Francis Cardinal George, OMI
Archbishop of Chicago

 

Born in Chicago, Illinois on January 16, 1937, Francis Cardinal George is the first native Chicagoan to serve as Archbishop of Chicago. He studied theology at the University of Ottawa, Canada and was ordained in the Oblates of Mary Immaculate on December 21, 1963 at the age of 26.

Cardinal George earned a master's degree in philosophy at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. in 1965 and a doctorate in American philosophy at Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana in 1970. In 1971, he received a master's degree in theology from the University of Ottawa.


From 1973-74, he was Provincial Superior of the Midwestern Province for the Oblates in St. Paul, Minnesota. He was then elected Vicar General of the Oblates and served in Rome from 1974-1986.

He returned to the United States and became coordinator of the Circle of Fellows for the Cambridge Center for the Study of Faith and Culture in Cambridge, Massachusetts (1987-90). During that time, he also obtained a Doctorate of Sacred Theology in ecclesiology from the Pontifical University Urbaniana in Rome (1988).

He was appointed Bishop of Yakima, Washington (USA) by Pope John Paul II on July 10, 1990. He was made Archbishop of Portland, Oregon on April 30, 1996 and then Archbishop of Chicago on April 8, 1997 following the death of Joseph Cardinal Bernardin. He became a Cardinal on February 21, 1998.