Paul Zucarelli experienced a near-death experience that transformed his life forever. Zucarelli was a successful businessman whose heart stopped – nine times – from cardiac arrest. He shared how it has forever altered his mission in life in a presentation hosted by the Cathedral of the Risen Christ at Pius X High School in Lincoln Sept. 26. He also presented in David City, Falls City and Hastings.
Zucarelli is a Catholic evangelist and author of the book “Faith Understood.” He and his wife Beth travel the country sharing their experience in hopes of bringing people closer to God.
Dennis Kellogg, director of communications for the Catholic Diocese of Lincoln, talked with Paul Zucarelli after his presentation about his vision of Heaven, the power of intercessory prayer and how Bishop Emeritus Thomas Olmsted of Phoenix, a priest of the Diocese of Lincoln, played a role in his recovery even though they had never met before. What follows is an edited version of that conversation.
Dennis Kellogg, Southern Nebraska Register: You have an amazing story you share across the country. How different is your life today than it was before you had your health incident?
Paul Zucarell, Catholic evangelist and author: It’s completely different. I feel like I’m finally the person that God meant me to be.
I was a very driven, successful businessman, did a lot of things in my life for the benefit of myself and my family, but really financially. And the busier I got, the more crowded out was my time with the Lord. And given what’s happened to me, I walked away from the world. I literally quit my boards, my companies. I was the CEO and I left so that I can give the remaining days of my life to the evangelization of our Lord Jesus, for the grace and the gift he gave us that day.
Editor's Note: See photo slideshow from his talk at Pius X.
SNR: You basically died nine times through cardiac arrest. You were dead almost two hours in total. Can you give us an idea of what that experience was like?
Zucarell: It was transformative. For some reason, only the Lord knows.
He wanted my whole family to see this from 10 to 15 feet away. They had to witness this. Must have been horrific. They said my eyes rolled back in my head and my body just kind of flopped and I died. Stopped, so to speak.
And to me, it speaks to the fragility of life itself. We don’t know when the hour is coming. Having been a near-death experience survivor, it’s grounded me. I think when people have suffering and tragedies in their life, you either go one or two ways. It’s the same coin. It’s either heads or tails. And some people who suffer a lot, the enemy will rent space in their brain and tell them if God really loved you, He wouldn’t have taken your child from this earth, or if God really loved you, your spouse would not have died of cancer suddenly, or whatever. That separation from God.
Where the same coin on the opposite side—and I fell on that side, thanks be to God—which is, you know what? I am not myself. Every breath I have, every heartbeat I have, it’s of Him. He gives me my being. And I better be more respectful, reverent, appreciative, and I need to worship Him more.
The old Paul spent less than 1% of his time on the salvation of his soul. The new Paul, I’m probably spending 20% to 40%. I’m trying to get there every moment of my life.
SNR: Did you see heaven?
Zucarell: Yes, sir, I did. Unequivocally, without a doubt, I know. And for those who don’t believe me, I just remind them of St. Bernadette saying, “I’m here to inform you, not convince you.”...
Many people say there’s this light. That’s one of the common themes... this beautiful, white light, and it’s so pure, but it’s so bright, and it just beckons you, it calls you into it. And when my soul left my body, I was alive. My intellect and my will, the two things that God gave me, were very alive. In fact, they were more alive than I can feel them in my own body. I would use the words “a heightened sense of awareness.”
Then as I go into this light, the unconditional love of God that I can’t fathom, nor can I put words on it, is real. It’s absolutely, unequivocally real. Because God is love. So, when your soul is in conformity and in union with its Creator, you will experience the love of God.
The other thing I’ll say is there was no time there. I didn’t know how long I was there. So people tell me you were dead about this long. But for me, I didn’t want to come back here. Absolutely did not want to come back here.
SNR: Why do you think you did?
Zucarell: I personally believe it was necessary for my own salvation.
What happened to me was clearly a requirement of God because what God brings to you is for your good. All things work for the good for those who love God. I think that’s Romans 8:28. I said two prayers before I went in for surgery, because I was being kind of foretold that something was going to happen.
I prayed that whatever had to happen to me, it may bring my family back to Christ and the Church. Many of our family members had fallen away.
And my second prayer was, I get it now. Lord, I want to live. It was almost like I was reading Hezekiah in the Old Testament, where God turned back the clock. He was going to die and He turned it back and let him live a while longer. I think it was 15 years. And I basically was pleading with God, if you let me live, (I will) quit the world and I would go out and evangelize for Him. So all I’m doing now is honoring my commitment to my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
SNR: Bishop Emeritus Thomas Olmsted of Phoenix, who has very strong roots here in the Diocese of Lincoln, played a part in your faith story, even though you didn’t even know who he was.
Zucarell: I didn’t even live in Phoenix and never met the man.
But when I got in trouble at the hospital, that’s when the Holy Spirit began moving and moved our son Michael’s heart to take the crucifix that (my wife) Beth bought me days before surgery and go to St. Paul’s.... He doesn’t even recall how he got there. He said it was almost like he was led there....
So he got to St. Paul’s Church, and he thought it was just a priest and they informed him that’s the bishop. So here, the Lord connected two strangers (out of) four and a half million people... And bishop said, “Michael, let’s pray,” He took the cross and said, “Where two or more are gathered in my name, there I will be in their midst. Let us pray for your father. The Lord will hear us.” The bishop said he continued to pray all afternoon and into the evening in his Vespers for my recovery.
And here’s the best part. While they were praying, simultaneously... (the doctor) needed a heartbeat to test his wires. And I didn’t have one. A sentence in my chart says, “patient’s heart spontaneously returns to sinus rhythm on its own.” Spontaneously.
The doctor said, “I’m standing around you saying, ‘His heart came back,’ and I yelled, ‘Test the wires. Test the wires.’ and they worked.” (The Mayo Clinic Hospital) has everything timed on their chart. When that happened and my heart was able to come back on its own, no intervention by man, so that doctor could finish the procedure, is exactly when the bishop and my son were praying to Jesus. This is real intercessory prayer.
SNR: You wrote your book, which is called “Faith Understood: An Ordinary Man’s Journey to the Presence of God.” You speak nationally. Why do you do it? Because it seems to me, watching you, it’s exhausting. It takes emotionally so much out of you. Why do it?
Zucarell: I am going to give you a three-fold answer.
One, it’s for my salvation. This is my penance.
Two, what’s on my heart is the last two lines of the (book) of James that stuck with me. And I’m paraphrasing, ‘if anyone can lead a sinner back to Christ, to cover over a multitude of your own sins and save your own soul.’
One. So I do this for the one because I believe the gospel is literal. And it goes back to my earlier comment, it’s my penance.
And my third answer to that would be, I want to be a role model for my children and grandchildren. To teach them what’s really important.
SNR: And when it comes to what’s really important, at the end of your talk, you talked about five lessons that you’ve learned from this whole experience. What is the main thing you want people to come away from your experience knowing?
Zucarell: Prayer really matters. God listens.
I’m just a living example of that. I couldn’t pray for myself anymore. And those people that were praying, I thank them all. I continue to thank them. And I didn’t pray enough.
And again, I think this is just a practice session here on earth, but we need to be practicing. I used to think getting to heaven was an entrance exam. I would present my case: ‘God, I did the best I could. I was Catholic and I got baptized, went to church. Was that good enough?’
My answer to that today is, ‘absolutely not. No, it wasn’t.’
Because what I learned was, it wasn’t an entrance exam. It was an exit interview. I couldn’t present my case. But He showed me my life. He showed me everything I did that offended Him. It’s called sin. It was real. He knows.
Watch the entire interview with Paul Zucarelli including additional questions and answers, and his full presentation before
an audience in Lincoln, on the Catholic Diocese of Lincoln YouTube channel.
