Lorenzo Rosebaugh, 1935–2009

On my way outside to work on the garden today I stopped at my computer to make a quick check for new emails. The top email said that Father Lorenzo Rosebaugh had been shot to death last night in Guatemala City. I was overwhelmed by the news, but as the emails and phone calls came in I knew it was true. I had lost a dear friend and a person I considered a living saint.

This simple man who lived his life with the poor and oppressed and the victims of violence was himself killed in a carjacking, a random act of violence. This holy person had touched so many lives all over the world by being true to himself and living his faith in everyday life.

Lorenzo was a member of the Milwaukee 14. He had just come in 1968 to Casa Maria, the local Catholic Worker House of Hospitality, when the planning for the Milwaukee 14 nonviolent action was taking place. He joined us in his ordinary and natural way of doing things. As his biography To Wisdom Through Failure states, this action was a major step in the direction his life was taking, a witness to peace and living with the rejected and outcast.

There are many stories many can tell about Lorenzo. In fact I am starting a wiki page in Memorial to Lorenzo Rosebaugh. I and others have so many fond memories of this living saint when he walked with us. Hopefully memories of his life, as his life, can be an inspiration to all of us. Here is just one of many for me.

My wife and I met during the nine months that Lorenzo and the rest of us Milwaukee 14 were out on bail after the nonviolent action on September 24, 1968. Right before the trial we decided to get married. We wanted to do it simply so we invited our friend, then known as Larry, over to my apartment one night. Lorenzo had opened a store front, called the Living Room, on State Street, at that time the skid row of Milwaukee. He brought with him a friend, one of the homeless men that were staying at the Living Room. We had at our apartment that night a young runaway girl that we were working on returning home. This homeless friend of Lorenzo’s and this young girl were the ‘unofficial’ witnesses as Father Lorenzo married us.

I say unofficial because, although Lorenzo was a Roman Catholic priest, he did not have the license from the State of Wisconsin to legally officiate at weddings. So, a few days later we had another friend, a gay Orthodox priest sign the marriage license with some friends of ours as official witnesses. (This is another whole story.)

For years my wife worried that our marriage was not legal and valid in the eyes of the Catholic Church since we were not married in a church, and legally married by someone else. Priests, including our pastor and her own brother, a priest, said not to worry about it but she continued to do so.

Finally in my last job before retirement, I worked for a Catholic priest who was a cannon lawyer. I asked him about the situation. He said my wife was right that we were not officially married in the eyes of the Church but that he could fix it. With a few statements and records he did and we are recorded in church records as officially married on April 26, 1968 by Father Lorenzo Rosebaugh. This cannon lawyer priest needed a church to record the event so he used the church where he was the pastor and I was the youth minister.

At Lorenzo’s second last visit to Milwaukee and our house, while he was, by request of his religious superiors, writing his autobiography, I told Lorenzo that his marriage of my wife and me was now officially recorded in Church records. I thought he would be excited to hear this news. Being the simple person he was he told me that honestly he did not even remember that night and marrying us. I guess he had married a lot couples, especially after he had received his state license, and he was always living fully in the present.

There are many more stores about him. Lorenzo was and continues to be a blessing to us all. If you have a story to share please send it to Lorenzo@nonviolentcow.org.

Thank you to those who have submitted comments and memories of Lorenzo — they’ve been moved to the Memorial to Lorenzo Rosebaugh page, where additional comments are welcome!