Top elected officials, clergy members and area Catholics said final goodbyes to the late Cardinal Francis George during Thursday's packed funeral Mass for the Chicago leader, who was remembered as a vigorous defender of Roman Catholic orthodoxy.
Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner and Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel were among the roughly 1,200 people attending services at the city's Holy Name Cathedral near downtown. The Mass followed three days of visitation, including overnight hours on Wednesday.
"Francis George lived a life grounded in conviction," Seattle Archbishop J. Peter Sartain, a friend, said during the homily. "He was so utterly a Christian that no circumstance seemed inappropriate for him to give witness to Christ."
George, a Chicago native, died Friday at age 78 after a long fight with cancer. George retired last fall before announcing his treatment for kidney cancer had failed. He was replaced by Archbishop Blase Cupich.
Dozens of Chicago Catholics gathered throughout the overnight hours Thursday to pay their respects during a vigil at the cathedral.
"I wouldn’t miss it," said Sandy Stoll. "He’s just, he’s someone that you meet one time and then you see him again and he remembers you."
The procession to All Saints Catholic Cemetery & Mausoleum, where George was interred, took him past St. Pascal's Church in Portage Park, where George's spiritual journey began when he was known as Frannie.
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"It was cool that he went to school here," said fourth-grader Samantha Young. "My priest was saying yesterday to think about it: he walked the same halls. He went to the same lunchroom. And he was in the same classes."
The parish is also where George was ordained as priest in 1963. Parishioner John Gora said his family members recalled playing cards with George's mother in the gymnasium.
"His mother said, 'One day my son's going to be Bishop, then Cardinal, then Pope!' Gora recalled. "Every mother thinks highly of their son, but you know what, he came close."
George would return to St. Pascal's on occassion, and church leaders still refer to him as the church's favorite son.
"Anytime you went up to talk to him, ... and said, 'Cardinal, I'm from St. Pascal's,' his face would just light up," said Deacon Gene Dorgan.
George had a reputation for being an intellectual leader in the church and a leading figure in some of the most prominent events in the U.S. church. He played a key role in the church's response to the clergy sex abuse scandal and led the U.S. bishops' fight against the Affordable Care Act, arguing that President Barack Obama's health insurance law would allow taxpayer money to fund abortion.
Pope John Paul II appointed George to lead the nation's third-largest archdiocese in 1997.
