I hope you are all remembering Card. George in your prayers. RIP
Bishop with long terms leaving lasting legacies.
For the Archdiocese of Chicago – indeed for the whole of these USA – one this that Card. George did stands head and shoulder above other laudable contributions.
He established the Canons of St. John Cantius.
The Canons have fine tribute to the late Cardinal at their site, which I urge you to visit. There are many fine images and anecdotes.
Meanwhile, here is a statement from the head of the Canons, Fr. Philips:
Statement of Rev. C. Frank Phillips. C.R.
Founder of the Canons Regular of St. John Cantius
Today our spiritual father and founder bishop ended his earthly pilgrimage. For me personally, the loss is something difficult to describe as Cardinal George was one who listened, directed, corrected, encouraged, and confronted but always gave hope to this tiny community of men dedicated to the restoration of the sacred.
The Canons Regular of St. John Cantius is the first men’s community founded in the Archdiocese of Chicago. We are a living legacy of this shepherd of souls.
“I want you to grow, I want this to succeed. Live your constitutions. Be men of prayer,” were short directives he would often repeat to me.
Cardinal George will always be remembered for his annual visit with our community. The men whom he ordained will always have a special bond to him as they offer Mass, hear confessions, and make available the other sacraments to restore broken souls.
Cardinal George is now placed in our daily prayers for the deceased and in our Perpetual Masses. Rest in peace my spiritual father. May the Angels lead him into Paradise.
Rev. C. Frank Phillips, C.R.
A kind tribute in both words and in pictures.
This is a remarkable appreciation:
A Lion of the American Church: Thoughts on the Passing of Cardinal George, by Rev. Robert Barron, for the Catholic World Report.
I think the bulletin for the Institute of Christ the King had already gone to print at the time of the Cardinal’s death, but Cardinal George was also very supportive of them. When their church was ready to be dedicated, he did it himself, in the EF. By that point, I’d come to realize how few Bishops, in the US and in general, would do that. No one could, with any integrity, call Cardinal George an enemy of the EF. He was always on good terms with the Ordinaries of the Eastern Rites, so he was plenty aware of organic liturgical development and legitimate liturgical diversity.
I was at a dinner for a Church organization. A friend seated at his table mentioned my son had been hurt in a traffic accident. The Cardinal had me brought over and asked what had happened, and how he was. He was genuinely, genuinely concerned and kind. There aren’t words to say how touched I was, and am still. Oh how sad I am. Oh how I will miss him.