates, to whom she ministers selflessly. Yet are such Plowshares actions nonviolent? Within the peace movement, many think they are – the War Resisters League has awarded Plowshares its annual peace award. From the Christian point of view, weapons that are intended to kill the innocent may surely be destroyed in justice. Justice may even demand it. And on a personal level, many of the men and women involved in Plowshares activi- ties have been Catholic Workers and beloved friends and comrades; like Sister Megan, several have paid a heavy price in long prison terms, which calls for respect. But is it nonviolence? Is it disarmament? Disarmament occurs when people lay down their weapons, not when their weapons are taken from them. That only moves belligerents to procure more and better weapons if they can. When activists destroy weapons, do they effect any conversion or change of heart in their opponents? Do they lead any to lay down their arms? Are such actions what we need? There are practical concerns as well. The secrecy involved in Plowshares activities invites infiltration by spies and agents provoca- teurs. Openness and truth must be laid aside. Secrecy breeds suspicion within the group and creates a class system of those “in the know,” the “serious,” and those who merely attend to chores or lend moral or financial support. This lack of transparency can lead to problems of moral coercion: Jim Forest, a fellow Catholic Worker, has written that he was motivated to join a draft-board raid largely in order to stay in the good graces of the Berrigan brothers. Again, is this nonviolent? A nonviolent army, after all, has no cannon fodder. Many in the antinuclear movement have