Recently, encomiums poured in as one of Nigeria’s well known cleric, His Eminence, Francis Cardinal Anizoba Arinze, turned 90. Leading the pack of those who paid tributes to him is his home state governor, Professor Charles Chukwuma Soludo. According to Soludo, Arinze has “remained a reference point to Catholicism and evangelization of the gospel in Africa and beyond; a selfless Christian leader who commands respect and followership.” He prayed that God’s abundance of grace would continue to rest on his life as he clocked 90 years.
Arinze is Nigeria’s oldest cardinal and Prince of the Holy Roman Catholic Church. He was born on November 1, 1932 at Eziowelle in Idemili North Local Government Area of Anambra State. His parents were traditional religious worshippers at the time they sent him to missionary school. They later converted to Catholicism.
He completed his primary education at St. Anthony’s Dunukofia and was baptized as Francis at the age of nine by Blessed Michael Iwene Tansi, who was beatified in 1998 by Pope John Paul II. He later attended the junior seminary located then at Nnewi, Anambra State, in 1947. He graduated from the junior seminary in flying colours in 1952. From 1953 to 1955, he was at the Bigard Memorial Seminary, Enugu, where he studied Philosophy. Due to his outstanding performance, the missionaries decided to send him to Rome for further studies. He obtained bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Theology in 1957 and 1959 respectively, and doctorate with Summa Cum Laude in 1960, all at the Urban University in Rome.
On November 23, 1958, he was ordained a priest in Rome by Cardinal Gregorio Pietro Agagianian. He was consecrated a co-adjutor Bishop of Onitsha on August 29, 1965. Following the death of Archbishop Charles Heerey of the Archdiocese of Onitsha, Arinze was appointed the Archbishop of Onitsha in June 1967 at the age of 34. This made him then the youngest metropolitan archbishop in the world. A few weeks after this appointment, the Nigeria/Biafra Civil War broke out.
Arinze helped a lot in saving thousands of people with his relief distribution which he did in conjunction with some foreign agencies. This was despite the fact that he too was a refugee in Adazi and Amichi in the same Anambra State. In 1984, he was unanimously elected the President of the Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria.
Pope John Paul II noticed Arinze’s efforts in expanding the Catholic Church in Nigeria and brought him to the Vatican in Rome in 1984. He elevated him to the position of a Cardinal on May 25, 1985. While at the Vatican, Arinze headed the Pontifical Council for Inter-Religious Dialogue between 1984 and 1985. Being an advocate of religious tolerance and due to his achievements in interfaith relations, he received a gold medallion in 1999 from the International Council of Christians and Jews. Seen as a stabilizing figure in the Catholic Church, Arinze was Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments from 2002 to 2008. He was appointed Cardinal Bishop of Velletri-Segni in 2005. He was among the 166 cardinals who went into the conclave in 2005 to elect Pope Benedict XVI, the successor to the late Pope John Paul II.
Some of his writings include ‘Partnership in Education’ (1965); ‘Sacrifice in Ibo Religion’ (1970); ‘Answering God’s Call’ (1983); ‘Alone with God’ (1986); and ‘The Church in Dialogue: Walking With Other Believers’ (1990). Some others are: ‘The Evangelizing Parish’ (2018); ‘Divine Providence: God’s Design in Your Life’ (2005); ‘Building Bridges: Interreligious Dialogue on the Path to World Peace’ (2004); and ‘Meeting Other Believers: The Risks and Rewards of Interreligious Dialogue’ (1998).
Very humble and contented, Arinze lives a very simple life. In his school days, for instance, he would reportedly carry his luggage on his head during vacation and walk from the seminary in Nnewi to his home town, Eziowelle, a distance of about 10 kilometres. This was to save his little pocket money then. He was said to have politely rejected a proposal to build a rest house in his father’s compound when he was about to leave for the Vatican in 1984. The idea was for him to have a permanent place he could stay whenever he visits home on holidays. He was reported to have simply said that every Presbytery in Onitsha Archdiocese was also his house.
Cardinal Arinze, though still in Rome, does not fail to visit his native home almost every year. He has received honorary doctorate degrees from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Catholic University of America, Washington, Catholic University of Manila (the Philippines), and Notre Dame University in the USA, among others. He is a great patriot and a true man of God.
We congratulate him on his 90th birthday and wish him the best in his service to God and humanity.