Cardinal Reflects on Cancer Battle, Infamous Ex-priest

By Jay Levine
CBS Chicago
October 20, 2014

http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2014/10/20/cardinal-reflects-on-cancer-battle-infamous-priest/

Francis Cardinal George, a few weeks from his retirement as Archbishop of Chicago, shares new details about his battle with cancer and reveals he would be willing to communicate with a former priest convicted of sexually abusing young people.

George talks with CBS 2 Chief Correspondent Jay Levine and looks ahead to retirement, not really knowing what it will hold.

“Depending on my health, I’ll do this or do that,” George says. “It’s kind of murky.”

George revealed that using crutches is not the result of an infection or the effects of childhood polio. It’s cancer-related.

“It’s the result of the tumor enlarging and putting pressure on the nerves that control some of the muscular activity. So, that that leg is even weaker than it normally is,” he says.

The results of the new therapy are so far inconclusive.

“There’s no indication that it’s working. There’s some suspicion it might not be working,” George says.

It may be too early to tell, and thus too early to tell whether he’ll be able to move into the three-room apartment that’s been waiting for him, at Casa Jesus, the seminary for Latino and Polish seminarians attached to Holy Name Cathedral. It is two small bedrooms, a living room, galley kitchen and enclosed sunporch.

That’s quite a change from the huge Lincoln Park residence, with lots of space and lots of help.

The move, of course, depends on whether his condition will permit him to live alone.

But as he looks back on the 17 years here, I asked him one more time about what he’s called his disappointment: the only instance of abuse of children on his watch, by former priest Dan McCormack.

George says he prays for him every day.

“Could anything be gained by talking to him?” Levine asks.

The Cardinal says he’s not sure. “(It) might be to him, and if it ever is, then I would be more than willing to do so,” he says.

Asked if he has reached out to McCormack, George replied: “There’s been some, some discussions — but always through lawyers.”

George says he’s proud of reforms he saw through that are meant to prevent a repeat of the McCormack case. The victims are in his prayers every day, he says.