Green Bay priest has apologetics book published posthumously

One of the Rev. Mike O'Rourke's greatest strengths was making sense of the most complex of issues and putting them into simple terms even a child could understand.

"Come Follow Me: Catholic Answers for Bible Objections to the Church" is the book O'Rourke, in conjunction with the Diocese of Green Bay, was in the process of publishing when he died. The book, which is about myths and answers to those myths regarding the Catholic faith, was an ongoing project of O'Rourke's for more than 10 years.

When Joe Bound was president of ACES Xavier in Appleton, he commented at a meeting of pastors about wanting to see Catholic apologetics introduced in the high school. Apologetics is a branch of theology that is concerned with defending or proving the truth of Christian doctrines.

"After we got all done with the meeting, (O'Rourke) came over to me and said, 'Joe, I've got an interest in this Catholic apologetics, and I've been tinkering with something for a while. Would you mind looking at it?'" said Bound, who since 2006 has been director of education for the Diocese of Green Bay. The Bible-based manuscript was what Bound sought.

O'Rourke tried several times to get the manuscript published, however, when those efforts failed, "he decided to form a partnership with the Diocese of Green Bay so at least the book could get into the Catholic school system," said St. Mary's business administrator Brian Dresang.

O'Rourke had shared unpublished copies of his book with teachers and diocesan officials, and everyone felt it would serve as a great learning tool. In December, Dresang said, the diocese agreed to do a limited publishing to get it into the hands of high school juniors and seniors as part of their religion studies.

"That was in place before he passed away," Dresang said. "Now we have an agreement with the diocese that we can maybe piggyback on that to make it available. A lot of parishioners have heard about it, but they've never seen a draft copy, and are interested in getting their hands on it. So we are going to try and make that happen."

With copyright pending, Bound said, the diocese will go ahead with a limited printing of the book based on pre-orders.

"He was a personal friend," Bound said of O'Rourke. "And I am deeply saddened by his passing. But this will be a great tribute to him."

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