Cardinal George fought winds of Catholic change: Column

Cardinal Francis George died Friday. The former archbishop of Chicago succumbed to cancer after an ecclesiastical career largely spent dealing with the many sicknesses afflicting the modern Roman Catholic Church.

In recent years, his reputation was that of a conservative battling to stem the tide of secularism that witnessed millions of Catholics leaving the faith. One obituary even labeled him as "the American Ratzinger," referring to Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the reactionary doctrinal watchdog under Pope John Paul II who instituted numerous conservative reforms in his own brief pontificate as Benedict XVI.

In some ways, this sobriquet rang true. Cardinal George was a steadfast defender of Catholic moral teachings against abortion, gay marriage and divorce. Like Benedict XVI, he gave open support to the growing number of traditionalists demanding more access to ancient Latin liturgical practices which had been suppressed after the Second Vatican Council of 1962-65.

In response to the passage of President Obama's Affordable Care Act, Catholic bishops made an unprecedented protest against the Obamacare law on grounds that it infringed on religious liberty by not allowing a religious exclusion to contraception and other mandates on church-run health providers.

"Independence from foreign government does not necessarily mean that people will be free under their own government," he wrote last year in an Independence Day column about government pressure being put on religious institutions. "People can freely create a state that destroys a free society."

Like many bishops, Cardinal George fought an uphill battle to defend the Catholic Church from legitimate charges that its leaders did not do enough to protect minors from sexual abuse by predatory priests. He used his influence to gain support for a zero-tolerance policy to defrock pedophiles but was dogged by evidence that he didn't move fast enough against criminal clerics in his own diocese.

Solely concentrating on controversial social issues oversimplifies the man, his church, and the times in which he lived. "George was a political liberal on most issues," explains Roger A. McCaffrey, a Catholic publisher. "He certainly was no threat to the established powers in Chicago or Washington, or, as head of the U.S. Catholic Bishops Conference, to the modern zeitgeist."

On this score, the cardinal stamped his imprimatur on some issues that would negate any reputation as a knee-jerk conservative. For example, he was a critic of capitalism and a proponent of amnesty for illegal immigrants and nationalized health care so long as it allowed for religious exemptions on some issues.

Despite these positions, Cardinal George took a markedly different approach than the current pope regarding how the church should engage people in a secular era. Pope Francis has sought to accommodate a certain amount of heterodoxy through vague statements and hints that strict rules might soon change. For example, the pope said the Church must stop being locked up in "small-minded rules" on issues such as abortion and rhetorically asked about gay relationships, "Who am I to judge?"

In an interview after he stepped down from his post for health reasons last year, Cardinal George criticized the pope for sewing uncertainty in the minds of the faithful. "Does he not realize the repercussions?" the cardinal asked. "Perhaps he doesn't. I don't know whether he's conscious of all the consequences of some of the things he's said and done that raise doubts in people's minds."

Both prelates have struggled with how Catholicism can remain relevant in a culture less interested in religion. Cardinal George's answer was that the Roman church needed to believe in its own doctrines as a check on a rapidly changing modern society.

Brett M. Decker is consulting director at the White House Writers group. Follow him on Twitter @BrettMDecker.

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