Cardinal Francis George: "It was a Beautiful Death …"
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- Опубликовано: 27 дек 2024
- Raymond Goedert, a retired auxiliary bishop for the Chicago Archdiocese, was with Cardinal Francis George when he died on April 17, 2014. Goedert talked about George's death.
Farewell to a great man
Cardinal George died on Friday April 17, 2015 (NOT 2014) - Of Chicago’s last four cardinals - Cody, Bernardin, George, Cupich - Francis George OMI (1937-2015) stands out as a shining star of wisdom and heroic grace. Because he was crippled from age 13 with polio, he was not accepted at Quigley Prep in hishometown of Chicago, and instead enrolled at St. Henry Preparatory Seminary in Belleville, IL a high school seminary of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate. He was Archbishop of Chicago 1997-2014, Vice President of the USCCB 2004-2007, President of the USCCB 2007-2010. He returned orthodoxy to Chicago, closing immediately Liturgy Training Associates which had been promulgating an heretical concept of the Mass. A few diehard “Bernardin’s Boys” resisted his efforts initially, labeling him “Francis the Corrector”. Of those efforts he remarked, “I knew what had to be done and that I was in a particularly key spot to see that what is most important in handing on the traditions of the Church, namely our way of prayer and our liturgy, was going to be more faithfully presented to the people. That meant a lot to me, because the worship of God is the most important thing we do.” He wrote many books and appeared several times on EWTN. Unlike the other three cardinals named above, he often visited the Carmelite Monastery in Des Plaines. On one of those occasions, in the year 2000, I had the privilege to receive from him the minor order of novice in the Secular Order of Discalced Carmelites. He died of cancer at age 78 on Friday April 17, 2015. Cardinal Francis had completed all of the work God had allotted to him. He could truly have said with Our Lord - Es ist vollbracht! - It is accomplished. Requiem aeternam dona ei, Domine, et lux perpetua luceat ei. Requiescat in Pace.
He didn't close Liturgy Training Publications, not Liturgy Training Associates. It was moved. It still exists today. Furthermore, there is no need to compare the Cardinals. Each one is made and served by their invitation of God to the serve the people of Chicago. Period.