Background
Joseph F. "Joe" O'Rourke was born in 1938, two days after the death of his father, in Hudson, New York.
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Joseph F. O'Rourke
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O'Rourke was an activist against the Vietnam war and was one of nine people who broke into Dow Chemical offices in Washington, D.C. in 1969 and destroyed some of the company's files. Dow Chemical was the primary manufacturer of napalm. During this period O'Rourke worked closely with Philip Berrigan.
In August 1974, CFFC President Joan Harriman asked him to travel with her to Marlboro, Massachusetts, to baptize a baby whose local priests refused to perform the rite. The baby's mother, 20-year-old Carol Morreale, had been interviewed regarding an "abortion-information clinic" that was proposed for Marlboro by Bill Baird, an activist from New York City. Morreale told a newspaper reporter that she did not advocate abortion herself but that she was in favor of free choice for others and thus she supported Baird's proposal.
Because of her statement in the newspaper, and the town's polarization over the issue of abortion clinics, Morreale's local priest would not baptize her three-month-old son Nathaniel, and Humberto Sousa Medeiros, the Archbishop of Boston, said that he would not allow any other priest to perform the rite. On August 20, 1974, O'Rourke publicly baptized the baby on the steps of the parish church, Immaculate Conception Church, in front of its locked doors and 300 onlookers including Morreale family members and friends, and news reporters. O'Rourke continued to live with his order and appealed his dismissal to Rome on the grounds that he had a right to baptize the baby.
His appeal was rejected. Later, he was also laicized. O'Rourke later married and had a child.
He died in Oak Park, Illinois, in 2008.
Membership
O'Rourke was one of the early board members of Catholics for a Free Choice.
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Born
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Died
July 24, 2008 (aged 70) -
Nationality
American -
Religion
Catholic