Discussion Guide
Questions related to the Rule of Law
Daniel Berrigan
Philip Berrigan
In what situation, if ever, do you think it would be appropriate for laws to be broken when demonstrating for conscience?
About what issues and principles do you feel strongly enough that you would consider taking direct action to fight for them?
What part do you think faith played in the actions of the Catonsville 9?
Questions related to Religion and Activism
In what ways do the Gospels dictate a role for social activism?
Do you feel a religious person should fight injustice, in whatever form?
In what ways do you think that the methods used by the Catonsville 9 achieved their goals and how were their methods drawn from their spiritual understanding?
Do you think it's appropriate for religious groups to act politically?
Do you think this was the most appropriate recourse for these objectors?
What matters so much to a religious community that it would take the risks that the Catonsville 9 did?
Questions on the relationship of Art , Cinema and Politics
Within the context of a documentary film, do you think important social or political issues can be expressed in artistic or experimental ways?
Is the responsibility of a documentary film to ask questions or provide answers?
Recommended Reading
John Hogan
Tom and Marjorie Melville
Tom Lewis
The Trial of the Catonsville Nine by Daniel Berrigan
Night flight to Hanoi: War Diary with 11 Poems by Daniel Berrigan
Prison Journals of a Priest Revolutionary by Philip Berrigan
Fighting the Lamb's War: Skirmishes With the American Empire : The Autobiography by Philip Berrigan
Whose heaven, Whose earth? by Thomas Melville
The Long Lonliness by Dorothy Day
Seven Story Mountain by Thomas Merton
Disarmed and Dangerous: The Radical Life and Times of Daniel and Philip Berrigan by Murray Polner and Jim O'Grady
Divine Disobedience: Profiles in Catholic Radicalism by Francine du Plessix Gray
Vatican II Collection by Austin Flannery
A Man For All Seasons by Robert Bolt
The Peoples' History of the United States: 1492 to the Present by Howard Zinn
The Making of a Counter Culture by Theodore Roszak