“God’s Grace Works In Ways Unknown To Us” An interview with Nigerian Cardinal Francis Arinze, 88, former Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments By Barbara Middleton for Nigerian Cardinal Francis Arinze, 88. He has lived and worked in Rome for decades Cardinal Francis Arinze, who was born in 1932 in Eziowelle, Nigeria, and went on to become a priest, bishop and cardinal (elevated by Pope John Paul II) of the Church, became the Prefect Emeritus of the Vatican Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments in 2008, after serving there for six years. Prior to that, he was the President of the Secretariat for Non-Christians (now the Pontifical Council for Inter-religious Dialog) from 1985 to 2002. He was President-delegate of the Synod of Bishops on the Eucharist in 2005, and Pope Benedict asked him to preach the Lenten exercises for the Roman Curia in 2009.