Sister Rose Marie (St. Carol) Lorentzen, BVM

Sister Rose Marie (St. Carol) Lorentzen, BVM, 89, of Mount Carmel Bluffs, 1160 Carmel Drive, Dubuque, Iowa, died Friday, Dec. 20, 2024.

Visitation of cremated remains, the Sharing of Memories and Mass of Christian Burial were on Friday, Jan. 10, 2025. Burial was in the Mount Carmel cemetery.

Sister Rose Marie was born June 3, 1935, in Walsh County, N.D., to Carroll and Rose (Rogalla) Lorentzen. She entered the BVM congregation Aug. 2, 1959, from St. Francis Xavier Parish, Chicago. She professed first vows on Feb. 2, 1962, and final vows on July 16, 1967.

Sister Rose Marie was an elementary teacher at St. Martin in Cascade, Iowa., and at St. Eugene and Holy Cross, both in Chicago, and a secondary teacher at Holy Angels Academy in Milwaukee and Bertrand HS in Memphis, Tenn. She ministered as a religious education instructor at St. Jerome in Chicago and St. Gertrude in Franklin Park, Ill., and parish minister at St. Joseph in Aurora, Ill. She founded and served as executive director of Hesed House and the Public Action to Deliver Shelter (PADS) program in Aurora, Ill.  She also ministered with Advocacy for Justice, served as a bilingual instructor and tutor at Waubonesee Community College, and volunteered as an ESL instructor at the Dominican Learning Center all in Aurora, Ill.

“In a presentation to the BVM Assembly, Rose Marie shared, ‘I believe it is God’s will for us that we become the most fully human, deeply loving, accepting [persons] that we are created to be. For as we become present to each other, share our lives more deeply, allow ourselves to become vulnerable anew, we increasingly incarnate a loving God [who, in Jesus, was most fully human,] to all those whom we touch.’” (Eulogy).

She was preceded in death by her parents and siblings Duane and Leesa “Lee” Lorentzen. She is survived by nephews and the Sisters of Charity, BVM, with whom she shared life for 65 years