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Fr. Lawrence (Lorenzo) Rosebaugh, OMI, Murdered Fr. Lawrence (Lorenzo) Rosebaugh, OMI, a friend to some CPF members, was murdered in a robbery north of Guatemala City on May 18. The following from fellow priest, Ron Rolheiser, OMI: Lorenzo Rosebaugh was no
ordinary man and no ordinary priest. He was a special gift to the world, the
Church, to our community, and especially to the poor for whom he gave his
life.… In 1968, in protest of the Vietnam War, he burned some draft files.
This landed him in prison for two years. In 1975 he hitch-hiked to Brazil and for the next several years lived on the streets of Recife, without a rectory or an address, celebrating the Eucharist with the street people and helping them find food each day. This aroused the suspicion of the authorities and he was arrested, imprisoned and beaten. . . . In 1983 he was arrested for sabotaging a public address system at Fort Benning and playing Archbishop Romero’s last homily through it. For this action, he spent another 18 months in prison. . . . Our religious community was founded to serve the poor. . . . We all try to do that, but only a few have the charism, 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 learned the language of the poor, became their friend, their advocate and their priest, and we are proud of him. . . . And he never did grow angry or bitter. Always gentle in spirit and baptized by the poor, I suspect that even in his final moments when an unthinking gunman was senselessly ending his life, he like Jesus, had an empathic sense of why this was happening: Father forgive them; they know not what they do.” See Losing A Prophet, Friday, June 19, 2009: www.the-tidings.com |
