Long Beach Group Celebrates New Cardinal
Hundreds of Roman Catholics from Southern California are converging on the Vatican for five days of events surrounding Friday's installation of Long Beach-born Archbishop William J. Levada as a cardinal.
The ceremonies are also of special interest at St. Anthony High School in Long Beach. And with good reason. It's Levada's alma mater.
Students are "so excited, they're beside themselves," said Principal Lori Barr.
On Monday, junior Leslie Greitl and freshman Sergio Gonzalez -- accompanied by Barr and Gina Rushing, president of the school -- left for the Vatican to represent the 220-student campus.
The students were chosen by the faculty for their "commitment to spiritual and academic development," Barr said.
Sergio, whose father has been a custodian at the school for 20 years, called the opportunity a gift from God.
"I can't say in words how I feel," said Sergio, who will be keeping a journal as part of an English assignment to be shared with his classmates. He said he hopes that the trip will make him "feel closer to God."
A donor is underwriting travel expenses -- about $4,000 per person -- and the students also raised funds for the trip.
St. Anthony, a coeducational high school, was initially run by the Holy Cross Brothers and the Sisters of Immaculate Heart. Storyboards throughout campus tell the history of the school, celebrating its 85th year.
Its student body is diverse -- 30% Latino, 30% Asian, 30% white and 10% African American. With a student-teacher ratio of 15 to 1, the college prep school prides itself in helping students become "productive members in a complex global society."
Levada, one of the more than 11,000 alumni, was a member of the class of 1954.
Classmates remember him as being among the three "smartest," along with George Niederauer, archbishop of San Francisco who succeeded Levada in that post last year, and the late Msgr. Anthony Leuer, who served in the Los Angeles Archdiocese.
"They basically were a threesome in terms of brains," recalled George Murchison, a member of the class of '54. "They were not part of the normal pack."
Levada played in the school band and worked on the school newspaper.
"It's totally amazing that someone you go to high school with -- 55 years later, all of a sudden, is at the top of the heap of everything you believe in," Murchison said.
