The following are reflections offered by members of St. Joseph the Worker Parish on occasion of the first anniversary of Fr. Bill's death at the 9:30 mass on Sunday Dec. 5, 2004.
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This week marks the first anniversary of Fr. Bill O’Donnell’s sudden death on December 8, 2003. His funeral services produced on outpouring of affection and admiration that is rarely seen at the death of a priest. Bill would have been very uncomfortable with all the “fuss”; but for the rest of us, the experience was one of a very comforting expression of appreciation, and also a vindication of the way that Bill exercised his priestly ministry. Repeatedly in those days, I heard people commenting, both publicly and privately, that Bill was precisely the kind of priest that the Church needs in these troubling times. Today at the 9:30 Mass, I have asked several parishioners who were closely associated with Bill to offer their reflections on his legacy as seen from the perspective of one year’s distance. I would like to add here my own brief reflections. First of all, it was never about Bill. He could travel to the far corners of the earth (Chiapas, Central and South America, Korea, The Middle East, Russia, Cuba) and dialogue and work with some of the more well-known prophets of our time (Cesar Chavez, Fred Ross Sr., Martin Sheen, Bishop Samuel Ruiz, Phil and Daniel Berrigan, Roy Bourgeois, among others) and through it all keep a sharp focus on the issues of justice and peace. He was not into “name dropping” or into bragging (or complaining!) about all that was involved in being a “priest to the world”. It was always about learning and being in solidarity with those who were struggling. Secondly, while Bill clearly had a pastoral concern for the people of our parish, his concern was also for the “other sheep not of this fold”. He joked continually about his “atheist friends” or his “commie friends”. He probably touched the lives of more people who were not Catholic or not practicing Catholics than any other priest I have known. For so many people, Bill was their priest, even if they didn’t share his faith. He earned their respect and trust not primarily because he wore “the collar” (which he did with great pride, especially at demonstrations!) but because of the strong witness he gave, because of the principles for which he stood. For many people, he made God believable. He made hope and love possible. One of the greatest legacies that Bill created was to identify St. Joseph the Worker Church as a gathering place that welcomed groups, movements and individuals that advocate justice for workers, refugees and the undocumented and that expressed solidarity with human rights’ struggles wherever on the globe they might be taking place. Because of Bill, our parish became known as a center for peace and justice activities. It is a legacy we proudly hope to continue. In these difficult times, we try to carry on Bill’s work. However, it is equally important that we go about that task reflecting the same commitment, determination, sense of humor and faith that we saw in him. Today we here commemorate his death by recommitting ourselves to the causes that gave him life. Fr. George Crespin |
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The Man, The Priest They called him Fr. Bill Nurses, janitors, farm workers Workers in sweatshops and the mill They called him their best friend They called him Fr. Bill John Froman sang praise to his name He sang.....Fr. Bill, he knew the power of love, The power of life, He knew the power of the people to organize In the first reading from the Book of the Prophet Isiah, appears the phrase "He shall strike the ruthless with the rod of his mouth. As a prisoner of conscience, Fr Bill stood before the judge in the Federal Court House in Columbus, GA, home of Ft. Benning and the School of the Americas "and spoke truth to power when he said to the judge,, "You are a pimp for the Pentagon." This priest, Fr. Bill, took the power of love and the power of life into the fields, the streets, the boardrooms, the hospitals and the jail where he did six months time. While Bill had an understanding of Latin and Greek, Spanish eluded him. One Sunday morning at the beginning of his homily, he wanted to extend a warm welcome to visiting Spanish speaking people, He extended his arms, smiled, and said, "Su Casa is mi Casa." Bill saw Jesus as an activist, a radical, and a revolutionary. During the Palestinian uprising he traveled to Jerusalem with Barbara Lubin . They sheltered in a Palestinian home Israeli troops made a house to house search. The armed soldiers banged on their benefactor's door with rifle buts... Barbara said, "Bill,.......you answer, you're the priest." Bill countered with, Barbara "You answer,......you're the Jew." Bill's one request, his one indulgence as he put it, was that the theme of his funeral follow the theme from Jacque Ettol's- The Presence of the Kingdom. "To be revolutionary is to judge the world by its present state, by actual facts in the name of a truth which does not yet exist (but is coming) and it is to do so, because we believe this truth to be more genuine and more real than the reality which surrounds us." Fr. Bill, he knew the power of love. This non-violent, peaceful revolutionary wrote each week in the parish bulletin. His weekly bulletins had the grace of simplicity and clarity as he made sense out of chaos and the darkness that threatens to overwhelm us. Bill wrote, "The fact is, love is its own reward, as in my becoming more vulnerable, more tender, more caring, and more able to suffer with the other. Love keeps hope alive. Becoming more hopeful, we become more loving. How can a creator who put this passion for life into the human spirit and at death write us off. Absurd" Fr. Bill. he knew the power of life.. He wrote, "Death is not the tragedy, Being left destitute is much harder. Bereavement is a kind of dying. Faith in life is the antidote for the loss of a dear person. For the darling person who passes, it is an everlasting gain. Fr. Bill favorite grace before meals was written By St. Augustine And all shall be "Amen and alleluia" when we shall rest, we shall see And when shall see, we shall know And when we shall know, we shall love, And when we shall love, we shall praise Behold, the end, and, there is no end In this winter of silence let our days be brightened now by the lighted footsteps he left behind. Fr. Bill He knew the power of love, the power of life The power of the people to organize. Mary O'Donnell |
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| To steal a line about Dorothy Day made recently by her
granddaughter....knowing Father Bill O'Donnell means spending the rest of
your life trying to figure out what hit you! It is impossible for me to think of the O'D at this time of year in this place without thinking about Christmas, specifically Christmas trees, lots of them. I was the fallen away, recovering catholic: he was my gateway back into the Catholic Church. Within a couple minutes of my first conversation with him in the early 80's, he shocked me by asking me if l'd ever thought going to El Salvador. So, with the innocent words--' could you help Elson and I set up some trees?'--began the first of a 15 year annual pilgrimage to local Christmas tree lots. In later years, the ritual wore a bit thin. I kidded him, "that was the real reason you went to Atwater!" But the years in between, on each magical morning of the 24th, we'd set out in a borrowed pick up to scavenge and beg. Over time, the operation became streamlined. In his cavernous workshop right under this sanctuary, down one of the long catacomb-like corridors--just beyond the home-made electric chair that he hauled to San Quentin, walking by the work benches filled with the tools of the carpenters trade, down past odd stacks of wood set aside for future projects, and just before the neat rows of the 500 hand made white crosses arrayed in racks-- so perfect at Livermore and used again this past Good Friday in front of St. Columba's. ....right there in their own section, is a pile Christmas Tree legs ready for use again. When my stepson Patrick was in 1st grade, Fr Bill was his honorary grandfather on grandparents' day. All the kids agreed, Patrick had the coolest grandfather. For a brief period, following his stroke several years back, the O'D was literally speechless. Within weeks of leaving the hospital, in barely understandable but totally articulate words, he delivered the final reflection at St. John's before leading a group with the white crosses in solemn vigil outside the gates of San Quentin. Around the same time, I was stunned and thrilled when he joined our Friday night Ulysses reading group. Some time later, I noticed the series of arduous exercises taped to the bathroom mirror -- exercises that he needed to repeat frequently each day to recover his speech. Just this summer, it dawned on me, one reason he had joined the group--we read the book aloud -- was to practice speaking again. In prison visiting rooms, you are not permitted to speak with other inmates. But his presence in that room--with a smile or a nod here, a glance there, even sneaking in an occasional word--you sensed his connection to the other prisoners; he had become their pastor. 2 nights ago, 150 of us--some from the parish, some who had never met him--heard Fr. Bill's voice again in film on this altar, his rascally humor and dead-on truth-telling. we are blessed to have known him, we strive to be a little more like him each day, and we still wonder what hit us. William Joyce |
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| My name is Paula Hollowell and I have been a member of
St. Joseph's parish since Fr. Bill brought me back to the Church in about
1983. I was raised in a devout family. My parents are converts. In Catholic high school religion class we read the New Testament, and I was activated and transformed by the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I entered college as the Viet Nam War and the Civil Rights movement escalated, but my church was nowhere to be found. My Baptist and Jewish brothers and sisters were there, but my church was absent. I left the Church and tried to live our Christ's teachings through secular social justice movement, but there was something missing for me. I saw Fr. Bill at a benefit for Salvadoran refugees here in Berkeley. He often evangelized his faith simply by wearing his Roman collar in places where there was no religious presence. Through Fr. Bill I returned to the Church and brought my three children with me to the Faith. I became active in the Sanctuary movement, and the refugee for St. Joseph's was in Sanctuary at my home for three years. Fr. Bill Believed in building community in living our lives, and to help us keep the faith in our sometimes lonely struggle for social justice. He was a great friend to me and my children during the good times--but more importantly --through the difficult times. He came with me to very traumatic divorce Court hearings, and made it possible for me to endure a very stressful time in my life in 2000 through 2003. It always seemed he had an endless supply of courage, and that it came easy for him to speak truths in the face of enormous opposition. He would not go along to get along. He did not flinch from being pro-life, even though among some Catholics this is not a popular position. He would always say, "Don't ask for permission, apologize later." When Fr. Bill had to face a trial in Georgia I felt it was time for me to be there for him. I went to his trial, and I know our presence there helped Fr. Bill to speak the truth to the judge-calling him "a pimp for the Pentagon"-insuring that he would receive the maximum sentence-and he did. After our huge, loving send-off to him at St. Joseph's, before entering prison, he said to me "sometimes when people say all these wonderful things about me I don't really believe they're talking about me. Deep down, I don't think I am worthy." Fr. Bill was truly a humble man. In prison, Fr. Bill kept a low profile because he could not perform the Sacraments, and because he did not want the other inmates to think he was there because of clergy abuse. But the word got out and many men came to him to hear their confessions-something they hid from the prison authorities. There was an inmate there who constantly harassed Fr. Bill-a physician who had converted to Catholicism and didn't like Fr. Bill's interpretation of the Gospel. He was there for Medi-Cal fraud. This man was wearing Bill down, and he mentioned this every time I visited him. Finally, I told him to see the face of Christ in this man, just as Mother Teresa taught that we should see the face of Christ in the sometimes difficult faces of the poor. In a role reversal, I was able to help him. He later said this advice really helped him in dealing with this man. I visited Fr. Bill on Christmas Day in 2002, after Mass here at St. Joseph's. He said it as the best Christmas he had ever had, because his isolation from those he loved the most in the Bay Area had forced him to go very deep within himself. It had brought him even closer to God, he said. Fr. Bill said to me on December 5, 2003, shortly before he died , that he was going to preach a homily at Midnight Mass about Christmas at Atwater-the best Christmas he had ever had. Unfortunately, he was not able to preach that sermon. because he left us on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, December 8th, Fr. Bill's Legacy must be carried on by each of us, and in that way he will still be here with us. We can stand up for those who have no voice. the homeless, the poor, the drug addict. We can show kindness to those who are lonely, or sad, or in need of comforting, just as Fr. Bill did. Like Fr. Bill, we too can evangelize. Paula Hollowell |
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Fr. Bill called me his official biographer because I had
somehow come into that role. It was really Vivian Zelaya’s idea, and
Bill thought about it and said, OK. So we started to sit down and talk
for an hour or more at a time, with the idea that this would eventually
become a biography. We began in September of 1997 and continued into the
fall of last year, before he died. I asked him about growing up in
Altamont, and he talked about the farm and his family, the hard work and
going to school at St. Michael’s in Livermore. We talked about seminary,
his first years as a priest and how he got involved in civil rights and
his years as a pastor and an activist. And we talked a lot about his
faith. Barbara Erickson |
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Father Bill O'Donnell
Father Bill O'Donnell, 73, Freedom rider, peace activist, truth teller, prisoner of conscience, friend, Labor priest, Parish priest, agitator, protestor, protector of the poor, died at his desk of heart attack on December 8, 2003. Beloved son of the late Maude and Anthony O'Donnell; loving brother of Edward, Mary, James and the late Martin, Eugene, and Betty Anne O'Donnell (Sr. Anthony Edward SNJM).
Father Bill was born in Livermore, California on January 2, 1930 and ordained a priest on June 16, 1956. He attended St. Joseph's and St. Patricks's Seminary. Father Bill was active in all areas in his community as well as Central America. He helped found Options Recovery, where he found joy in working with recovering alcoholics and drug addicts.
Over the past 30 years, Father Bill's passion for social justice resulted in nearly 300 arrests for civil disobedience at peace, labor and anti-nuclear protest. Last year, at age 73, he served six monts at Atwater Penitentiary for transpassiing on the property of the School of Americas (Western Hemisphere Institute of Security) at Fort Benning, Georgia. Within weeks he had formed a study group in prison on non-violence. He particiapated in repeated demostrations at Lawrence Livermore Laboratory for which he spent a week in Santa Rita jail. During one protest, his arm was broken by a police officer.
The family requests, donations be made to St. Joseph the Worker church, SOA Watch, and Options, 1640 Addison St. Berkeley, CA 94703.
"...To be revoulutionary is to judge world by its present state, by actual facts is the name of a truth which does not yet exist (but is coming) and it is to do so becuase we believe this truth to be more genuine and more real than the reality which surrounds us."Jacques Ellul
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I am not resigned to the shutting
away of loving hearts in the hard ground.
The answers quick and keen, the
honest look, the laughter, the love,~ Down, down, down
Edna St. Vincent Millay |
Father Bill O'Donnell
After his deaths a website has been made for him
THE FILM LIFE, LOVE, LAUGHTER AND LIBERATION
A film in the making about the inspiring life of Fr. Bill O'Donnell
Contact: Producer, Director Mary Jo McConahay Pacific Eye Production/PNS, 275 9th St. San Francisco, CA, 9410 mcconahay@pacificnews.org (415) 269 4755