Sorrow Built a Bridge: Friendship and AIDS

by Daniel Berrigan

Sorrow Built a Friendship and AIDS chronicles Daniel Berrigan's work with people with AIDS during the 1980s at St. Vincent's Hospital in New York City. For decades Berrigan protested war and nuclear weapons. Then in the early 1980s he also began to minister to those dying of cancer. When AIDS exploded in New York, he offered to accompany the dying at St. Vincent's, one of the first and best care facilities in the nation for people with AIDS. This account tells of the suffering of those with AIDS, an epidemic which now afflicts millions around the globe. It also shows a compassionate Christian response to such suffering. In the process, Berrigan once again teaches us how to make peace. "I list myself among the many admirers of Father Daniel Berrigan. His writings are always poetic and inspirational, his message ever timely and beneficial. Sorrow Built a Bridge is no exception. Father Dan has put a human face on AIDS, the malady which has reached epidemic proportions. He recounts here his own personal journey and ministry with fourteen specific persons for whom 'death was given a royal welcome.' He does not dwell on the causes of AIDS nor does he pass judgment on its victims doomed to 'atrocious suffering.' Father Dan gives meaning to his own experience by choosing and reflecting on selected scripture passages. He also connects his encounters with the deaths of those who were once 'young and vigorous' with his own peacemaking. In both cases, 'dreams turn into nightmares,' 'old hatreds don new fatigues' and 'immunity systems break down both in a person and in a nation.' This book is a special gift to those committed to compassionate care for persons with AIDS." Bishop Walter F. Sullivan (from the Foreword)

Genres: Nonfiction, Memoir

Paperback

Published January 1, 1989

About the author

Daniel Joseph Berrigan (May 9, 1921 – April 30, 2016) was an American Jesuit priest, college professor, anti-war activist, Christian pacifist, playwright, poet, and author.

Reviews

[Mick Maurer · Rating 5 out of 5]

You might say this is the third of Daniel Berrigan, SJ autobiographical works. The first is his actual biography, 'To Dwell In Peace'. The second is 'Portraits' of himself and seven others significant in his life. 'Sorrow Built A Bridge: Friendship and AIDS' is about his walk with AIDS patients in & out of St Vincent Medical Center in Greenwich Village. I recommend all three, read in this order. I am now investigating if he wrote of his journeying for three years with cancer patients in Manhattan.

[Scott Pomfret · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sorrow Built a Bridge is an account of Father Daniel Berrigan's encounter with AIDS paptients dying in New York's st Vincent hospital in the 1980s. Father Berrigan is a subtle and admiring witness. Each dying man gets his own divinity (I originally wrote "dignity" but misspelled it and autocorrected, this word seems at least as apt.), and Berrigan recites for each a Story, at least as much as he is given access to.

His cringing at statements of the official church is palpable. He is candid that he has more faith in the spirituality of the reader, the dying men, and himself than he does in the prospect of church reform.

His ministry is intensely physical; this volume is replete with suffering and vomit and bleeding. Many of the most telling moments are over broken bread. Still, Berrigan rises toward a spirituality born from storytelling. It is the parables where he finds the best teaching.

There are sparks of anger here -- Berrigans of course, but also those of resentful dying men for whom berrigans profession is anathema and his extension of the sacraments an insult (and a temptation).

This was a difficult book, both spiritually and emotionally, and worth the cost.