Frida Berrigan

{{Infobox religious biography

| religion = Roman Catholic, Unitarian

| image = NLN Frida and Dan Berrigan.jpg

| caption = With her uncle Daniel Berrigan SJ at a Witness Against Torture event, 2008

| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1974|04|01}}

| birth_place = Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.

}}

Frida Berrigan (born 1974) is an American peace activist and author. She published the 2015 book, It Runs in the Family: On Being Raised by Radicals and Growing into Rebellious Motherhood, about her life in a family of prominent activists and her own philosophies of parenting. Raised in the Plowshares movement, she has been featured in documentaries and studies of the movement, including award-winning director Susan Hagedorn's 2021 The Berrigans: Devout and Dangerous.{{Cite journal |last=Cosacchi |first=Daniel |date=2021 |title=The Berrigans: Devout and Dangerous dir. by Susan Hagedorn |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/article/846054 |journal=American Catholic Studies |language=en |volume=132 |issue=4 |pages=53–57 |doi=10.1353/acs.2021.0062 |s2cid=246648957 |issn=2161-8534|url-access=subscription }}{{Cite web |title=Dr. Susan Hagedorn '77 |url=https://www.umassalumni.com/s/1640/rd17/leftCol.aspx?sid=1640&gid=2&pgid=7429 |access-date=February 18, 2024 |website=www.umassalumni.com |language=en}} Frida Berrigan has documented and interpreted the movement's history and meaning from her first-hand perspective for a global audience.

Early life and education

Frida Berrigan, named for her paternal grandmother,{{Cite web |title='The Peace Kids' grow up: Daughter of activist recalls extraordinary upbringing |url=https://www.theday.com/local-news/20160604/the-peace-kids-grow-up-daughter-of-activist-recalls-extraordinary-upbringing/ |access-date=February 29, 2024 |website=www.theday.com |language=en-US}} was born on April 1, 1974, in Baltimore, Maryland to Elizabeth McAlister and Philip Berrigan, a former nun and priest turned radical Catholic peace activists.{{Cite web |title=Elizabeth McAlister and Philip Berrigan papers, Special Collections, DePaul University Libraries |url=https://archives.depaul.edu/repositories/2/resources/274 |access-date=February 17, 2024 |website=archives.depaul.edu}}{{Cite news |last=Lewis |first=Daniel |date=December 8, 2002 |title=Philip Berrigan, Former Priest and Peace Advocate in the Vietnam War Era, Dies at 79 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2002/12/08/us/philip-berrigan-former-priest-peace-advocate-vietnam-war-era-dies-79.html |access-date=February 17, 2024 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}} They lived in the Jonah House community, which they co-founded.{{Cite web |title=Frida Berrigan accepting award for Philip Berrigan |url=https://jonahhouse.org/archive/Frida0410.htm |access-date=February 18, 2024 |website=jonahhouse.org}}

Her mother is most recently a member of the Kings Bay Plowshares 7, and her father co-established both the Catonsville Nine and the Plowshares movement. Frida is the older sister of Jerry and Kate Berrigan, and the niece of Jesuit peace activist Daniel Berrigan.{{Cite web |last=Anderson |first=George M. |date=February 21, 2011 |title=Growing Up Berrigan: Portrait of a Family of Peacemakers |url=https://www.americamagazine.org/issue/765/article/growing-berrigan |access-date=February 18, 2024 |website=America Magazine |language=}} In 1971, both Philip and Daniel made the cover of Time magazine as "rebel priests" while Philip was still in the Josephite order.{{Cite magazine |date=January 25, 1971 |title=TIME Magazine Cover: Philip and Daniel Berrigan |url=https://content.time.com/time/covers/0,16641,19710125,00.html |access-date=February 17, 2024 |magazine=Time |language=en-us}}{{Cite web |last=Berrigan |first=Frida |date=May 13, 2016 |title=What the obituaries missed about my uncle, Dan Berrigan |url=https://wagingnonviolence.org/2016/05/what-the-obituaries-missed-about-my-uncle-dan-berrigan/ |access-date=February 18, 2024 |website=Waging Nonviolence |language=en-US}} Frida Berrigan has estimated that her parents spent 11 of their 29 years of marriage incarcerated for antiwar activities, which affected family life. In her memoir she recalls both parents accidentally being arrested at the same time when she was three and her brother just one; community members cared for the children.{{Cite book |last=Berrigan |first=Frida |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6sCMDAAAQBAJ&q=+eleven |title=It Runs in the Family: On Being Raised by Radicals and Growing into Rebellious Motherhood |publisher=OR Books |year=2015 |isbn=978-1-939293-66-4 |pages=}} She was first arrested at age 8, during a protest at the US Capitol.

She attended the selective, majority-Black magnet Baltimore City College High School.{{Cite web |last=Berrigan |first=Frida |date=June 16, 2012 |title=The Coolest War Resister in School |url=https://wagingnonviolence.org/2012/06/the-coolest-war-resister-in-school/ |access-date=February 17, 2024 |website=Waging Nonviolence |language=en-US}} She attended Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts after receiving a scholarship that covered the majority of the costs; she covered the remaining $800 per semester herself by working at a food co-op. She graduated in 1997, while her father was in jail in Maine for the "Prince of Peace" Plowshares action at Bath Iron Works.{{Cite web |last=Berrigan |first=Frida |date=May 25, 2013 |title=Pomp and Circumspect |url=https://wagingnonviolence.org/2013/05/pomp-and-circumspect/ |access-date=February 17, 2024 |website=Waging Nonviolence |language=en-US}}{{Cite web |last=Abrecht |first=Marian |date=January 1, 1998 |title=Plowshares Update |url=https://sojo.net/magazine/january-february-1998/plowshares-update |access-date=February 17, 2024 |website=Sojourners |language=EN}}{{Cite web |title=Philip Berrigan describes plowshares action aboard the USS Sullivans: Prince of Peace Plowshares at Bath Iron works. |url=https://jonahhouse.org/archive/Phil_PoPplowshare.htm |access-date=February 17, 2024 |website=jonahhouse.org}} In college she studied with Pakistani political scientist Eqbal Ahmed, and she worked for Frances Crowe at the American Friends Service Committee.{{Cite book |last=Riegle |first=Rosalie G. |url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv16758kn |title=Doing Time for Peace: Resistance, Family, and Community |date=January 7, 2013 |publisher=Vanderbilt University Press |isbn=978-0-8265-1873-6 |editor-last= |editor-first= |doi=10.2307/j.ctv16758kn.7|jstor=j.ctv16758kn }}

Peace activism and political party

File:NLN Frida Berrigan.jpg

Her first job after college was spending two years working for a Central America solidarity organization in Baltimore. She left to intern at The Nation in New York City, and write about military policy, nuclear weapons, and the arms trade for a think tank, the Arms and Security Initiative, a position she held until early 2010.{{Cite news |last=Brady |first=Lois Smith |date=July 15, 2011 |title=Frida Berrigan and Patrick Sheehan-Gaumer |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/17/fashion/weddings/frida-berrigan-and-patrick-sheehan-gaumer-vows.html |access-date=February 18, 2024 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}} She joined the World Policy Institute's Arms Trade Resource Center, led by William D. Hartung.{{Cite web |title=Frida Berrigan: World Policy Institute, 2001 {{!}} Special Collections |url=https://archives.depaul.edu/repositories/2/archival_objects/52204 |access-date=February 17, 2024 |website=DePaul University Libraries}} In another Hartung endeavor, she was a senior program associate at the New America Foundation's Arms and Security Initiative, also at the World Policy Institute, prior to February 2010. She is on the board of the War Resisters League, a secular pacifist organization that marked its centennial in 2023, and serves as a member of its national committee.{{Cite web |date=April 17, 2015 |title=Frida Berrigan |url=https://www.warresisters.org/magazine-authors/frida-berrigan |access-date=February 18, 2024 |website=War Resisters League |language=en}}{{Cite news |last=Sargent |first=Carole |date=January 12, 2024 |title=The War Resisters League just turned 100. Here's a history of its Catholic ties. |url=https://www.ncronline.org/opinion/guest-voices/war-resisters-league-just-turned-100-heres-history-its-catholic-ties |work=National Catholic Reporter}}

In 2005 she cofounded Witness Against Torture with Matthew Daloisio and others, to work for the closure of the Guantánamo Bay detention center and end the US-backed use of torture.{{Cite book |last=Riegle |first=Rosalie |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv16758kn |title=Doing Time for Peace: Resistance, Family, and Community |publisher=Vanderbilt University Press |year=2012 |isbn=978-0-8265-1872-9 |location=Nashville, Tennessee |pages=49–69 |chapter=Let’s Do It Again!’: The Berrigans and Jonah House |doi=10.2307/j.ctv16758kn.7|jstor=j.ctv16758kn }} Berrigan is currently a columnist for Waging Nonviolence,{{Cite web |title=Frida Berrigan, Author at Waging Nonviolence |url=https://wagingnonviolence.org/author/fridaberrigan/ |access-date=February 29, 2024 |website=Waging Nonviolence |language=en-US}} and she has written columns and op-eds for The Day.{{Cite journal |last=Berrigan |first=Frida |date=April 1, 2009 |title=Made in the U.S.A.: American Military Aid to Israel |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1525/jps.2009.XXXVIII.3.6 |journal=Journal of Palestine Studies |volume=38 |issue=3 |pages=6–21 |doi=10.1525/jps.2009.XXXVIII.3.6 |issn=0377-919X|url-access=subscription }} She blurbed the book ARISE AND WITNESS: Poems by Anne Montgomery, RSCJ, About Faith, Prison, War Zones and Nonviolent Resistance, published in 2024.{{Cite book |title=ARISE AND WITNESS: Poems by Anne Montgomery, RSCJ, About Faith, Prison, War Zones and Nonviolent Resistance |date=15 September 2024 |publisher=New Academia/SCARITH |isbn=979-8-9900542-4-0 |editor-last=Laffin |editor-first=Arthur |location=Washington, DC |editor-last2=Sargent |editor-first2=Carole}}

She has been a mayoral candidate for the city of New London, Connecticut, running for the Green Party.{{Cite web |last=Collins |first=David |title=Frida Berrigan will crack open New London's mayoral race |url=https://www.theday.com/local-columns/20190907/frida-berrigan-will-crack-open-new-londons-mayoral-race/ |access-date=February 29, 2024 |website=www.theday.com |language=en-US}} Her platform focused on affordable home ownership, in conjunction with her role as a convener of the New London chapter of the Southeastern Connecticut Community Land Trust.{{Cite web |title=Presenters |url=https://ctconservation.org/presenters/ |access-date=February 19, 2024 |website=Connecticut Land Conservation Council |language=en-US}} She is also a member of the Connecticut Committee for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.{{Cite web |last=Centore |first=Michael |title=Golden Rule Boat Sets Sail for 'A Nuclear-free World' |url=https://www.ncronline.org/news/golden-rule-boat-sets-sail-nuclear-free-world |access-date=February 19, 2024 |website=National Catholic Reporter}} She teaches a first-year seminar at Connecticut College, focusing on disarmament.{{Cite web |last=Berrigan |first=Frida |title=How my Gen Z Students Learned to Start Worrying and Dismantle the Bomb |url=https://thebulletin.org/premium/2024-01/how-my-gen-z-students-learned-to-start-worrying-and-dismantle-the-bomb/ |access-date=February 18, 2024 |website=Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists}} In 2016, Berrigan estimated she had been arrested around 20 times for activism-related reasons.

Personal life

Prior to 2010, Berrigan lived in Redhook, Brooklyn, New York City. In 2010 she moved to the Maryhouse Catholic Worker in New York, where she lived until her marriage.{{Cite web |last=Berrigan |first=Frida |date=May 4, 2013 |title=Opinion {{!}} A Place Where It's Easier To Be Good |url=https://www.commondreams.org/views/2013/05/04/place-where-its-easier-be-good |access-date=February 29, 2024 |website=Common Dreams |language=en}} Around the same time, she reconnected with Patrick Sheehan-Gaumer, also a member of the War Resisters League. The two began dating and married in June 2011 at All Souls Unitarian Universalist Congregation in New London, in order to meet Sheehan-Gaumer, an atheist, halfway on faith.{{Cite web |last=Berrigan |first=Frida |date=October 11, 2013 |title=What Should Church Look Like? |url=https://wagingnonviolence.org/2013/10/church-look-like/ |access-date=February 18, 2024 |website=Waging Nonviolence |language=}}

She lives in New London, Connecticut with her husband, a social worker who grew up in the same peace circles, and their three children. She categorizes herself as an urban farmer, and also a community activist. She does not consider herself a lapsed Catholic, but rather "a Catholic in waiting, waiting for my church to remember the Gospels, to be a justice and peace-seeking community, to be fully inclusive of women and to be welcoming to people who are not hetero-normative. Pope Francis is a step in the right direction, but there is a long way to go".