Brother Paul Julian Rosonke, C.S.C., began his religious life as a postulant with the Order of the Holy Cross in Watertown, Iowa, before becoming a novitiate in 1954, Rolling Prairie, Indiana. After fully entering the priesthood, he served as the head of maintenances department for Holy Cross High School in River Grove, Illinois, starting in 1958. While in River Grove, Brother Paul became a licensed electrician and learned to weld. This was also the time in his life when he became particularly aware of the movement for Charismatic Renewal in the Catholic Church, attending charismatic prayer gathers lead by Brothers Fergus Burns and Edward Olszowka.

In 1977, Brother Paul moved to Cherry Creek, South Dakota to serve the people of the Lakota nation on the Cheyenne River Reservation. He lived and worked there for seven years. From 1984 to 1993, Brother Paul was part of the Notre Dame maintenance staff, which was followed by a two-year charismatic spiritual retreat at a Benedictine Monastery in Pecos, New Mexico. Following the New Mexico retreat, Brother Paul spent a total of seven-teen years in Texas between San Antonio and then Austin where he worked on the maintenance staff at Holy Cross High School and at St. Ignatius Church, where he also served as a prayer minister to the needed of the parish. In 2012, he returned to the University of Notre Dame and retired at Columba Hall, where he lived until his death in 2017.

Over the course of his life, Brother Paul Rosonke took part in a number of conferences, national and internationally, on the charismatic renewal of the Catholic Church—including in Rome, Italy, Steubenville, OH, and on Notre Dame’s campus—as part of his broader interest in the movement.

A bit of background on the Catholic Charismatic Movement, or the Charismatic Renewal of the Catholic Church. It began the spring of 1967 at a retreat for students put on by Duquesne University, there grew a movement focused on the “baptism of the Holy Spirit” and greater commitment to having a personal relationship with Jesus. This “baptism of the spirit” can also be seen as a renewal of the Baptismal and Conformation sacraments, rather than entering into a new covenant or relationship. It was, and is, encouraging followers of Christ to search out the same spiritual partnership that was gifted to the apostles at Pentecost, and which they believe is also gifted to them. It was officially supported by the Catholic Church, with Pope John Paul II calling the Renewal a “gift of the Holy Spirit to the Church” (March 14, 1992). An opinion maintained throughout his papacy.