Reverend Charles J. O’Rourke

Reverend Charles J. O’Rourke died November 6, 2020.

Fr. O’Rourke was born on November 1, 1930, in Missouri Valley, IA. He joined the Columban Fathers in high school, and was ordained at St. Columban’s Major Seminary in Milton, MA, in 1957.

From 1958 to 1985, Fr. O’Rourke did missionary work in South Korea. When he returned to the United States, he pastored Korean Catholic communities in Chicago, Los Angeles, and Omaha. After a transfer to the Columban headquarters in Bellevue, he continued ministry to the Korean Catholics of the area and to Contemplative Prayer.

He was preceded in death by his brother James, Donald (Shirley) O’Rourke and sisters Mary, Patricia (Victor Don Shea) and Irene (Francis) Green; and brother-in-law Gerald Gubbels.

Fr. O’Rourke is survived by two of his sisters, Rita Gubbels and Sister Jeanne O’Rourke RSM of Omaha, and many nieces and nephews.