Early Life
Opeka was born in Argentina, in San Martín, a suburb of Buenos Aires, to parents of Argentine Slovene parents. His father was from Begunje near Cerknica in Inner Carniola, his mother from Velike Lašče in Lower Carniola; they emigrated to Argentina to avoid the Communist Yugoslav regime of Josip Broz Tito. His father was a former Home Guard militiaman who escaped the summary killings in Kočevski Rog. He met with his mother, also a political refugee, in a Slovenian refugee camp in Italy, where they married. After marriage, they emigrated together to Argentina.
Pedro grew up in the streets of Buenos Aires. Very early as a child, from the age of 9, he worked with his father as a bricklayer. At 15, he hesitated between becoming a football professional and a priest. And he eventually decided to become a priest and enter the seminary of the Lazarists in Buenos Aires. At 20, he went to Ljubljana in Slovenia (then part of Yugoslavia), to further his training. Two years later, In 1970, he went to Madagascar where he worked as a bricklayer in the parishes of the Lazarists.
He finished his studies at the Catholic Institute of Paris (1972-1975), where he learnt French. He met the Taizé Community near Cluny in France, who have their members supporting communities in 24 major cities around the globe, and travelled all over Europe.
Pedro Opeka speaks 7 languages of which French, English, Spanish (his mother tongue), Slovenian (second mother tongue), Italian, Latin and Magalasy (Madagascar).
Read more about this topic: Pedro Opeka
Famous quotes containing the words early and/or life:
“The setting sun is reflected from the windows of the alms-house as brightly as from the rich man’s abode; the snow melts before its door as early in the spring. I do not see but a quiet mind may live as contentedly there, and have as cheering thoughts, as in a palace.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The great passion in a man’s life may not be for women or men or wealth or toys or fame, or even for his children, but for his masculinity, and at any point in his life he may be tempted to throw over the things for which he regularly lays down his life for the sake of that masculinity. He may keep this passion secret from women, and he may even deny it to himself, but the other boys know it about themselves and the wiser ones know it about the rest of us as well.”
—Frank Pittman (20th century)