Thursday, March 28, AD 2024 7:22pm

Francis Cardinal George: Requiescant in Pace

Cardinal George

Francis Cardinal George lost his long battle with cancer and died today.  This is what I wrote about him back in 2012:

 

Francis Cardinal George of the Archdiocese of Chicago is alleged to have predicted that for upholding the teachings of Christ he will die in his bed, his successor will die in a prison cell, and his successor will be executed in a public square in Chicago.  Therefore, I am unsurprised that he has written an open letter exploring the “Chicago Values” cited by Mayor Emanuel when he decided to attack the free speech rights of Chick-Fil-A:

 

 

 

Recent comments by those who administer our city seem to assume that the city government can decide for everyone what are the “values” that must be held by citizens of Chicago.  I was born and raised here, and my understanding of being a Chicagoan never included submitting my value system to the government for approval.  Must those whose personal values do not conform to those of the government of the day move from the city?  Is the City Council going to set up a “Council Committee on Un-Chicagoan Activities” and call those of us who are suspect to appear before it?  I would have argued a few days ago that I believe such a move is, if I can borrow a phrase, “un-Chicagoan.”

The value in question is espousal of “gender-free marriage.”  Approval of state-sponsored homosexual unions has very quickly become a litmus test for bigotry; and espousing the understanding of marriage that has prevailed among all peoples throughout human history is now, supposedly, outside the American consensus.  Are Americans so exceptional that we are free to define “marriage” (or other institutions we did not invent) at will?  What are we re-defining?

It might be good to put aside any religious teaching and any state laws and start from scratch, from nature itself, when talking about marriage.  Marriage existed before Christ called together his first disciples two thousand years ago and well before the United States of America was formed two hundred and thirty six years ago.  Neither Church nor state invented marriage, and neither can change its nature.

Marriage exists because human nature comes in two complementary sexes: male and female.  The sexual union of a man and woman is called the marital act because the two become physically one in a way that is impossible between two men or two women.  Whatever a homosexual union might be or represent, it is not physically marital.  Gender is inextricably bound up with physical sexual identity; and “gender-free marriage” is a contradiction in terms, like a square circle.

Both Church and state do, however, have an interest in regulating marriage.  It is not that religious marriage is private and civil marriage public; rather, marriage is a public institution in both Church and state.  The state regulates marriage to assure stability in society and for the proper protection and raising of the next generation of citizens.  The state has a vested interest in knowing who is married and who is not and in fostering good marriages and strong families for the sake of society.

The Church, because Jesus raised the marital union to the level of symbolizing his own union with his Body the Church, has an interest in determining which marital unions are sacramental and which are not.  The Church sees married life as a path to sanctity and as the means for raising children in the faith, as citizens of the universal kingdom of God.  These are all legitimate interests of both Church and state, but they assume and do not create the nature of marriage.

People who are not Christian or religious at all take for granted that marriage is the union of a man and a woman for the sake of family and, of its nature, for life.  The laws of civilizations much older than ours assume this understanding of marriage.  This is also what religious leaders of almost all faiths have taught throughout the ages.  Jesus affirmed this understanding of marriage when he spoke of “two becoming one flesh” (Mt. 19: 4-6).  Was Jesus a bigot?  Could Jesus be accepted as a Chicagoan?  Would Jesus be more “enlightened” if he had the privilege of living in our society?  One is welcome to believe that, of course; but it should not become the official state religion, at least not in a land that still fancies itself free.   Surely there must be a way to properly respect people who are gay or lesbian without using civil law to undermine the nature of marriage.

Surely we can find a way not to play off newly invented individual rights to “marriage” against constitutionally protected freedom of religious belief and religious practice.  The State’s attempting to redefine marriage has become a defining moment not for marriage, which is what it is, but for our increasingly fragile “civil union” as citizens.

Francis Cardinal George, OMI Archbishop of Chicago

One of the few positive things I can say about the corrupt political sewer that goes by the name of Chicago is that occasionally it spawns someone unafraid to speak out against the terrible evil that exists in the Windy City.  Such a man is Francis Cardinal George.

George was a man of courage although not a prophet.  If it ever comes to persecution rest assured that his current successor will say not a word.  However, that does not diminish that George ran the race and kept the faith.  May he now be enjoying the Beatific Vision.

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Jay Anderson
Friday, April 17, AD 2015 5:28pm

Someone on Facebook posted this quote by Cardinal George in which he takes on the idiotic “wrong side of history” meme:
***
“God sustains the world, in good times and in bad. Catholics, along with many others, believe that only one person has overcome and rescued history: Jesus Christ, Son of God and Son of the Virgin Mary, savior of the world and head of his body, the church. Those who gather at his cross and by his empty tomb, no matter their nationality, are on the right side of history. Those who lie about him and persecute or harass his followers in any age might imagine they are bringing something new to history, but they inevitably end up ringing the changes on the old human story of sin and oppression. There is nothing ‘progressive’ about sin, even when it is promoted as ‘enlightened.’
***
“The world divorced from the God who created and redeemed it inevitably comes to a bad end. It’s on the wrong side of the only history that finally matters.”
***
~ Cardinal Francis George.

Jay Anderson
Friday, April 17, AD 2015 5:45pm

Here’s the link to Cardinal George’s column from 2012 containing the above quote:
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http://www.catholicnewworld.com/cnwonline/2012/1021/cardinal.aspx

Tom D
Tom D
Friday, April 17, AD 2015 9:36pm

Another good article by Cardinal George, which should have received much more coverage than it did.
http://www.catholicnewworld.com/cnwonline/2014/0907/cardinal.aspx

Phillip
Phillip
Saturday, April 18, AD 2015 4:41am

Tom D,

That article is fine except for a line like this: “This is, rather, the selfrighteous voice of some members of the American establishment today who regard themselves as ‘progressive’ and ‘enlightened.'”

Now he should have been more specific and said “Democratic Party establishment and those, unfortunately many of my coreligionists, who support them.” For, so far, it is primarily they who have pushed the homosexualist agenda.

TLM
TLM
Saturday, April 18, AD 2015 5:32am

He was a wonderful servant of God. A courageous and bold defender of life and liturgy. He took on the Chicago Machine courageously, publicly and often in regard to morality, adhering to the words of John Paul ll: ‘Be Not Afraid’. ‘Afraid’ he was not. May he rest in the peace of Christ.

Stilbelieve
Stilbelieve
Saturday, April 18, AD 2015 1:19pm

All of this could have been avoided had all Catholics, including the clergy, lived by what they say they believe and pray for. Catholics say they believe God is the giver of life, and they pray for God’s “will be done on earth” standing before the Holy Eucharist during Mass reciting the only prayer Jesus ever taught us, the Our Father; yet, over half of them endorse with their names and support with their actions a worldly organization that is diabolically opposed to what they say they believe and pray for – the Democratic Party. Catholics are the largest single group in that organization, giving that party the electoral power to prevent a Right-to-Life Constitutional Amendment from being passed, and enabling that party to support and promote abortion up to and including birth. Because so many Catholics are still Democrats, including clergy, the Churches’ position on marriage is now under attack for the first time in human history. Unless those Catholics remove their names from the Democratic Party and stop supporting it, they will find themselves being told to line up on the left side of Jesus when he returns to “Judge the Nations.” Those Catholics who are jackasses in this life, and will be “goats” in the next. Don’t believe me?

“Life in Christ – Instructions in the Catholic Faith” copyright 1958 with Imprimatur by Samuel, Cardinal Stritch, Archbishop of Chicago, says “Religious and racial prejudice are sins against the fifth commandment.” It goes on to say, “To deny him/(her) his rights is a sin against justice as well as charity. This is particularly true, in the case of joining an organization which promotes segregation OR ANY OTHER DENIAL OF HUMAN RIGHTS.” (my emphasis)

Abortion is a far more direct sin against the fifth commandment than is “religious and racial prejudice;” so if joining organizations like the Nazi Party or the KKK, which promote “prejudice,” are mortal sins, don’t you think being a free will member of the Democratic Party which promotes the murder of unborn babies is equally a mortal sin? Since there are no exonerating conditions that exempt one from mortal sin who join the Nazi Party or the KKK, which are “only” promoting discrimination; then certainly there are no exonerating conditions for one joining the Democratic Party that not only promotes but provides for abortion by funding Planned Parenthood, and now that pparty supports pro- same sex “marriage;” and is anti-God (based on voice vote in 2014 Democratic Party national convention), and is anti-Catholic Church (based on requiring abortion and birth control be provided in all healthcare insurance, dictated by Obama in his Affordable Care Act).

If Catholic Democrats removed their names from that party and stopped supporting it until it changed its positions on abortion and homosexual marriage, that party would lose the electoral power to continue to keep the murder of unborn children legal, and put judges on the bench who overturn the vote of the people concerning marriage being only between one man and one woman.

You don’t have to join another political party, just stop being a “jackass;” and pray the Penitent Prayer more earnestly – “through my fault, through my fault, through my most grievous fault” so that you will not become “a goat.” If you would all do that then Cardinal George’s prediction for the future can be avoided.

Penguins Fan
Penguins Fan
Sunday, April 19, AD 2015 5:58am

It remains to be seen if Cardinal George’s prediction comes true, but I doubt if his successor will show a modicum of the courage Cardinal George did. +Cupich is on record as praising +Kasper.

May God’s mercy be upon the soul of Cardinal George.

Dblack
Dblack
Sunday, April 19, AD 2015 7:34am

A “Catholic” controlled US Supreme Court will very soon destroy the institution of marriage in the United States. They will make a sodomy a “civil right”. It’s hard to believe this country has sank thing far into the gutter. Thank the godless democrat party, aided and abedded by godless cafeteria Catholics. “All the evils of the world are due to lukewarm Catholics.” ~ Pope Pius V

Philip
Philip
Sunday, April 19, AD 2015 8:53am

Dblack. Your right…unfortunately.
They say they know God yet they do not keep His commandments. They ARE liars. They will forfeit the kingdom of God for esteem that coddles their ego.
They are the damned. The godless who worship men and not God.

Prayers for them are greatly needed.
Conversions of hearts and minds can satisfy the Sacred Heart..the heart that cried out from the Holy Cross; “I thirst.”

cpola
cpola
Sunday, April 19, AD 2015 9:08am

“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.” (Cardinal George)
.
The threat that western civilization faces – indeed the threat that the whole human race faces – is one from which there will be no full recovery has in times past.
We are in the last days as prophesied by Sacred Scriptures and by many Catholic Seers.
Therefore the last scenario envisaged by the late Cardinal Francis George, though full of historic insight, will just not happen.
.
read more: http://popeleo13.com/pope/2015/04/18/category-archive-message-board-313-cardinal-francis-george-quotation-and-prediction/

@FMShyanguya
Tuesday, April 21, AD 2015 4:39pm

Or Requiescat i.e. with no “n” – Please delete this also after reading.

@FMShyanguya
Wednesday, April 22, AD 2015 2:06pm

@Donald R. McClarey Thank you for the education.

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