Memorial Service
Lorenzo Rosebaugh, OMI
May 16, 1935 - May 18, 2009
St. Benedict the Moor Parish, Milwaukee, WI
June 13, 2009 - 2 PM
Opening Hymn -Stuttgart, 1715
Leader: We gather to remember our dear friend, Lorenzo, who gave his life for the poor in Guatemala. The Foreword to his memoir, To Wisdom Through Failure, written by Oblate Fr. Ronald Rolheiser, expresses powerfully who Lorenzo was to all of us. Excerpts from this Foreword will form the basis of our prayer.
Life is stronger than death. We know the spirit of Lorenzo for he is with us. His love has touched people, poor people, throughout our western hemisphere. We have also been deeply touched by this very special man. Let us listen to who he was.
Reader 1: Lorenzo was known as a radical priest, a social activist, a man given to extremes in terms of simplicity of lifestyle, a man at odds with the ordinary side of Western culture. He had been in prison for peace protests in both North and South America, lived on the streets with the poor in Brazil for several years, and had disdained airplanes in favor of hitchhiking and riding bicycles. Sent on assignment to Brazil, he’d simply set out on foot, knowing hardly a word of Spanish or Portuguese, from St. Louis to Recife, Brazil. He’d lived there, on the streets, with the street-people, eating what they ate, sleeping in doorways, and wearing their clothing, until a bout of hepatitis almost killed him and the community brought him back to the USA, not on foot this time, for medical treatment. * * * [=pause]
Leader: And Jesus said:
ALL: When you go, take nothing with you. Do not worry about your livelihood, what you are to eat or drink or use for clothing. Is not life more than food? Is not the body more valuable than clothes? Seek first God and the way of holiness, and all these things will be given to you.”
Reader 2: Lorenzo loved the poor. He had done all those things and was given over to a radically simple lifestyle, but he was hardly the textbook radical, the fiery prophet who is constantly in someone’s face. Introverted, shy, sensitive, self-effacing, childlike in honesty, prayerful, happy, and gentle to a fault, Lorenzo soon shattered all stereotypes, wonderfully so, of what he, or prophetic figures in general, should look like. * * *
Leader: And Jesus said:
ALL: You have heard the commandment:
You shall love your countrymen but hate your enemy.” My command to you is to love your enemies, pray for your persecutors. If you love only those who love you, what merit is there in that? * * *
Reader 3: Lorenzo’s memoir is not so much a travelogue of the outer events of his life, but a story of his soul and its journeys through childhood and adulthood, courage and fear, invitation and temptation, joy and depression, love and rejection, conviction and self-doubt. Most important, it is a story of fidelity, of a faith that was able to give its word and then keep that word, without walking away when it felt betrayed and without losing joy or growing bitter. * * *
Leader: And Jesus said:
ALL: Be on guard against performing religious acts for people to see. Give to the person who begs from you and do not turn your back. Remember, where your treasure is, there also will your heart be. If you, with all your limitations, know how to give children what is good, how much more will your heavenly Father give good things to those who ask. * * *
Reader 4: This is the story of a man who gives his life to the poor, but tells us that we shouldn’t have any illusions about what is asked of us when we do that. Committing yourself to justice and the poor isn’t romantic at all. You will do most of your traveling, physically and otherwise, on unpaved roads, and eventually, your body and perhaps even your reputation will show it. You won’t look like a Hollywood star afterwards, or even during it, and you can be sure that not everyone will automatically assume that you are Mother Theresa along the way. Lorenzo chronicles all of this: his fears of going to prison, of being in prison, of being wrong; his loneliness, the months in solitary confinement, the misunderstanding by community and family, what it feels like when your mother and father whom you love deeply, can no longer understand you; the moral aloneness, the pain of having to walk through much of life alone, unable to explain yourself, having simply to trust that, somewhere, sometime, it will all wash clean. * * *
Leader: And Jesus said:
ALL: Enter through the narrow gate! But, how narrow is the gate that leads to life, and how rough the road and how few there are who find it! Anyone who hears my words and puts them to practice is the like the wise person who built a house on solid rock. * * *
Reader 5: Daniel Berrigan, on of the influential figures in Lorenzo’s life, once wrote: “A prophet does not make a vow of alienation, but a vow of love.” It is safe to say that this is what Lorenzo did, all those years ago when, after a night of prayer, he made the decision to give himself over more radically to justice and to the poor He made a vow of love. It has taken him over some pretty rough roads, mostly alone, mostly on foot, landed him in prison, left his body beaten and showing the wear and tear of it, but it has left him in the end - happy, mellow, gentle, faithful, honest, and wonderfully grateful and full of energy for a new challenge! Our congregation, the Oblates for Mary Immaculate, was founded to serve the poor. We all try to do that, but only a few have the charism and the heart to actually get down and dirty, right on the streets where the poorest of the poor look for food, for a bed, for consolation, for dignity, and for God. Lorenzo Rosebaugh has done this, and has done us proud! He had learned the language of the poor, became their friend, advocate, and priest. His memoir, spoken with disarming gentleness and honesty, will tell you why.
* * *
Leader: And Jesus spoke of all such souls as Lorenzo:
ALL: [Women]: How blest are the poor in spirit:
[Men] The reign of God is theirs. [CONTINUE TO ALTERNATE]
Blest, too, are the sorrowing.
They shall be consoled.
Blest are the lowly!
They shall inherit the land.
Blest are those who hunger and thirst for holiness
They shall have their fill.
Blest are those who show mercy.
Mercy shall be theirs.
Blest are the single-hearted;
They shall see God!
Blest are the peacemakers!
They shall be called sons and daughters of God.
Blest are those persecuted for holiness’ sake.
The reign of God shall be theirs.
Blest are you when they insult you and persecute you and utter every kind of slander against you because of me;
Be glad and rejoice for your reward is great in heaven.
ALL: AMEN.
PERSONAL REMEMBRANCES of LORENZO: After each:
Leader: And we pray:
ALL: We give thanks for your life, Lorenzo.
Hymn - Stuttgart, 1715
3. We who grieve the loss and presence of a dear and loving friend.
Now surrender to his passing, into life that knows no end.
4 Let us bless the holy memory of the life that we have shared.
Bless the one whom we have cherished, place him in God’s loving care.
Outside backcover
Father Lawrence [Lorenzo] Rosebaugh, OMI was killed by gunmen May 18, 2009, in Guatemala.
The incident occurred Monday night on a rural highway linking the towns of Chisec and Ixcan, some 310 miles north of the capital. Details of the murder were vague — a roadside robbery gone awry, or possibly a failed carjacking. An official at the U.S. Embassy in Guatemala City could not comment.
Two men armed with rifles, who had their faces covered with ski masks stopped the vehicle in which five Catholic priests were riding. After robbing them of their belongings, the assailants fired at the priests, killing U.S. priest Lorenzo Rosebaugh, 74, the driver of the vehicle, on the spot and seriously wounding Jean Claude Nowama, from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The other priests, identified as U.S. citizens Ruben Elizondo and Erado Capustra, and Canadian Rodrigo Macaous, were not injured. All of the priests belonged to the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate, who work in impoverished areas in Latin America.
Lorenzo was born in Appleton, WI on May 16, 1935 to Mildred and Don Rosebaugh and grew up with one brother, Phil. The family lived briefly in Milwaukee but then moved to St. Louis where Larry spent most of his youth. Lorenzo entered the Oblates in January, 1955 and was ordained a priest in 1963. He was influenced by Dorothy Day and did his first 22 month stint in prison for his peace actions after helping steal and burn thousands of Vietnam War draft files in Milwaukee in 1968 as one of the “Milwaukee 14.” His passion for the poor took him to Brazil and several countries in Central America. Memorials are being held for Lorenzo in
