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.

Murchison and nine other members of Levada’s class are among the group heading to Rome. All are taking their spouses and some are bringing along their children and grandchildren.

Levada’s former schoolmates note that despite his busy schedule, he has always come to high school reunions and been present for milestones in his friends’ lives.

“When we lost our daughter two years ago, he came [from San Francisco] and said a Mass,” Murchison said.

Retired Long Beach educator William Marmion, who attended St. John Seminary in Camarillo with Levada, said, “He presided at the wedding of our daughter. He celebrated a Mass for our 25th wedding anniversary.”

Ryan Murchison, 12, grandson of George Murchison, may be among the youngest members of the group from the Los Angeles area.

The sixth-grader at St. Joseph Elementary School in Long Beach says the future cardinal told him when they met that he could dispense with formalities.

“I call him Bill,” Ryan said.

“Ryan is one of the very few people who calls him Bill,” said his father, Michael Murchison, a Long Beach lobbyist. “Ryan can get away with it. I would get 10 Hail Marys and 10 Our Fathers if I did that.”

The boy became acquainted with Levada two years ago, when he visited the then archbishop of San Francisco with his grandparents over dinner at Fisherman’s Wharf. Ryan thinks the archbishop is a “smart guy.”

Levada, 69, prefect for the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith, is to be the first of 15 new cardinals to receive a biretta -- a ridged red cardinal’s hat -- from Pope Benedict XVI.

With his installation into the College of Cardinals, Levada will be joining two old friends -- Cardinal Roger M. Mahony, 70, archbishop of Los Angeles, and Cardinal Justin F. Rigali, 71, archbishop of Philadelphia. The three were classmates more than 50 years ago at St. John Seminary.

Sister Mary Jean Meier, director of special services for the archdiocese of Los Angeles who has been coordinating travel for the group, said members of Levada’s congregations from San Francisco and Portland, where he served as archbishop, were headed for the Vatican, too.

“There will be hundreds,” she said, though she could not provide an exact number. She and two archdiocese staff nuns left for Europe on Sunday to prepare for the arrival of the large number of travelers and coordinate their visit to Rome.

Not since 1991, when Mahony was elevated by Pope John Paul II, has there been so much excitement, clergy and parishioners say.

On Wednesday, the group will see the pope during his general audience. St. Anthony students Sergio and Leslie are bringing rosaries and prayer cards that relatives and friends have asked them to have blessed by the pope.

On Thursday, they will attend a Mass at the tomb of St. Peter.

Friday is the installation of the cardinals, including two from the United States. The other American is Sean Patrick O’Malley, 61, archbishop of Boston. In 2003, Pope John Paul II assigned O’Malley the duty of repairing the damage left by the priest sex-abuse scandal that forced the resignation of his predecessor, Cardinal Bernard Law.

The new cardinals represent 11 countries from five continents.

On Saturday will be the Mass of the Rings, during which the new “princes of the church,” as the cardinals are known, will receive rings that represent their ecclesiastical authority and their obedience to the church.

On Sunday, Levada will say a Mass at a church in Italy for which he technically will be responsible. Each cardinal is assigned a so-called titular church to serve as a reminder of his pastoral duties.

Sergio and Leslie are to return home next Monday, with their principal and president.

As for Ryan, he says that even after Levada gets his biretta, he thinks he will still call the cardinal Bill.