Noted pacifist and 41-year member of Georgetown’s Jesuit community Rev. Richard McSorley, S.J., died of coronary artery disease Wednesday night at Georgetown University Hospital. McSorley was 88 years old.

McSorley taught theology and philosophy classes from 1961 until his retirement in 1985. His life was defined by his dedication to non-violent activism, especially during the desegregation movement and the Vietnam War years, in which he played an integral role in campus and national protests.

Raised with 14 brothers and sisters in Philadelphia, cSorley’s parents were strict Irish Catholics and several of his siblings entered the clergy. McSorley himself became a member of the Society of Jesus in 1932 and went to teach at Jesuit schools in the Philippines. Along with hundreds of others, McSorley was imprisoned by the Japanese soldiers who invaded the Philippines during World War II. At the internment camp outside Manila, he suffered from starvation and Spartan living conditions under the watch of the Japanese for three years, until American officers liberated the camp in 1945. The harsh experience he had endured shaped McSorley’s future activism against war and violence.

“I think that the violence he experienced in those camps, which he would only talk about publicly to some degree, is what drove him to be so passionate about nonviolence,” Rector of the Jesuit Community Brian McDermott said.

Following his liberation from the internment camp, McSorley was ordained a priest and headed St. James Church in St. Mary’s City, Md., which was segregated at the time. “He was instrumental in desegregating the parishes [of the county] . It was controversial and dangerous work, but he succeeded in truly integrating the parishes,” McDermott said.

His concern for peace and social justice led him to march with the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., in Alabama and Mississippi, lead protests against the war in Vietnam, and later, to campaign against the production of nuclear weapons.

He became something of a symbol during the anti-war protests that defined the campus during the 1960s and ’70s. “During the protests against the Vietnam War, he was a very public figure. He engaged in dramatic demonstrations and was very outspoken [about his views]” McDermott said.

“McSorley was wonderful to speak to; he had common sense coupled with being a priest,” said Daniel Hildt (COL ’73), a student protester who cited McSorley as one of the biggest influences on the Georgetown student protesters in a Hoya article published in January 2000. “He spoke about people and morality and the common sense of right and wrong,” Hildt said.

According to McDermott, McSorley continued to be passionate about his pacifist views up until his death. He was less physically active as a participant in protests as his heart disease progressed, however, decreasing his mobility and eventually resulting in the use of a cane and wheelchair. “He wanted to see the university more committed to non-violence,” McDermott said. “I think he felt some people supported the ideas but he wished more people spoke out the way he did.”

Described as outgoing and personable, McSorley made friends with a wide range of people both within the Georgetown community and off campus. “People found him very attractive . he had a great sense of humor,” McDermott said. With a passion for singing and a penchant for the ukulele, McSorley frequently entertained friends with music.

He was a founding member of the Catholic Worker Communities in Washington, D.C. “Fr. McSorley was really inspired by [Dorothy Day],” McDermott said, referring to the originator of the communities that encourage a pacifist lifestyle. “He’s always been close to members of this community who try to live nonviolently.”

At the time of his death, he was director of the Georgetown Center for Peace Studies.

McSorley published several books, including an autobiography, published in 1996, entitled My Path to Peace and Justice. At the time of his death, McSorley was working on a book about his deceased brother, a bishop who worked as a missionary close to the uslim population in the Philippines. McDermott said McSorley had tentatively titled the book A Bishop to the Muslims.