My new book, Great American-Catholic Eulogies, reflects my lifelong interest in both story telling and religious thought. It’s a personal history of American-Catholicism told through the lives of significant men and women — from colonial times to today. Their stories are revealed in eulogies and printed In Memoriam tributes, and in the prefaces I wrote for each one to place the subject in his or her era.
The deceased represent a broad range of American-Catholic ethnicity; their contributions were in social, public, church or military service, or through art, music, literature, media, and sports. I want to reintroduce these fascinating people to readers who may have forgotten — or never known — the extent of how Catholics have left their mark on America.
My prior book is Momma’s Enchanted Supper & Other Stories for the Long Evenings of Advent and I have contributed to two essay collections: Christmas Presence: Twelve Gifts That Were More Than They Seemed and Diamond Presence: Twelve Stories of Finding God at the Old Ball Park. My articles have appeared in the Miami and Chicago metropolitan dailies, and my screenplay, Pure Beholding, had a brief happy life as first place winner in a Texas screenwriting competition before dying peacefully, never produced. Before all that, I majored in journalism at Drake and did graduate studies in folklore at Creighton and Kansas Universities.
I live with my husband Stan Reinisch in Ocean Ridge, FL, and we spend hurricane season in Evanston, IL. Our ten grandchildren come and go.
For my blogs at Huffington Post, go to http://www.huffingtonpost.com/carol-dechant/
