Father Bill O'Donnell
1930-2003

By Dennis Bernstein

Father Bill O'Donnell – liberation theologian, radical activist, truth-teller, prisoner of conscience, and pastor of St. Joseph the Worker Church in Berkeley – died suddenly Dec. 8 of an apparent heart attack. He was 73.

Of course it would be Bill's heart – the well-worked organ of a man who put love at the center of all things – that would finally cut short his life. For decades his church has been a place for activists and human rights workers to meet, organize, share information, hold events, and, dare I say, pray.

Father Bill stood against torture, militarism, war, and nuclear madness, and he stood side by side with Cesar Chavez for farm workers' rights. Father Bill recently spent six months in a jail cell for protesting the murderous School of the Americas, now known as the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation. He was also a key participant from communities of faith in the grueling, coast-to-coast Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride in September.

"In his black leather jacket and his Elvis haircut, I expected him to pull out a Lucky and break into song," one Freedom Rider said.

Father Bill was a very humble, very funny man, but he was not delicate or restrained when it came to speaking truth to power, even if that meant having his arm broken or his head bashed.

Bill got the boot from four different parishes for being too political before settling down at St. Joseph the Worker.

On Dec. 14 more than 1,000 mourners gathered at the Berkeley Community Theater to pay tribute to Father Bill. Singers, musicians, actors, politicians, and activists from every progressive cause – from Rep. Barbara Lee to actor Martin Sheen – came to pay tribute to Father Bill.

All of us who knew Bill are greatly diminished by his absence. May his courage and commitment to social justice and human rights issues be a guiding force for all of us as we face the difficult challenge of resisting what now appears to be a permanent state of war.

Dennis Bernstein is the executive producer of Flashpoints on KPFA Radio.