Disarmed and dangerous

by Murray Polner

What transformed Daniel and Philip Berrigan from conventional Roman Catholic priests into "holy outlaws" - for a time the two most wanted men of J. Edgar Hoover's FBI? And how did they evolve from their traditionally pious, second-generation immigrant beginnings to become the most famous (some would say notorious) religious rebels of their day? Disarmed and Dangerous, the first full length unauthorized biography of the Berrigans, answers these questions with an incisive. and illuminating account of their rise to prominence as civil rights and antiwar activists. It also traces the brothers' careers as constant thorns in the side of church authority as well as their leadership of the ongoing Plowshares movement - a highly controversial campaign of civil disobedience against the contemporary arms trade and nuclear weapons. In the spring of 1968, the Berrigans stood side by side in a Catonsville, Maryland, parking lot, praying over the. flames from a basket of draft files that they had jus