Paul O’Donnell

I don’t want to be that kind of person. On the other hand, while discarding useless tradition was very much a part of Vatican II. Another part of it was democratizing the church. This intelligent, well-educated laity was being told what to do by an often not very intelligent hierarchy.

Do you believe in the Resurrection?

What a question! If I had any sense I’d sidestep this in a second. As I said in the book, it’s the big one. It’s the claim that trumps all other claims, so from a purely strategic point of view, it has to be considered. You can’t avoid it. The other stuff you can sort of fudge on a bit, but not this. I would say I have never understood even at the height of my conversion as a kid, if you’d call it that. I never understood what resurrection of the body meant. There was going to be resurrection of the dead, but where were they before that?

What would Father Joe say?

I can’t remember discussing that. But with evidence of the divine-in-human that Father Joe represented at certain moments, the possibility of the resurrection, the actual physical resurrection of Jesus, didn’t seem nearly so outlandish as it did before I met him. I’m not sure what I think now that he’s dead. I think that shook my faith more than anything.

His death?

Yeah.

How so?

He was kind of the proof of it all. In some way, this book has helped me reestablish the connection to some degree. But when he died, I felt like the entire bottom had dropped out again and I didn’t believe anything. It didn’t stop me practicing, but none of this stuff made any sense. Writing this book was in itself an act of resurrection. — Beliefnet.com, concluded