Posted on 09/29/2006 4:36:15 PM PDT by Mrs. Don-o
A joyous African celebration filled St. Charles Lwanga parish yesterday as boys drummed and girls danced to welcome Nigerian Cardinal Francis Arinze, who came from the Vatican to visit schools supported by the Extra Mile Foundation of the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh.
Four "Extra Mile" schools serve a black, non-Catholic student body in impoverished neighborhoods. The foundation, supported by many non-Catholics, subsidizes about 60 percent of operating costs, keeping tuition low.
"The school is a community of love, of caring, of training. The school ... wants to build you up in character so you will be a joy to your family, so that society rejoices because of you," [Arinze] told about 400 students.
"An organization to help the children who are disadvantaged from the financial point of view, an organization that is diocesan and that has behind it not just Catholics but Episcopalians and other Christians and Jews who are convinced of this good effort and who give and who serve on the committee -- I have not seen such before. This is good news," he said.
Archbishop Donald Wuerl...created the Extra Mile Foundation in 1988, to make sure the church continued to serve poor children in neighborhoods Catholics had largely moved out of.
Cardinal Arinze is one of the most powerful men at the Vatican. He runs the liturgy office, but worked in Catholic schools as a young priest and bishop in Nigeria.
...At. St. Benedict the Moor, a seventh-grade class asked how he became a cardinal, and what languages he spoke. He replied that his mother tongue was Ibo, but that he had learned English as a child, and his work requires him to speak Italian, French, German and Spanish. He described the many years of college and seminary required to become a priest.
(Excerpt) Read more at post-gazette.com ...
Arinze-is-my-hero ping.
BTTT. Cardinal Arinze is a good shepherd. Our Father Amaliri in Tulsa was Ibo, too.
Regards to Mr. D. God bless both of you and yours.
To read later
Good news bump.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.