The following comes from a March 1 story in the Los Angeles archdiocese paper, the Tidings.

(Editor’s Note from CalCatholic: According to Wikipedia, “although ‘personally opposed’ to abortion, Carter supported legalized abortion.” In March of last year, Carter endorsed “gay marriage.”)

Miracles were on the mind of former President Jimmy Carter when he returned last week to his self-proclaimed favorite high school in America: St. Genevieve in Panorama City.

Accompanied on the Feb. 19 trip by his wife, Rosalynn, who was visiting the school for the first time, Carter spoke to a packed gym of students, school parents, faculty and guests following a concelebrated Mass presided by Bishop Barani Eduardo Hiiboro Kussala of Tombura-Yambio Diocese in South Sudan.

“I’d like to express my awareness of God’s many miracles,” said the 39th president of the United States. He noted that he and his wife have been visiting Southern Sudan on behalf of the Carter Center for over 25 years during Sudan’s civil war and, more recently, as Southern Sudanese prepared to vote on forming an independent state.

“They voted almost unanimously [in 2011] to form what is now about the newest nation on earth, a nation of free people who profess their faith in Jesus Christ,” said Carter of South Sudan. “It’s truly one of God’s miracles to see this new nation.”

“Another miracle for me and my wife has been the friendship formed between St. Genevieve and our home town of Plains, Georgia,” added the former president, who was feted on his 85th birthday party by student choristers from St. Genevieve, which also sent cast and crews from two of the school’s recent musicals to perform for the Carters and the local Plains community.

When Dan Horn, St. Genevieve’s principal, learned this summer that the Carters would be able to visit the school together, he proposed that the students collect money to donate to the Carter Center, a nongovernmental, not-for-profit organization founded in 1982 by the Carters, in partnership with Emory University, to advance peace and health worldwide. Since the start of this school year, the school’s 630 students collectively raised $8,500, which was presented to the Carters after the Mass.

To read the entire Tidings story, click here.