It’s been five years. Cardinal George was named archbishop of Chicago April 8, 1997, just five months after the death of Cardinal Bernardin. It was an appointment then deemed surprising by many.

After all, Archbishop George of Portland, Ore., had held that post a mere 10 months before being appointed to Chicago, one of the most important U.S. sees. And he had, in fact, only been named a bishop a scant six years earlier, charged then with guiding the Catholics of Yakima, Wash., a small, mostly rural, diocese with many minority and migrant workers.

Before that, Chicago’s new leader had served as vicar general of his religious order, the Oblates of Mary Immaculate, in Rome and had been a teacher and director of the Cambridge (Mass.) Center for the Study of Faith and Culture.

It was that mix of experiences in leadership, ministry and academia that grew Francis George from his Northwest Side/St. Pascal School youth around the world into Cardinal George—the quintessential hometown boy makes good. (There’s an expanded biography elsewhere in this section.)

That was five years ago. And what a five years it’s been.

Many of the events—the successes and the struggles—are written about in this special section of The Catholic New World. Others are continuing stories in the rest of the newspaper.

These five years have been full, from conflicts over race to sexual abuse to efforts to better pass along our Catholic faith to youngsters and adults, to celebrations of the third millennium of Christianity at Soldier Field and in Mundelein and more, including the joyous celebration of being given the red hat of a cardinal in February 1998.

Many of the the stories of those first five years are detailed in these pages.

The Catholic New World is an extension of the teaching mission of the archbishop. Cardinal George made that clear when, in his second year of service in Chicago, he began writing a regular column for the newspaper. It is a task he takes seriously, sometimes bending though never missing a deadline.

In that first column (available in TCNW’s on-line archives at www.CatholicNewWorld.com), he wrote: “When I came to Chicago…, I wanted to continue my custom in Portland and Yakima of writing a regular column … This is a good device for creating a conversation between bishop and people. Even those who never write back sometimes comment on the column as the bishop visits parishes and shows up for various events. It’s a way for the bishop to reflect publicly on current events in light of faith; a way to explain a controverted point of doctrine; a way to simply share what’s on his mind and what are his concerns for the local church given to his pastoral governance.”

Cardinal George’s columns have been a lens through which these five years can be viewed.

So, too, are the pages of this section.

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