Lagos, 13 December, 2022 / 8:40 pm (ACI Africa).
Francis Cardinal Arinze, the Vatican-based Nigerian Catholic Church leader, has been hailed as a legend and icon of the universal Church.
In his homily during the Eucharistic celebration to mark the 90th birthday anniversary of Cardinal Arinze at Holy Trinity Basilica of the Archdiocese of Onitsha, John Cardinal Onaiyekan said, “We have here before us an outstanding legend and icon of the universal Catholic Church.”
“It was in this capacity as Archbishop that he participated in the last session of the Second Vatican Council in September to December 1965, as the youngest Council Father,” Cardinal Onaiyekan said about Cardinal Arinze who previously served as Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments.
Cardinal Arinze, he said during the December 8 event in reference to Vatican II sessions, “is today the only surviving Council Father among the few who went from Nigeria to that great event, and he is in fact one of the very few in that hallowed category of ecclesiastical ancestors in the entire Catholic world.”
The Nigerian Cardinal recognized his compatriot’s “extraordinary intellectual prowess”, saying that was a contributing factor to his appointment as the Archbishop of Onitsha Archdiocese at a young age of 34 in June 1967.