After graduating in 1898 from the famous Jesuit School in Chyrów, then in Galicia, Austria-Hungary, now in Ukraine, he went to Riga, Latvia to study.

He became a professor of ecclesiastical history, German and French at the Seminary of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Minsk-Mohilev in Saint Petersburg.

He met Achille Ratti for the first time, the Apostolic Visitor for the Baltic Countries and later Pope Pius XI.

He was released from Riga in April 1920 and named titular bishop of Canea[2] He was appointed Apostolic Delegate for the Baltic States.

On April 24, 1922, Achille Ratti, then Pope Pius XI, nominated O'Rourke to the post of an Apostolic Administrator of the Free City of Danzig, and, on 21 December 1922, as the titular bishop of Pergamon.

[3] He hosted a synod from 10 to 12 December 1935, but growing pressure from the Nazi-majority senate made him resign as bishop of Danzig after he had tried to appoint four additional Polish parish priests.

In 1972 O'Rourke's ashes were moved from Campo Verano to his former bishopric, now in Poland; they were buried in a crypt in the Oliwa Cathedral.