Fr. Bernie Rosinski has died

Fr. Bernard (Bernie) Rosinski, SCJ, died on November 3 in Chamberlain, SD. Diagnosed with advanced metastatic cancer in August, he was in home hospice care. Fr. Bernie was 88.

Originally from Detroit, Fr. Bernie was ordained to the priesthood in 1952. This year, he celebrated his 70th year as a member of the Priests of the Sacred Heart (Dehonians). Fr. Bernie had degrees from the Gregorian University in Rome, Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., Sacred Heart Seminary and School of Theology in Hales Corners, WI, and from Ball State University in Muncie, Ind.
 
Most of his years of ministry were in education and administration. He taught at Divine Heart Seminary in Donaldson, Ind., at Dehon Seminary in Great Barrington, Mass., and at SHSST. He also served in administration for the US Province of the Priests of the Sacred Heart as provincial secretary and on Provincial Council. From 1992-1998 he was on the staff of the Generalate in Rome.
 
Fr. Bernie retired in 2007, but it was an active retirement, assisting with ministries in South Dakota until health concerns this year kept him closer to home.
 
Reflecting on his 70 years of vows, Fr. Bernie wrote:
 
“I am happy to be an SCJ because I am surrounded by saints. There are so many of them, both deceased and still living. I find that by being with them I discover their saintliness, often hidden, but discoverable through attentiveness and observation. It’s not that my SCJ brothers don’t have faults. It’s that they seek to find them out, work on them, weed them out, and face any fault or weakness that prevents the LOVE and SERVICE to others that Fr. Dehon called for. That takes courage and guts. That SCJ tradition is bonding.”