Francis Card. George – RIP

I just received word that His Eminence Francis Card. George has died.

He was Archbishop of Chicago for 17 years and a great churchman.

He was quoted saying some time ago about our era:

“I expect to die in bed, my successor will die in prison and his successor will die a martyr in the public square. His successor will pick up the shards of a ruined society and slowly help rebuild civilization, as the church has done so often in human history.”

Requiescat in pace.

About Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Fr. Z is the guy who runs this blog. o{]:¬)
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36 Comments

  1. Legisperitus says:

    He was prophetic with that statement. Requiescat in pace.

  2. Clemens Romanus says:

    Requiescat in pace.

  3. WmHesch says:

    Requiem aeternum dona ei, Domine, et lux perpetua luceat ei. Requiescat in pace. Amen.

  4. Iacobus M says:

    He was one of the good ones.

  5. Geoffrey says:

    One of the greats. He will be missed. May he be a powerful intercessor for the Church.

    In paradísum dedúcant te Angeli:
    in tuo advéntu suscípiant te Mártyres,
    et perdúcant te in civitátem sanctam Ierúsalem.
    Chorus Angelórum te suscípiat,
    et cum Lázaro quondam páupere
    ætérnam habeas réquiem.

  6. lelnet says:

    Never, I think, has a local Church more urgently needed a truly excellent shepherd, than Chicago did when he took over. And God, in His generous mercy, gave us one of the very best in all the world.

    He will be greatly missed.

    Rest in Peace, your Eminence. You’ve been in my prayers for years, and will remain there in a special way now.

  7. Elizabeth D says:

    Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord. May his soul and the souls of all the faithful departed through the mercy of God rest in peace. Amen.

  8. Jim of Bowie says:

    Very sorry to hear that. He was one of the good ones.

  9. NBW says:

    I am ver sorry to hear that. May he rest in peace.

  10. jonguz says:

    It’s crazy how I was just looking at the list of bishops from the USCCB website this morning and saw him on the list of 17 Cardinals.

    I’m a big fan of his work as a “humble servant in the vineyard of the Lord”, as Benedict XVI has so eloquently put it. One shudders, however, at his words, given the state of the Church in this day and age, especially given the burden on the shoulders of bishops such as Archbishop Cordileone.

    As an aside, the visual description of men and women religious being shot down in the third secret of Fatima comes to mind. As Benedict XVI, then Cardinal Ratzinger described: “The purpose of the vision is not to show a film of an irrevocably fixed future. Its meaning is exactly the opposite: it is meant to mobilize the forces of change in the right direction.”

    May His Eminence, and all the souls of the faithful departed, rest in peace. And may the Church Militant realize that mobilization needs to happen.

  11. Patti Day says:

    Eternal rest grant unto him O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon him.

  12. Eugene says:

    May he rest in peace.

  13. Gregg the Obscure says:

    He worked much. He suffered much. May he soon know the fullness of the beatific vision.

  14. Chick says:

    He was a Chicagoan at his birth and when he died. In between he served the poor in the missions, Catholics throughout the world, and his brother US Bishops… but he always served God first. We mourn our loss and celebrate his homecoming.

  15. Uxixu says:

    May his successor live up to his orthodoxy and legacy.

  16. pannw says:

    I pray his suffering is at an end and Our Lord has embraced him and said, “Well done, good and faithful servant.” Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord and let perpetual light shine upon him.

  17. MaryW says:

    Rest in peace, good and faithful Shepherd

  18. SanSan says:

    Rest in peace, good and faithful Shepherd! May you enjoy the glory of heaven with our dear Lord and your fellow Saints.

  19. robtbrown says:

    A great loss. Chicago was such a mess after Cardinal Bernardin croaked that no one wanted the job.

    I’ll resist the temptation to comment on the fate of his successor.

  20. yatzer says:

    A good man who will be missed. May he rest in peace.

  21. spock says:

    For me,the strange thing was that I just got through saying a prayer for him. I turned on the radio and immediately found out that he had passed. I hope his successor took good notes. May he rest in peace.

  22. comedyeye says:

    I offered up my time in adoration tonight for the repose of his soul.
    What a phenomenal soldier for the Lord!
    I wish every bishop was the defender of the faith that he was. Who will replace him in the fight for Truth?

  23. Fr. John says:

    May his memory be eternal.

  24. Charles E Flynn says:

    His most famous prediction, quoted by Father Z above, will provide food for contemplation for generations to come. May he rest in peace, after a mission well accomplished.

  25. Maria says:

    spock says:
    17 April 2015 at 8:28 PM

    “For me,the strange thing was that I just got through saying a prayer for him.” — I stayed a bit after the mass this morning and prayed for all bishops and priests on my list then remembered Card George as sick and needs healing. Went home, open facebook and his picture was the first one I saw … He will always on my list but this time in another category …

    God bless,
    Maria

  26. trespinos says:

    The memory of him delivering a Good Friday homily in Portland’s cathedral remains with me today, and the sight of that halting step as he processed calling to mind the via dolorosa of the Savior he served so well. Perpetual light shine upon him.

  27. Charliebird says:

    In these times, his departure, though I did not even know him, is very sad. A strong and faithful servant of Christ has gone to his eternal reward. May Our Lord be generous to him, who gave courage to us. Now, we proceed into the future he foresaw…

  28. Father G says:

    Here is what Cardinal George himself had to say about the quote:
    “Speaking a few years ago to a group of priests, entirely outside of the current political debate, I was trying to express in overly dramatic fashion what the complete secularization of our society could bring. I was responding to a question and I never wrote down what I said, but the words were captured on somebody’s smart phone and have now gone viral on Wikipedia and elsewhere in the electronic communications world. I am (correctly) quoted as saying that I expected to die in bed, my successor will die in prison and his successor will die a martyr in the public square. What is omitted from the reports is a final phrase I added about the bishop who follows a possibly martyred bishop: “His successor will pick up the shards of a ruined society and slowly help rebuild civilization, as the church has done so often in human history.” What I said is not “prophetic” but a way to force people to think outside of the usual categories that limit and sometimes poison both private and public discourse.”
    Source: http://www.catholicnewworld.com/cnwonline/2012/1021/cardinal.aspx

  29. Supertradmum says:

    My comments here…http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com/2015/04/notes-on-cardinal-george.html

    He knew how to stand up against his own brother-bishops.

    Yes, the time is now short…

  30. Priam1184 says:

    Requiem aeternam dona ei et lux perpetua luceat ei. Requiescat in pace Francis Cardinal George.

  31. frjim4321 says:

    The death of any person is a sobering event for everyone who values the inestimable dignity of the human person. It is a threshold that we will all cross someday. I would hope to be able to do so with as much grace as did he.

  32. Fatherof7 says:

    He presided at the Mass of the Feast of the Assumption at the Shrine of Our Lady of Good Help in 2013. He was visibly ill at the time, but he had a remarkable peace and joy that transcended the physical pain.

  33. SKAY says:

    I am so very sorry to hear this. May he rest in peace.

    I thought of him and his prophetic words yesterday as I heard on a morning news show that
    military Christian chaplains are still having problems with how they are supposed to do their
    job.
    http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2014/12/09/chaplain-punished-for-sharing-his-faith-in-suicide-prevention-class/

    http://www.thenewamerican.com/culture/faith-and-morals/item/15280-pentagon-confirms-that-soldiers-could-be-court-martialed-for-sharing-faith

  34. joan ellen says:

    Francis Cardinal George was one of my most favorite Cardinals. I liked his forth right honesty. May he rest in peace.

  35. Gerard Plourde says:

    He was a strong and faithful voice in the Church. Along with his prescient comment about the possibility of a successor Archbishop dying a martyr, there is also his observation from a November 2014 interview concerning the limited utility of the arguably Modernist terms “liberal” and “conservative” in terms of the Church.

    “The liberal/conservative thing, I think, is destructive of the Church’s mission and her life. I’ve said that publicly a lot at times. You’re taking a definition that comes out of nowhere, as far as we’re concerned, it’s a modern distinction, and making it the judgment of the Church’s life. It’s because we’re lazy. You put a label on people, you put a label on something, and it saves you the trouble of thinking”

  36. JesusFreak84 says:

    I remember when the Ukrainian Catholic patriarch was at St. Nicholas Cathedral some years ago, His Beatitude gave a homily in Ukrainian, (though, IIRC, he is fluent in English, but maybe it’s more limited to reading/writing?) and Cardinal George gave a homily in English. (I don’t know if he participated liturgically in the Divine Liturgy beyond that; I was too far in the back to see, and I’m super-nearsighted, even with glasses.) Anyway, the late Cardinal said roughly the same thing back then, and at the time, I still thought he was overly-nervous. (Says something about how rapidly the world’s changed since His Beatitude’s US visit. The occasion was the 50th anniversary of the St. Nicholas Eparchy.) I remember the Cardinal saying that the experiences some of the Ukrainians had had under the Soviets would be necessary to keep in mind to handle the times to come. (I’m obviously paraphrasing.) My respect for the Cardinal grew immensely over the last few years of his life. I pray his Purgatory time is short.

    Is it too soon to ask Cardinal George to pray for our country? >.>

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