Three times a year, Father Pedro Opeka celebrates Mass in a vast grey quarry in ...
ANTANANARIVO - Three times a year, Father Pedro Opeka celebrates Mass in a vast grey quarry in the hills above Madagascar’s capital. This week, he will welcome his old teacher, Pope Francis, to see the chiseled granite altar from where he ministers.
“The pope is coming to tell people to keep fighting for those who are forgotten,” he said. “The pope will comfort them.” “In Europe a cathedral is built on the ground,” the 71-year-old missionary said. “Akamasoa cathedral was dug by hand.” Opeka invited Francis to visit during a meeting at the Vatican last year, never dreaming that he would accept.
Erlinne, a single mother of four children, has also adopted her brother’s two orphans, and taken in another child. A member of the Lazarist or Vincentian order of priests, founded to minister to the rural poor, he created the Akamasoa Association to build and run the villages using donations from around the world. His work has earned him the Legion of Honor, France’s highest order of merit.
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