Conference lgp30::christian-perspective

        |		I am convinced, sometimes against my own cowardly
	|
	|		will, that to be in the Church is to be in the
 -------+-------
	|		world, and to be out of the world is to be out of
	|
	|		the Church, too, and the noblest and most sensible

way of being in the Church, the way opened by the heart and passionate will

of Christ, is to simply be a believing, loving person in one's world.  I

mean a love that finds human life inconceivable apart from dedication to

others -- that keeps the heart aware of true needs, that has the insight

and guts to undertake great projects, and to stay with them for the measure

of one's years and energies.				--D. Berrigan

Federal Judge Terrence Boyle has disallowed defendants to testify about
their motives for their actions or about U.S. war crimes committed by F-15E
fighter jets based at Seymour Johnson AFB.  On trial are activists Phil
Berrigan, Rev. John Dear SJ, Lynn Fredriksson, and Bruce Friedrich.

While reading a sentence in the opening statement which implicated the
U.S. criminal justice system as offering "sanction to the high crimes of
the government and its military," Fredriksson was ordered by Judge Boyle
to stop reading the statement.  When she continued, the jury was led out
of the courtroom and she was charged with being in contempt of court.
John Dear continued reading the statement, was also charged with contempt,
and finally the statement was pulled away from the defendants by federal
marshals.  The four defendants then turned their back on Judge Boyle in
a gesture against the unfair proceedings.

Twenty supporters in the courtroom joined them, turning their backs while
praying and singing.  Court officials quickly moved to clear the courtroom.
Six were arrested for contempt of court.

The original four are now scheduled to stand trial separately:
Philip Berrigan - April 11
John Dear - April 14
Lynn Fredriksson - April 18
Bruce Friedrich - April 20

For more information write:
The Plowshares Support Committee
PO Box 1252
Garner, NC 27907-0429

    
>Federal Judge Terrence Boyle has disallowed defendants to testify about
>their motives for their actions or about U.S. war crimes committed by F-15E
>fighter jets based at Seymour Johnson AFB.  

    Unless you are leaving something out, this sounds like the only choice
    open to the judge.

>While reading a sentence in the opening statement which implicated the
>U.S. criminal justice system as offering "sanction to the high crimes of
>the government and its military," Fredriksson was ordered by Judge Boyle
>to stop reading the statement.  When she continued, the jury was led out
>of the courtroom and she was charged with being in contempt of court.

    Again the judge had no other choice. It sounds to me like the
    defendants are not interested in a fair trial but are interested in
    making public statements.

>The four defendants then turned their back on Judge Boyle in
>a gesture against the unfair proceedings.

    Please outline the unfair proceedings. Why are they not listed in
    your note?

>Twenty supporters in the courtroom joined them, turning their backs while
>praying and singing.  Court officials quickly moved to clear the courtroom.
>Six were arrested for contempt of court.

    Sounds fair to me.

    			Alfred

    I left nothing pertinent out from the source I had, but realizing
    that I could never supply adequate information for universal
    acceptance, I included an address for the truly curious (which I
    doubt that anyone here will actually expend the effort to use).
    
    I thought it most unfair for the judge to deny the defendants the
    opportunity to provide a detailed explanation for their actions.
    
    When a house is on fire and you rush in to save the baby, you can
    be prosecuted for breaking and entering.  The judge in this case is
    saying, "You cannot tell the jury why you committed the crime of
    breaking and entering."
    
    Shalom,
    Richard
    

I agree, Richard, that the defendants should be allowed to explain their
motives for what they did.  I think I'd have probably turned my back on
the judge as well, even at the risk of being held in contempt of court.
The price of liberty is eternal vigilence.

				-- Bob

It is quite common in cases involving abortion protesters that the
judge will disallow any explanation of motives or the use of such
words as "unborn child" or references to priests who are defendants
as "Father" or "The Reverend Mr."

/john

Re: .6 John

I think the restrictions in the abortion protest cases are just as wrong as
in the military protest case.

				-- Bob

    .6  What Bob said in .7 goes for me, too.  Such testimony should be
    allowed.
    
    Richard
    

	The act was done.  We sat in custody in the back room of the
Catonsville Post Office, weak with relief, grinning like virtuous gargoyles.
Three or four FBI honchos entered portentously.  Their leader, a jut-jawed
paradigm, surveyed us from the doorway.  His eagle eye lit on Philip.  He
roared out:  "Him again!  Good God, I'm changing my religion!"

	I could think of no greater tribute to my brother.


					- Daniel Berrigan, SJ
					  from "To Dwell in Peace"
					  his autobiography

	Meantime, the war expanded.  I remember saying to Philip, soon
after my return from Europe in 1965, something to the effect that we
had best be declaring our No loud and clear and soon, under pain of never
saying it at all.

	We started to say No.  The word was tentative at first, hardly
audible.  It came from our mouths like the first words of an infant:
No; a word simple in the extreme, but still wondrous, on lips such as ours;
on lips of Catholics, clerics to boot, the word of foreign tongue.

	It must be recalled that others, highly placed in the church,
were saying another word with all their might: a hearty, confident Yes.
Their approval of the war could be heard around the world.  Among
Catholics, the Yes swept all before it, or pretended to.  In any case,
it drowned out, for a time, all conflicting sounds and second thoughts --
uttered as it was with sublime confidence, from on high, from highly
placed friendships and White House connections -- as though from the
lips of Moses, unaccountably echoing a pharaoh.

	There were many others, bishops and famous clerics, who said
nothing at all; and that, of course, came in the end to the same thing.
It was the Yes of silence, which here and there has been named the crime
of silence.  A silent Yes; and so understood by those directly responsible
for expanding the war.


					- Daniel Berrigan, SJ
					  from "To Dwell in Peace"
					  his autobiography

ELIZABETH CITY, NC -- Peace activist Philip Berrigan and three others
drew prison sentences ranging from a year to 15 months for hammering
a fighter plane and squirting it with what they said was their own
blood on December 7th.  "We went to offer a clear statement against
killing, and to clog the gears of the killing machine, if only for a
moment," said the 70-year-old Berrigan, who was sentenced to a year
behind bars on Wednesday.  (AP)

    Thanks, John (880.11).  I was wondering about the outcome.  Phil Berrigan
    will remain in my prayers.
    
    Shalom,
    Richard
    

I'd like to write Philip Berrigan.  Anyone know where to address a letter
to him?

Richard

	"The Trail of the Cantonsville Nine," by Daniel Berrigan is based
on the actual transcript of the trial.  Berrigan lent his inimitable poetic
flair.

Allow me to share a brief segment:

(defendant) Thomas Lewis

	I then moved into civil disobediance

	This is a legitimate form

	of social protest    It is well documented

	in Christianity

	Civil disobedience was practiced

	by the early Christians

	The spirit of the New Testament deals

	with a man's response to other men

	and with a law that overrides

	all laws    The one law

	is the primary law of love and justice

	toward other men

	As a Christian

	I am obligated

	to the primary law of brotherhood

	Men have responsibilities not only

	to the immediate family

	but to the world