CNW 09/25/05 The Inberview: Ann Rosemond

Centenarian reflects on
73 years in one parish

Stepping into Ann Rosemond’s South Michigan Avenue apartment is like walking into a museum of African-American Catholic history, with the hallway lined from floor to ceiling with photos and mementos of African-American bishops and priests and pastors to black Catholics. Plaques honoring Rosemond’s contributions to the Knights and Ladies of St. Peter Claver, the Archdiocesan Council of Catholic Women and other groups take up the opposite wall.

“I never worked or had children, so I had a lot of free time,” Rosemond said by way of explanation. “I did a lot of community work.”

Mother Ros\emond, as she’s called, is very much of the present day, ushering guests into a living room where dozens of 100th birthday cards crowd the tables and and mantel, some two months after the event. “I’m keeping them for sentimental reasons,” said Rosemond with a twinkle.

Rosemond has been a parishioner at St. Anselm—the home parish of James T. Farrell, creator of Studs Lonigan—since 1932, and still attends Mass in heels and hat every Sunday and holy day. She has outlasted 10 pastors and five cardinals, and she shared some of her wisdom with Catholic New World staff writer Michelle Martin.

The Catholic New World: How did you become Catholic?

Ann Rosemond: I was born in Little Rock, Ark., and I attended St. Bartholomew’s Catholic school for about one term. Then I married and moved to Chicago, and after I came to Chicago, I looked around for a Catholic church. I happened to go to St. Elizabeth. I started instruction and was baptized there.

I was baptized by Father Joseph F. Eckert (a Divine Word priest) in 1928. He made 100 converts and I happened to be one.

TCNW: Why did you want to go to a Catholic church?

AR: That was just my preference. I think that got into me when I attended the school, with the sisters and all. Something kind of rubbed off on me, I guess. I was raised in the Baptist church, but I never had a desire to join.

TCNW: How did you come to St. Anselm?

AR: St. Elizabeth’s burned down in 1930. That’s when the cardinal (Cardinal George Mundelein) told Father Eckert to make St. Anselm an SVD parish. I came in ’32 with Father Eckert to St. Anselm’s, and I’ve been at St. Anselm’s ever since.

TCNW: What was it like when you came there?

AR: It was an Irish parish. The priest was Father Gilmartin, and it was all Irish. Then Father Eckert came, and the Irish began to leave. They had no choice … they were already leaving. I’ve been there under 10 pastors. Our last pastor left—that’s Father Mark [Weber, SVD]. He got promoted and became provincial.

TCNW: How has the parish changed?

AR: No more than the whole Catholic faith has changed, period. The whole faith has changed. We do things now we didn’t used to do, like going to confession before you go to Communion—you don’t have to do that now. When I came into the church, you had to go to confession before you went to Communion regardless of what day it was. All that’s changed.

Ladies go to church now without hats on. When I came into the church, a woman covered her head, period. Women wearing shorts to church … that’s the kind of changes I’ve seen that I can’t deal with, but I accept it, you know. I still wear my hat.

TCNW: Have the changes been good or bad?

AR: I think some of both. Some good and some bad, but regardless, we have to accept them.

TCNW: Who was your favorite pastor? Why?

AR: Father [Elzear] Gehlen, and Father [Melvin] James. Father Gehlen celebrated my birthday Mass.

In 1976, my husband (Roosevelt Rosemond) closed the door and said I’m going down to help with bingo, and I said OK. Twenty minutes later, the phone rung, and they said come down to St. Anselm’s—Rosemond has passed out. When I got down there, he was lying on the floor, and the paramedics were standing over him. I looked at one of them and said do you get a pulse? And he said no.

The policemen came with a stretcher and took him to St. Bernard Hospital. When the policeman came to me and said, Mrs. Rosemond, your husband has passed, Father Gehlen was standing there, and I just fell in his arms. He got me back home, and we had the funeral. Father Gehlen insisted that his body remain in church overnight. That’s why I love Father Gehlen. He was there for me.

Now Father James, the reason he’s my favorite: My mother was Baptist. When my mother passed in 1985, she was 99 and six months. Father James said, Ann, bring your mother to St. Anselm’s church. We will have her funeral here. We laughed about that. Mama was a dyed-in-the-wool Baptist and she had one of the biggest Catholic funerals.

That’s why I love those two priests. They were there for me.

TCNW: What advice would you give younger Catholics about practicing their faith?

AR: I think I would tell them to attend Mass. The church says you should attend Mass on Sundays and holy days, and I think they should keep that up. And their mode of dress should be corrected. That’s about it. Receive the sacraments, follow the laws of the church.

People ask me what is my secret. My secret is doing God’s works of mercy, which I have done all of my life. The works of mercy say feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit the sick and bury the dead. Those are God’s works of mercy, and he says what you do for one of these, you have done for me. I think that’s where you get your blessings, what you do for others.

I’ve fed many a person. I’ve given many a person a home and I’ve buried many a person. I’ve seen them come and go, and I’ve sat at many persons’ biers at St. Anselm’s. Do God’s works of mercy. That’s my secret.

Of course, I jokingly say, drink Martell.

TCNW: Was there ever a time when you wanted to leave the church?

AR: No.

TCNW: You have pictures of African-American bishops. Could the church be more welcoming to African Americans?

AR: I’m disappointed because we don’t have an African-American cardinal in the United States. I mentioned this to my pastor; I said I’d like to go over there and tell that pope off. He said, what would you say, Mrs. Rosemond? I’d say, Listen here, Your Holiness. When are you going to give us an African-American cardinal in the United States? I have a picture of one from Africa, Cardinal Rugamwa. I had the opportunity to meet him.

We have 13 black bishops. I’m hoping if we get one (a cardinal), it will be [Atlanta Archbishop Wilton] Gregory. That’s what everybody’s thinking, because he’s an archbishop.

TCNW: Why is it important to have a black cardinal?

AR: Because its just as important as having all the white cardinals. Mix them up: a black one, a Latino one.

TCNW: Would that show black Catholics that they are welcome in the church?

AR: It would show there’s no segregation in the church. Now it looks segregated, and the Catholic Church is supposed to be infallible according to the teachings when I joined.

TCNW: Do you think it is segregated or just looks that way?

AR: To a point, it’s segregated.

TCNW: What do you like about St. Anselm’s?

AR: I just love it as a parish—the parishioners. We’ve always had good pastors there. Since I’ve never been in any other church, I can’t compare. I don’t know what they’ve done in other churches.

TCNW: When you get a new pastor, what are you going to tell him?

AR: The first thing I’m going to tell him is to buy a new altar. We have this box that they have made and draped up. … I attended a church up north, and they had an altar that was already designed, made out of the same kind of material as the benches. I’m sick of looking at that box thing up there.