About Me

Every author has a different story of why he or she wrote their first novel. Some write to entertain. Some write to enlighten. Some write to fulfill a creative need. And though we have different reasons for writing, we all have one thing in common: a passion for story-telling.

For the longest time, I aspired to write a book about the Catholic Church’s prejudice against women. In my research on the topic, I discovered the works of Giorgio Otranto, an Italian scholar of church history who has shown that women participated in the priesthood for the first few hundred years of Christianity. Digging deeper, I was also intrigued by the early Christian writings discovered at Nag Hammadi in 1945, which demonstrated that the early Christian movement was far more diverse than orthodox sources chose to indicate. These were complemented by other revealing historical sources, further suggesting that the original Christian message was distorted by the male leaders of the Church.

I found that much had been written from an academic perspective about women in the church, but as a topic, it had generally skirted the public consciousness. It was then that it hit me that an historical novel was a better way to raise public awareness. It was also then that I remembered the words of Ernest Hemingway … when it hits, you have to have the legs to run with it. So, for the next five years, I exercised my creative and literary skills to have the legs to run with it. I believe that in my first novel, The Priestess and the Pope, my legs ran well. But the years prior to this endeavor contributed in myriad ways to my passion to write this novel.

I was brought up as a Catholic and like many of my contemporaries attended a parochial grammar school, a public high school (Lewiston High School), a prep school (Kents Hill Preparatory School) for one year to prepare for college, and college (Providence College) which provided for a wonderful liberal arts experience as well as further religious education. After graduating from college, I received my commission as a second lieutenant and served in Vietnam, being awarded two U.S. Bronze Star Medals and two Vietnamese Crosses of Gallantry. Upon my return to Maine, I attended law school (University of Maine, School of Law) and was in private law practice for 20 years. It was during this time that I married Diane LeBlanc and had two wonderful daughters, Melodie and Michelle. I also had the honor of serving as the Mayor of the City of Lewiston for four years, and along with a few other dedicated individuals, brought a University of Maine campus to the Lewiston-Auburn area. I later served on the Governor’s Cabinet and was appointed as Executive Director and Chair of the Maine Workers’ Compensation Board. I served as President of the International Association of Industrial Accident Boards and Commissions, and currently serve as Chair of Central Maine Healthcare, a system of four hospitals in central Maine. During all of these endeavors, I was intrigue by the evolving role of women in the religious, military, business, political, medicical, and educational realms. In all of these areas of interest, with the exception of the Catholic Church, women evolved to the point of parity with men (or certainly much closer to it!). It’s time for the same to happen in the Catholic Church!

In recent years, I’ve taken a step back to dig deeper into my own beliefs, and to address questions about my religion that for me, have lacked satisfying answers. Many of these questions took root early in my life when, through discussions with my sister, it became clear that the core message of love, justice, and equality delivered by the priests of the church rang hollow in their every day application to women. Questions that before had been difficult to define now rung out very clearly for me: Why was the radically egalitarian message of Jesus abandoned? Why did church philosophers attribute an inferior nature to women? Why are women not allowed to be priests?

The church’s answers to these questions not only clash with recent historical discoveries, but with the voice of my own heart. My book The Priestess and the Pope, which will be available soon, is my own look at the origins of these beliefs. It presents a story about how women, once leaders in the early church, were discriminated against, and how many of the church’s early male leaders betrayed Christianity’s heritage of absolute equality.

I hope you will read the book and this blog with an open mind, and a willingness to continue to ask questions. I do not claim to have all the answers (you would be rightfully skeptical if I did), but I look forward to sharing what I do know, and coming closer to the truth through a dialogue with you.

If you’d like to speak further, I can be reached directly at authorpauldionne@gmail.com. Please feel free to email me or leave comments on this site – I would love to hear from you, and to consider your own experiences and comments!