Among other talents, Cardinal George was a good pianist. I like to play myself and one day, at the piano in the residence, I asked why he didn’t play anymore: “I don’t have the time, and my taste now has outrun my ability.”
If true, it’s one of the few areas in which his talents fell below his very high standards. He was a great leader, a great mind, a great friend. Probably the remark he will be most remembered for is: “I expect to die in my bed, my successor will die in prison and his successor will die a martyr in the public square. His successor will pick up the shards of the ruined society and slowly help rebuild civilization as the Church has done so often in human history.” I’ve been receiving messages from friends, here and abroad, about their affection for him and worries about what happens next for the Church in America. All that is, of course, uncertain, and Cardinal George – who did much in life for both the Church and the nation – would likely say: that, now, depends on us.
Requiescat in pace. Et in paradisum deducant te Angeli; in tuo adventu suscipiant te martyres, et perducant te in civitatem sanctam Ierusalem.
(source: Remembering Cardinal George – The Catholic Thing)
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gu7mM_zqapA]
see also http://www.nationalreview.com/article/417123/cardinal-francis-george-rip-george-weigel