One of the 22 Catholic clergymen promoted Friday to cardinals by Pope Benedict XVI is a Bronx native assigned to Vatican City who makes a pilgrimage every spring to his childhood church.
Edwin O’Brien, 72, grew up in the quiet neighborhood of Van Nest, attended Our Lady of Solace Church and graduated Our Lady of Solace elementary school. He has returned to the handsome gray brick church on Morris Park Avenue to perform the sacrament of confirmation every May since 1997.
The new Prince of the Church went to high school in Katonah, NY. and St. Joseph’s Seminary in Yonkers. O’Brien served as an army chaplain in the Vietnam War, associate pastor at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, archbishop for the military and Archbishop of Baltimore, MD before becoming a Grand Master of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulcher.
