By the Code of Canon Law, bishops must submit letters of resignation to the pope on the day of their 75th birthday. Cardinal George turns 75 on Jan. 16. He sat down with Catholic New World editor Joyce Duriga to talk about this process and his future in the Archdiocese of Chicago. Catholic New World: Do you actually write a letter? Cardinal George: Sure. It is a short letter. “Dear Holy Father, I offer you my resignation.” You thank him for all of his great support and his marvelous example. And then I await his decision. I will see him in February, because I’m going to be at the Vatican for the ad limina visit. CNW: Why do bishops have to resign at 75? Cardinal George: It’s in the Code of Canon Law. At 75, if you have pastoral responsibilities, you resign from them while remaining always a priest or a bishop. That’s the rule also for pastors of parishes. When they resign, the bishop either accepts it or he doesn’t. In this archdiocese, a priest may ask to resign from direct pastoral responsibilities at age 70. If they ask, we almost always agree. Some ask for a year or two more, but most pastors are ready to resign at age 70 in this archdiocese. CNW: How was 75 picked as the age of retirement? Cardinal George: I really don’t know, it was decided after the Second Vatican Council. There has been some discussion of it since, because people are living longer now. They probably decided on 75 because they thought most bishops didn’t live much beyond that. You are named a bishop for life, of course, but you resign from pastoral responsibility at age 75. Then it is up to the Holy Father to accept your resignation. I think their concern might have been that sometimes people outlive their ability to function competently. CNW: Why does the pope sometimes choose to keep bishops on and not accept their resignations right away? Cardinal George: Sometimes the Holy See doesn’t actually start looking for successors until a bishop actually resigns. With cardinals, since your work as a cardinal continues until you are 80, Pope John Paul II generally kept the cardinals in their pastoral roles as bishops until they were 80. This present pope doesn’t do that consistently but he often keeps them for a few years or more beyond 75. It’s his decision. He appoints you, and only the pope can accept your resignation. A bishop can’t resign without the permission of the pope. CNW: There’s a rumor going around that you’ve been told you have two years until they will accept your retirement. Cardinal George: I don’t know how anyone can assume that, because I ’ve not discussed my retirement with the Holy Father. Much depends, of course, upon health and the demands o f the local situation. CNW: You’ve often said that one of your goals is to live to see retirement, since the other archbishops of Chicago haven’t. God willing that happens, where would you go from there? Cardinal George: I would stay in Chicago. I would do what my successor wants me to do. I would hope that I could return to some of the things that I really wanted to do as a priest: hearing confessions, helping in parishes, giving some conferences, perhaps. Work with the p oor. I’ve always done direct work with poor peopl e in places I’ve been, except in Chicago. I would like to be able to do that again, serving in soup kitchens and things of that nature. CNW: You mention your successor. Looking back at your experience, what characteristics do you think your successor should have? Cardinal George: A bishop has to be able to preach, teach and hand on the Catholic faith in its integrity. He has to see to it that the seven sacraments are available to the faithful. And he has to see to it that the faithful are pastored by well-prepared priests, deacons and others so that they are loved in Christ’s name as they gather into parishes. Those are the three things he must do: the bishop governs, the bishop teaches, the bishop sanctifies. Part of seeing that the sacraments are available means that he himself confirms, he ordains, he does the sacramental functions that a bishop is supposed to do. After that, each bishop brings particular interests and particular skills and all the rest. But as long as he can do those three things, that’s what counts. Governing also, especially in a big diocese, means contact with a lot of other people. There is a lot of administration. There are a lot of corporate, legal and financial concerns. You have to have somebody who can grapple with that. You have a lot of help to do that, of course, but it can be complex. It comes essentially, however, to three tasks — he governs, he teaches, he sanctifies. He’s shepherd, prophet, teacher, priest, because that is what Jesus is: shepherd, teacher and priest. CNW: If the pope keeps you in your position for a few years, do you have any big plans or goals you would like to accomplish? Cardinal George: We’ve got the strategic pastoral plan, which is very focused over the next few years. What I appreciated when I got here was that there was a plan (called “Decisions ”) that helped me to focus for almost 10 years. That was very helpful. I would like to offer that same gift to my successor, to follow it or not. At least if he wants to use it, he has a little time to get used to things. Beyond that, the rest of it is to continue to be present to people. Continue to do all of the things that I’ve been doing in different ways in the archdiocese and on the outside. I would like to put some administrative matters to rest. There are plans for the schools and for strengthening the parishes. I’m not going to finish these things. These are things that just have to be in place so that the next archbishop can come into a diocese that is in order. CNW: You were a member of the Vatican committee that helped draft some guidelines and suggestions for celebrating the Year of Faith that Pope Benedict announced will begin this October. What was involved in that work? Cardinal George: It started with the consideration of the 20th anniversary of the Catechism of the Catholic Church and how we should celebrate that anniversary. The concern was to have the catechism even more popularly distributed than it is now and to use it in catechetical courses and even in universities; it is a primary instrument for passing on the faith. Passing on the faith is part of evangelizing. The Second Vatican Council was called to make us more of an evangelizing church. The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith realized that the 20th anniversary of the catechism was also the 50 th anniversary of the calling of the Second Vatican Council. The pope decided, consequently, that the subject for the next synod, which will start in October 2012, will be the new evangelization. They put it all together and decided that the Church should enter into a “Year of Faith.” The pope has written a document “Porta Fidei” (see letter at www.vatican.va) which calls us to a renewal of faith in order to pass it on. This is, of course, the purpose of the church’s existence in every generation — to introduce the world to its Savior and to call everyone to conversion. There are various initiatives that are spelled out in the plan for the universal level, at the bishops conference level and at the level of the local church and in parishes. CNW: The pope made some points in “Porta Fidei” that gave a nod to the issue of religious liberty under threat. You ’ve written and spoken about these issues at different times. For those who may not understand what is meant by religious liberty and these threats, would you explain it? Cardinal George: Religious liberty is the subject of the First Amendment of our Constitution. It’s the first of our freedoms. It means that religious bodies are free of government interference to organize themselves according to their own internal rules, worship God and then to do the works of their faith in a way that is consistent with their self-understanding. In other words, it means that the government doesn’t interfere in the lives of the churches, or mosques or synagogues or other religious bodies. The religious groups then try to contribute to the common good in their own way, in their religious way, not dictated by the government. That’s freedom. We all know that. The pope is concerned that around the world there has been erosion of liberty. Maybe in some places it was never there at all. He said once that Christianity is now the most persecuted religion. He is concerned that in more developed countries, the law itself can be used to limit or restrict the church’s activity. The bishops have talked about the growing erosion of religious liberty in our country. I’ve written a column on the topic. CNW: What can we do as Catholics around this issue? Cardinal George: The first thing you can do is exercise your citizenship by electing officials who are committed to protecting the freedom of religion. And let it be known that this is your concern. We’re not trying to blame anybody, but this phenomenon is something we’ve seen before. Are we now being written out of the American consensus so that, in a sense, we are becoming visitors in our own country? One of the proudest things we thought we had achieved was that one could be fully American and fully Catholic. Now we are wondering if that is going to be possible in the future.