In Memoriam: Brother Raphael Rock, C.Ss.R.
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October 26, 2023Brother Raphael Rock, C.Ss.R., a member of the Saint John Neumann Residence, Timonium, Maryland, died on October 13, 2023, age 91 and two months.
In secular life he was born William Charles in Baltimore to William and Beatrice (Petro), August 8, 1932. He was baptized and confirmed at the Redemptorist parish of Sacred Heart of Jesus/Sagrado Corazón de Jesus in Baltimore’s Highlandtown neighborhood.
Brother professed his first vows on March 15, 1950 in Ephrata, Pennsylvania, even today among the youngest vocations ever to present itself. He was only about 16 when he joined as a candidate in 1948. His final vows were pronounced on October 16, 1954 in Ephrata.
His vocation was largely to assist or lead maintenance projects for Redemptorist properties in the Baltimore and Washington area. In 1969, after two and half years of course work, he completed certification from the Utilities Engineering Institute of Chicago, which gave him knowledge of all types of machines—from kitchen appliances to heating and cooling systems. Brother’s skills were on full display during his ministry at Mt. St. Alphonsus Seminary, which saw him in charge of the physical plant. He was assigned there between 1950 and December 1985, with a short break between September 1959 and February 1960, when he was assigned to St. Cecilia in New York City.
He planned and managed the entire heating system of the main building at the Mount, rewired it to meet the code after 75 years of the building’s existence, and decorated the chapel.
When the former Redemptorist vacation house at West End needed a new roof, Brother Raphael was given charge of that project, too. When the house was razed to make way for the new San Alfonso Retreat House in the early 1960s, people remarked that the roof was in excellent shape even after hurricanes had come ashore.
In addition to being the Mr. Fix-It of province properties, he carried on significant volunteer ministries at three Baltimore outreach centers, which he engaged from his home parish after being assigned there in 1986. One, “Beans and Bread,” was a daily bread line that fed about 7,000 each month. Brother Raphael was in charge of collecting donated food stuffs so that Baltimoreans would not go hungry. On this same site was the Learning Center, which served the Upper Fells Point community by teaching job skills.
He also helped out at the Frederick Ozanam House, a program run by the St. Vincent de Paul Society, which provided transitional housing services to the city’s homeless men. He once explained that these activities were done in a spirit of charity and connection to God. “For us, work is a prayer,” he told The Catholic Review in 2001. “You can’t let prayer slip away from you or else being a brother loses its meaning.”
Brother Raphael was also the principal caregiver for his mother, who died in May 2003. She was a daily communicant thanks to her son, who brought her the Eucharist every day. A sister, Beatrice T. Landman, predeceased him in November 2012.
He also carried on two further ministries that have given glory to Mary and the Baltimore Province. The first ministry was his ability to make tens of thousands of rosaries. The second, largely unheralded ministry was the editing and revision of the Cherished Memories for the Province’s brothers—little biographical write-ups for each man who served as a consecrated religious brother.
In May 2022 he was assigned to the St. John Neumann Residence for medical observation and aged gracefully as a model religious.
Brother Raphael also had a wonderful sense of humor. When asked if he ever had any personal projections about when he might consider taking a sabbatical his reply was “two days after my death.” Brother Raphael is now getting his much-deserved rest.
