He was ordained in 1958 and in 1965 became the bishop of Onitsha. At 32 he was the youngest bishop in the Catholic Church. He had a significant role in the mobilization of Nigerian clergy, religious and laity that aided evangelization following Nigeria's civil war in the late 1960s. When Pope John Paul II called him to Rome as a cardinal in April 1984, 65.5 percent of those living in the Onitsha Archdiocese were Catholic, compared to the Nigerian national average of 11.2 percent, reported Our Sunday Visitor. Arinze, who recently was awarded the 1999 Interfaith Gold Medallion by the International Council of Christians and Jews, is dedicated to promoting cooperation between different religious groups.
Religious plurality is a fact.
Many problems and challenges do not respect religious frontiers. There is no Catholic hurricane or Baptist drought. There is no Jewish inflation or Muslim unemployment. Because of the fragile health of the pope, possible successors have been an increasingly popular topic of discussion. Arinze and Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini, the archbishop of Milan, Italy, top the list of favorites.