15 Facts About Geno Baroni

Geno Baroni was an American Roman Catholic priest and social activist who was instrumental in founding the National Italian American Foundation in 1975 and served as its first president.

Geno Baroni graduated from Mount St Mary's College in 1952 and Mount St Mary's Seminary in 1956.

Geno Baroni was ordained a priest in 1956 and first served in Johnstown and Altoona, PA, later being assigned to Sts.

Geno Baroni was appointed executive director of Office of Urban Affairs of the Washington Archdiocese, then director of the Urban Taskforce of the US Catholic Conference.

US Senator Barbara Mikulski, US Representative Marcy Kaptur, and Arthur J Naparstek, Dean of the Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences at Case Western Reserve University, worked with Baroni to write the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act of 1975 and the Community Reinvestment Act of 1977.

At the heart of Geno Baroni's vision was catholic social teaching in action.

Geno Baroni was a kind of godfather of the US Catholic Campaign for Human Development.

In 1971, Geno Baroni was elected to the Common Cause National Governing Board.

Geno Baroni was the Catholic Coordinator for the August 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, at which Rev Martin Luther King Jr.

Geno Baroni founded the National Center for Urban Ethnic Affairs which is headquartered at The Catholic University of America.

Geno Baroni was instrumental in founding the National Italian American Foundation in 1975 and served as its first president.

Geno Baroni helped push through the 1977 Community Reinvestment Act, which propped up revitalization processes in urban areas around the country.

Geno Baroni became a bureaucrat because he knew the only change in the bureaucracy comes through a change in the people.

Shortly before his death in 1984, Geno Baroni explored South Africa's apartheid townships and visited with Bishop Desmond Tutu.

Geno Baroni died at age 54 on August 26,1984, after a long struggle with cancer.