by Eileen Quinn Knight, Ph.D. Profiles in Catholicism
Dr. Knight: Could you please tell us about your early life.
Father O’Meara: I grew up in Des Moines, Iowa, and Madison, Wisconsin, and I am a priest of the Dominican Order. I did my doctoral studies at the University of Munich with Heinrich Fries and Karl Rahner.
Dr. Knight: Tell us about where you taught.
Father O’Meara: I taught at Aquinas Institute (Dubuque, Iowa; now at St. Louis, MO) from 1966 to 1979; and at the University of Notre Dame from 1981 to 2004 as the William K. Warren Professor of Theology.
A past president of the Catholic Theological Society of America, I have been a visiting professor at Wartburg Lutheran Seminary (Dubuque); St. Joseph’s Theological Institute (Cedara, South Africa); Boston College, and St. Michael’s College, University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Dr. Knight: Could you tell us about your writing process?
Father O’Meara: Among his fifteen books are: Theology of Ministry; Thomas Aquinas, Theologian; God in the World: An Introduction to Karl Rahner; Vast Universe. Extraterrestrials and Christian Revelation; Scanning the Signs of the Times: French Dominicans in the Twentieth Century; Life beyond Death
Dr. Knight: Thank you for taking time out of your schedule to let others know the kind of work you do as a Dominican.