Sept. 9, 1957 – Oct. 5, 2025
Sister Lori High, SSMN, a longtime advocate for social justice who taught and assisted in many Catholic parishes locally, died Oct. 5. She was 68.
Born Loryn Stephanie High in Detroit, she was one of three children of Ellis E. “Ed” High Jr. and Barbara L. Alfieri High.
Deeply religious since she was a girl, she was an honor student at Mount St. Mary’s Academy in the Town of Tonawanda, where she graduated in 1975.
She joined the Sisters of St. Mary of Namur in 1979 after earning her bachelor’s degree in anthropology from the University at Buffalo. She went on to earn certification in youth ministry at Canisius College, now University; and further certification in pastoral education and training in teacher effectiveness. She received a master’s degree in pastoral ministry from Christ the King Seminary.
Her teaching assignments include Mount St. Mary Academy, DeSales Catholic Elementary School in Lockport and St. Marie College in Rwanda. She also did mission work for a year in the Democratic Republic of Congo and worked with refugees in Texas and St. Catharines, Ont.
She did pastoral ministry and taught religion classes at St. Joseph University Parish in Buffalo, Nativity of Our Lord Parish in Orchard Park, Queen of Heaven Parish in West Seneca and Annunciation Parish in Elma.
In recent years, she helped administer St. George Parish in West Falls. While at St. Joseph University Parish in the early 1990s, she was human services coordinator at the nearby Gloria J. Parks Community Center.
She advocated for social justice in numerous letters to the editor of The Buffalo News and by taking part in protest demonstrations. She was one of about three dozen people arrested on March 3, 1986, in a protest outside the federal building in downtown Buffalo against American involvement in Nicaragua.
In response to the sexual abuse accusations during the confirmation hearings for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh in 2018, she wrote an essay for the My View column in The News that recounted her anguish and trauma from a date rape episode that occurred before she joined the religious order.
Survivors include a niece.
A Mass of the Resurrection will be offered at 7 p.m. Thursday following visitation in the Sisters of St. Mary of Namur Center, 245 Lafayette Ave.
Email danderson@buffnews.com.
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Dale Anderson
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