My trip to Lamont Illinois for the Funeral Mass of Bishop Rozman

Memories of my trip to Lamont Illinois - Bishop Gregorij Rozman's Memorial Mass

With much gratitude I can say that I was present at the funeral Mass of the very beloved Bishop Gregorij Rozman on April 3rd this year, 2013 in Lamont, Illinois. As a member of St. Mary's Church in Collinwood (Cleveland, OH) I became aware of a bus trip scheduled to go to Lamont. My, now deceased, maternal grandmother, Mrs. Frances Raischel had taken many trips to Lamont Illinois in the years that I was growing up. Out of curiosity, I signed up for this trip with the intention of finding out what attracted my grandmother and 'called' her to go on bus trips to this city. I had no idea what I was in for. The bus ride to Illinois was a delight. I'd looked to the internet before leaving for the trip to find out some details of this man, Bishop Rozman: but, little did I know there was much more to this man, and more to the story than I had found in my online search.

"The story of Bishop Rozman's life, his mission and his death, is beautifully written in the article below, written by Michelle Martin . What I may add is that everything in that article was told to me during the weekend I spent in Lamont. As the article states, the people attending this funeral, were the children of the generation of refugees that left Slovenia in the aftermath of World War II. The article states that "Documents have been uncovered showing that Bishop Rožman worked to rescue thousands of people from death or imprisonment at the hands of the occupiers." And that is exactly what was told to me by the lovely people on this trip. I will be forever grateful for the time, and tears,(tears were shed,) in the retelling of the horrer suffered by the families of these 'children of the refugees.' Tears came into the eyes of one very gentle man, Stanley, who told me what had happened to his parents,..." to this article ...