Trial of the Catonsville Nine (PDF)

On May 17, 1968, at the height of the Vietnam War, nine men and women entered a Selective Service office outside Baltimore. They removed military draft records, took them outside, and set them afire with napalm.The Catholic activists involved in this protest against the War included Daniel and Philip Berrigan; all were found guilt of destroying government property and sentenced to three years in jail. Dan Berrigan fled, and later turned himself in.The Berrigans and their colleagues went on to lives spent struggling against war, poverty, and injustice. And The Trial of the Catonsville Nine became a powerful expression of the conflicts between conscience and conduct, power and justice, law and morality. Drawing on court transcripts, Berrigan wrote a dramatic account of the trial and the issues it so vividly embodied. The result is a landmark work of art that been performed frequently over the past thirty five years, both as a piece of theater and a motion picture.This new edition includes Berrigan's original introduction, and additional materials by Robin Anderson and James Marsh that bring its ideas and themes up to date against the context of the war in Iraq.A wonderfully moving testament to nine consciences. - Clive Barnes, The New York TimesOne who wants to know what an authentically Christian response to the questions of our time is like would be wise to listen to Father Berrigan. -The New York Review of Books