He was generous of spirit, eager to reach out

As word of Cardinal George’s death spread on April 17, interfaith and ecumenical leaders from the Chicago area recalled him as a man who was generous of spirit and eager to reach out in productive dialogue.

The cardinal was an active member of the Council of Religious Leaders of Metropolitan Chicago, and worked to develop relationships with members of other religious traditions.

“When he first came here 17 or 18 years ago, in my first conversation with him, I asked him if there was anything he feared about the Catholic-Jewish relationship,” said Rabbi Yehiel Poupko, Judaic scholar at the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago. “He said, ‘I fear it will remain the same and not grow deeper.’”

Indeed, Poupko said, the relationship did grow deeper, and the two men — both scholars in their own right — became close friends as well, meeting for dinner and traveling together both in the Holy Land and in Eastern Europe.

Bishop Demetrios of the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of Chicago also counted Cardinal George as a friend, both personally and as a friend of his church. “We almost feel as if we lost our archbishop,” he said.

Cardinal George and other Catholics joined Orthodox leaders on a 1999 “Pilgrimage of Love” that included time both in Constantinople and Rome.

“That was when we really got to know each other, because we got to see where one another lived, institutionally,” Bishop Demetrios said. “He knew Orthodox Christianity very well and respected it very much.”

Cardinal George also reached out to Muslims as soon as he was installed as archbishop, according to a statement from Mohammed Kaiseruddin, chairman of the Council of Islamic Organizations of Greater Chicago. On the day he was installed, he accepted an invitation to a special welcoming dinner hosted by the organization, Kaiseruddin said.

“Ever since, he maintained a very special relationship with the Muslim community throughout his tenure in Chicago,” he said. “He personally attended a yearly iftar dinner hosted at different mosques without missing even a single one. When he was going to Rome to be installed as the cardinal, he asked a Muslim to accompany him and meet His Holiness Pope John Paul II.”

The Rev. Stan Davis, co-executive director of the Council of Religious Leaders of Metropolitan Chicago, said that trip to Rome included leaders from many faiths.

“When Archbishop George was elevated to the Sacred College of Cardinals in February 1998, his true commitment to other Christians and non-Christians alike was demonstrated in the composition of the official Chicago delegation,” Davis said. “Added to the Catholic faithful were His Grace Bishop Demetrios of the Greek Orthodox Church of Chicago; the Chicago bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Kenneth Olsen; the executive vice president of the Chicago Board of Rabbis, Rabbi Ira Youdovin; a representative of the Council of Islamic Organizations of Greater Chicago; and myself, a minister of the United Church of Christ and then the executive director of the Illinois region of the National Conference of Christians and Jews. When each of us was introduced to Pope St. John Paul II, his eyes lit up with great affirmation at the religious diversity presented to him. It became clear that the newly elevated Cardinal George wished to demonstrate to the pope that local religious leaders, working together, could impact issues of great importance.”

Kareem Irfan, a past president of the council of religious leaders, said, “Cardinal George leaves behind a profound legacy as a luminary in the arena of interfaith relations and ecumenical engagement. Chicago’s faith communities — including the Muslims I was privileged to represent on the CRLMC — shall remember him as a wise spiritual leader and a sincere friend who was deeply concerned about the sensitivities and well-being of people from diverse faith traditions.”

That included times that were uncomfortable. Bishop Demetrios recalled a retreat for religious leaders in which he was asked to give a paper on “Dominus Iesus,” the 2006 declaration from the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith on the role of Christ and his church in salvation that was widely viewed as a step back in ecumenical relations by other Christian traditions.

“I was very nervous,” Bishop Demetrios said, “and he said, ‘Don’t worry. You’ll do fine.’”

After the Orthodox bishop presented his paper and the cardinal responded, he said, “The cardinal could tell we were hurt, but he told me I did very well. I didn’t expect that.”

Throughout the cardinal’s time in Chicago, Bishop Demetrios said, he could call the cardinal directly and ask for advice. “It was a wonderful, neighborly relationship. I hope it continues on.”

In a statement released after Cardinal George’s death, Jewish United Fund President Steven B. Nasatir said, “We are all saddened by the passing of Cardinal George. He was a good friend to our community. We mourn his passing together with people of all faiths and affiliations and offer condolences to the cardinal’s family, to our colleagues at the archdiocese, and to all Chicago Catholics.”

Cardinal George led by example in the realm of Catholic-Jewish relations, Nasatir said, and gave the keynote address at the JUF Federation annual meeting last September. In that talk, the cardinal said, “Is our understanding of you your own understanding of yourselves? If it’s not, and in some areas of our lives and beliefs there cannot be a shared understanding, nonetheless, how can we respect that difference and even rejoice in it?”

The cardinal went on to discuss skills-training program for youth in the Israeli Catholic village of Fassouta, and social studies curriculum for Catholic schools called “Modern Israel: Holy Land and Jewish State,” and lauded other pursuits, from the Catholic/Jewish Scholars’ Dialogue, to the Joseph Cardinal Bernardin Jerusalem Lecture, to the work of Hillel with Catholic campus ministries and with the Illinois Holocaust Museum.

Poupko said that Cardinal George engaged in dialogue with other faith traditions, especially members of the Jewish community, because of his commitment to the teachings of the Catholic Church.

This year marks 50 years since the promulgation of “Nostra Aetate,” the Vatican II declaration on the relationship of the church to non-Christian religions, which condemned anti-Semitism and held that the covenant between God and the Jewish people remains unbroken and called for dialogue, he said.

“He’s a faithful son of the church,” Poupko said in an interview in the weeks before Cardinal George’s death. “As Francis George said over and over again, ‘Nostra Aetate’ cannot be changed. It’s a doctrine of the church. He embraced its teaching, and he embraced all of us.”

To that end, Cardinal George studied with Jewish scholars, visited synagogues and spoke at Jewish gatherings. Over the years, he and Poupko traveled together to Israel and to Ukraine, where they prayed together at Babi Yar, the site where Nazi forces and local sympathizers slaughtered at least 34,000 Jews over a one-week period in 1941.

“The cardinal once said that as a faithful Catholic, he believes all of humanity needs Christ, but, he said, ‘I wouldn’t want to live in a world in which there were no more Jewish families sitting down to Sabbath dinner on Friday night.’”