Pope Benedict XVI and Cardinal George in 2008, Source: Alex Wong/Getty Images North America).

Pope Benedict XVI and Cardinal George in 2008, Source: Alex Wong/Getty Images North America).

What a great leader we lost with the passing of Cardinal Francis George, O.M.I. Everyone who met him speaks of his humility, gentleness, deep prayer life and sharp intellect. I always enjoyed reading his penetrating articles on contemporary culture and, of course, the faith. As in this article, he never shied away from preaching the totality of the faith “in and out of season.”

The suffering he endured for years as a result of his brave fight against cancer (and not to mention polio) must have been great, but by all accounts, he bore these heavy crosses with incredible grace and total resignation to the Father. What an example to follow! Beautiful tributes are flowing forth from those who knew him well. For example, check out this one from Cardinal George’s barber.

Thank you, Cardinal George. May you rest in peace.

The answer is simply Catholicism, in all its fullness and depth, a faith able to distinguish itself from any culture and yet able to engage and transform them all, a faith joyful in all the gifts Christ wants to give us and open to the whole world he died to save. The Catholic faith shapes a church with a lot of room for differences in pastoral approach, for discussion and debate, for initiatives as various as the peoples whom God loves. But, more profoundly, the faith shapes a church which knows her Lord and knows her own identity, a church able to distinguish between what fits into the tradition that unites her to Christ and what is a false start or a distorting thesis, a church united here and now because she is always one with the church throughout the ages and with the saints in heaven. ~Cardinal Francis George, O.M.I.