ALUMNI PROFILE
Competiello Meets with Pope John Paul II
By Timothy P. Cross

Pope John Paul II embraces Sarah Competiello as her father, Dr. Louis Competiello (right) and mother, Dr. Nelza Rivera-Competiello, look on.

Dr. Louis S. Competiello '77, his wife, Dr. Nelza Rivera-Competiello, along with members of their family, met with His Holiness, Pope John Paul II on July 31, 2000, at Castel Gandolfo, the Pontiff's summer residence outside of Rome.

Competiello says the high point of the meeting was the Holy Father's embrace of his daughter, Sarah, after she told the pope, in both Polish and Italian (as she had rehearsed with her father), "Holy Father, I love you." Competiello, who speaks French, Italian, Spanish and Polish, spoke with the Pontiff in Polish and Italian.

This was the Competiello's fourth face-to-face meeting with the Pope since 1987. They used the occasion to present the Holy Father with documents regarding a new national Catholic organization, The Catholic Voice of America, which Competiello leads. The organization, which opened its offices in September 2000, will work closely with United States bishops to help promote Roman Catholicism in America and respond to attacks on Catholicism and Christianity in the media and entertainment industry.

Competiello adds his work on behalf of Catholicism to a full-time schedule as a physician in Connecticut. A native of Brooklyn, N.Y., Competiello grew up on Long Island, graduated from Syosset High School, and studied anthropology at the College (including courses with Margaret Mead). He attended the Mt. Sinai School of Medicine, completed his residency in internal medicine at the Long Island Jewish-Hillside Medical Center in New Hyde Park, N.Y., and served a gastroenterology fellowship at the Albert Einstein-Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx. Competiello is an assistant clinical professor of internal medicine and family medicine at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine in Farmingham, Conn.

Competiello also maintains a private practice in Enfield, Conn., with his wife. Rivera-Competiello is a graduate of the University of Puerto Rico and the University of Puerto Rico Medical School. She completed an internship in surgery and residency in anesthesiology at the Mt. Sinai Medical Center as well as a second residency in physical medicine and rehabilitation at the New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center and the Albert Einstein-Montefiore Medical Center, where she was chief resident.

Following their summer meeting, John Paul II sent a special papal blessing to Competiello and Rivera-Competiello in recognition of their outstanding work as physicians.