(OSV News) — Ten years after his death in April 2015, Cardinal Francis E. George of Chicago continues to be an inspiration in the church in the United States, those who were close to him say.
The first native-born archbishop of Chicago, who led the archdiocese from 1997 to 2014, had a “blend of magnificent characteristics,” said Bishop David J. Malloy of Rockford, Illinois.
“First of all, he was brilliant, and that comes across simply in conversations, in observations he would make on many things,” he said. “But with that brilliance was a mixture of humanity. He was just a very down-to-earth individual.”
Ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, Bishop Malloy knew Cardinal George well and became friends with the prelate while serving as the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ general secretary from 2006 to 2011, while Cardinal George was the conference president from 2007 to 2010. The two met by phone weekday mornings at 8 a.m. Central Time.
He Was Always ‘Insightful’
Bishop Malloy observed that when Cardinal George spoke to fellow bishops during conference meetings, “everybody listened because it was always something insightful and unique and very helpful.”
Yet, “he had no pretenses, no airs and a tremendous faith,” Bishop Malloy said. “He loved the church.”
Other leaders recognized Cardinal George’s natural gifts, which led to his placement in different positions in the church, Bishop Malloy said. When then-Msgr. Malloy was ordained a bishop in 2012 for the Diocese of Rockford, Cardinal George, as the metropolitan archbishop, was the principal consecrator.
Born in 1937, Cardinal George hoped to enter seminary for the Archdiocese of Chicago but a leg injury from childhood polio caused him to pivot instead to the minor seminary of the Congregation of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate. He was ordained a priest for the religious community in 1963. He earned doctorates in theology and philosophy, became superior of the Oblates’ Midwestern province in his 30s, and then served as the Oblates’ vicar general in Rome.
Named Bishop of Yakima, Wash.
He was ordained the bishop of Yakima, Washington, in 1990 and then became archbishop of Portland, Oregon, in 1996. A year later, he was appointed the eighth archbishop of Chicago, succeeding Cardinal Joseph L. Bernardin. He held numerous national and international leadership roles in a range of areas — from consecrated life and disability ministry to liturgy and the Holy See’s economic affairs — before his retirement in 2014.
St. John Paul II proclaimed Cardinal George a cardinal in 1998, and he participated in the 2005 conclave that elected Pope Benedict XVI and in the 2013 conclave that elected Pope Francis.
Mary FioRito, a Chicago attorney who served as Cardinal George’s personal assistant from 2003 until his death at age 78 from cancer on April 17, 2015, said that it is not only the cardinal’s intellectual prowess (she called him “a frighteningly smart guy”) but also his pastoral presence for which he is remembered. She regularly encounters Chicago-area Catholics who share stories of how the cardinal called their family after a death or amid a member’s illness.
“He had an incredible gift for not leaving much of his personal time to himself,” she said. “He had this uncanny ability to remember not only the joys and hopes of people, but also their sadnesses, their crosses … and very much accompanied people in a personal way.”
Mementos Are Left at His Grave
A testament to that are the mementos people leave at his grave at All Saints Catholic Cemetery in Des Plaines, Illinois, FioRito said. Every time she visits — and she visits regularly — “there’s people who leave flowers, and they leave little prayer cards, and they leave notes and little stuffed animals. There’s always someone there, and there are always dozens of things that are left on the grave,” she said.
She also knows many Chicago priests pray for the cardinal’s intercession. Among them is Chicago-native Bishop Robert E. Barron of Winona-Rochester, Minnesota, who told St. Anthony Messenger magazine in 2016, “I’ve got his picture up in my room here. I pray to him a lot. I ask for his intercession.”
On April 17, Holy Thursday, Bishop Barron posted a YouTube tribute to the cardinal, calling him “the grandfather of Word on Fire,” the bishop’s evangelization ministry which began in 2000 with Cardinal George’s support while Bishop Barron was a priest of the Chicago Archdiocese.
“I’ve prayed to him frequently in the past 10 years. I still invoke him all the time for his guidance and protection,” Bishop Barron said of the cardinal.
Many Catholics Seek His Intercession
FioRito said Cardinal George would be the first to say not to assume that someone is in heaven, but she, too, seeks his intercession, and thinks evidence of Catholics’ devotion to him may help to spur an eventual cause for his canonization.
“He leaves a big hole in a lot of people’s lives, but also, I think, in the American church,” FioRito said.
Archbishop Michael G. McGovern, who was to be installed the archbishop of Omaha, Nebraska, May 7, was ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of Chicago in 1994. He said Cardinal George was supportive of his parishes’ priests and made efforts to be among his flock.
Archbishop McGovern recalled the cardinal attending a parish anniversary celebration “and even though he had to cope with his leg that had issues due to polio, he still stood there at the reception for the anniversary Mass and greeted everyone, until the last person got a chance to talk to him. He was very generous with his time, even though perhaps he wasn’t feeling his best.”
He Made Time to Meet With Priests
Cardinal George was diligent about making time for the priests who requested meetings, “and one of the things I think people noted was he would really listen,” said Archbishop McGovern, who had led the Diocese of Belleville, Illinois, since July 2020.
“He had many gifts. He used them in the service of the Lord and the church,” he said of Cardinal George. “I think he exhausted himself with his work. And he was also very dedicated to his family.”
Cardinal George and his legacy continue to influence those who knew him, including U.S. bishops, Bishop Malloy said. “He still is a sort of guiding star in terms of how to think … of commitments to the church, in terms of putting your comments and your thoughts generously and charitably.”
As to this particular point in time, when the Catholic Church is amid a papal transition, Bishop Malloy said he is reminded by a comment Cardinal George once made. In 2005, the cardinal had observed the announcement of the freshly elected Pope Benedict XVI in St. Peter’s Square. Amid the crowd’s applause and cheers, Cardinal George found himself looking past the surrounding buildings to the Roman hills.
Reflecting on Church’s Endurance
“He was just reflecting that what’s going on here is something that’s lasted for centuries, and how many of the hills are as old as the papacy itself, and how many things and people and movements and ideas have come and gone in the 2,000 years” since the church was founded, Bishop Malloy recalled. “And here is the successor of Peter being chosen again.”
“It was just the kind of thought that Cardinal George would have, and a perspective that I think is a really good one for us, even now as there are so many articles that try to reduce this to a political-style campaign,” he continued. “Here’s Cardinal George saying, ‘You know, this is something of the timelessness of God himself that’s been installed into history. And it has survived even tough times and its own humanity, at times, to continue on as other things have fallen.'”
Maria Wiering is senior writer for OSV News.
