Father Martin Newell, CP, is not your average Roman Catholic priest, spending much of his time dealing with the nitty-gritty of parish life, organising baptisms, weddings and funerals. Newell, a Christian anarchist, is frequently to be found breaking into military bases, or locked in a prison cell. Over the past ten years his stand against the arms trade and nuclear weapons has led to fifteen arrests, four convictions and two stints in prison, once for two days, once for six months.

A quietly spoken Passionist priest, Newell is a member of the Catholic Worker movement, which advocates acts of non-violent civil disobedience where the laws or activities of a state are perceived as unjust. “Christian anarchism is not about doing away with structures but about doing the right thing, even if that means breaking the law,” he says.

He is inspired by the movement's founder, the US journalist Dorothy Day. After belonging to radical left-wing circles in New York, Day converted to Catholicism in 1927 and set up houses for the poor across the US and also the Catholic Worker newspaper. She was jailed seven times for her non-violent civil disobedience. Today Catholic Worker groups can be found in countries including Sweden, Mexico and New Zealand. In England it has houses in Oxford, Dalston, East London, and Hertfordshire.

In 2000 Newell and the Dutch Catholic Worker Susan van der Hijden scrambled through a fence at RAF Wittering in Cambridgeshire and broke into a depot containing lorries used to transport nuclear warheads to the Trident submarines at Faslane. After spraying a truck with slogans such as “Love is the fulfilment of the law”, they prayed and sang before beating it with their hammers.

They called their protest a “ploughshares action” in reference to Old Testament prophets who speak of beating “swords into ploughshares” (Micah iv, 3; Isaiah ii, 4).

Newell and van der Hijden actively sought arrest. “We had been there for about three hours and were wondering what to do as no one had come along. So we went to the guard hut and knocked on the door and told them what we had been doing,” said Newell. After their arrest by MoD police, they were charged with £31,000 of criminal damage and sent to prison on remand. Prison was not easy, admits Newell, who shared a cell with two other men.

“People tried to intimidate me and I learnt that the best response was no response and not to back down. I was a bit concerned about other inmates finding out I was a priest before they knew what I was there for. Fortunately I was sent a cutting about the case from a local newspaper. I put this up on the wall in my cell so that everybody knew what I was there for.”

“I very much felt it my action was a call from God to do this particular thing at this particular time. If I discerned the same thing in the future, I'd prepare to go to prison again.”

At Chelmsford Crown Court Newell pleaded not guilty, arguing in his defence that nuclear weapons were immoral and should be decommissioned. The judge did not agree, sentencing Newell to 12 months in prison. However, he was freed as he had already spent six months on remand.

“Possessing nuclear weapons is seen as a way of defending our way of life, our privileges, our prosperity, at the price of being willing to destroy millions of innocent people. In this sense I think it's a great corrupter of the moral vision of society.”

Newell refuses to accept the argument that religion and politics should be kept separate. “Our faith has to affect the whole of our lives. The laws of God and the laws of Man are not the same. The Church has positions on every political issue, although it doesn't identify itself with particular political parties.”

“If the laws of the land are contrary to the gospel then it requires us to break them. If you were a Catholic in Soviet Russia, then you broke the law every day.”

While some clergy might find his anarchic expression of Christianity controversial, Newell is not alone in challenging the law. In the US the Franciscan Father Louis Vitale has been frequently arrested and imprisoned for demonstrating against nuclear weapons. In 2006 Cardinal Roger Mahony of Los Angeles vowed a campaign of civil disobedience if a Bill were passed that would make it unlawful to help illegal immigrants.

Newell believes more Christians in the UK need to stand up against injustices. “The old English Catholic tradition of keeping your head down is quite strong. But you cannot make the assumption that the laws of a country should necessarily be obeyed.”

Just after Christmas, Newell was one of four Catholic Workers arrested and charged with criminal damage for throwing red paint over a sign outside Northwood military headquarters in Middlesex. The act was intended to symbolise both King Herod's slaughter of the children in Bethlehem and the blood spilt in Iraq, Afghanistan and other military conflicts involving UK Forces.

Now waiting for the date of his court hearing, Newell is unrepentant. “As Christians we are called to defend the innocent. I see our practice of non-violent civil disobedience as following the example of lots of people in the Church, and of Jesus.

“Jesus was arrested for knocking over tables in the temple and driving the animals out. If he did that today, he'd be charged with criminal damage.”