Midlife Journey

This midlife journey coincided with events that swept the world in the sixties and seventies: the death of President Kennedy, May ’68 in France, the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia, the Vietnam War, and the spiritual revolution caused by Vatican II.

‘With remarkable honesty and lucidity, Gerald describes the impact of the Council on his generation of young priests. He pulls no punches as he narrates the challenge to his thinking and calling to celibacy. This story could easily have been sanitized. Thankfully he has not given into that temptation. He has presented a fascinating and detailed autobiography of a fruitful and fulfilled life’.  -Lord Carey of Clifton, Former Archbishop of Clifton.

Author or co-author of sixty published books, in 2006 Gerald O’Collins became a Companion of the General Division of the Order of Australia (AC), the highest civil honour granted by the Australian government.

Contents

Foreword by the Most Rev. Lord Carey of Clifton
Introduction
Part I: Preparations for the Journey
Chapter 1              Origins
Chapter 2               Rock Lodge (1931-44)
Chapter 3              Xavier College and Newman College (1944-49)
Chapter 4              Seven Years Hard (1950-56)
Chapter 5              The Path to Priesthood (1957-63)

Part II: The Journey
Chapter 6              The Road to Cambridge (1963-65)
Chapter 7              Pembroke College (1965-68)
Chapter 8              The Road to 1968
Chapter 9              Boston and Melbourne (1968-70)
Chapter 9             The Last Lap (1971-74)

Index of Names

Appendix:            A Family Tree