c. 1997 Religion News Service

UNDATED _ Archbishop Francis George, currently head of the archdiocese of Portland, Ore., is set to become Archbishop of Chicago _ the nation’s second largest Roman Catholic jurisdiction _ on Wednesday (May 7).

In an interview with RNS, George, a little-known prelate prior to his appointment, talked about what he called the”daunting”task of leading the Chicago archdiocese and stepping into the shoes of the late Cardinal Joseph Bernardin, one of the nation’s most influential Catholic leaders.

George, 60, is the former bishop of Yakima, Wash., and has been a member of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate, a missionary religious order, for nearly 40 years.

In his opening homily in Chicago, George will focus on the mission of the church in the United States, he told RNS. George said he plans to tell the 2.5 million Catholics in Chicago,”If we don’t keep focused on the church’s mission, and particular problems absorb all our attention, then we have lost the focus Christ wants us to have.” George talked to RNS from his Portland office shortly before he left for Chicago.

ON BEING APPOINTED ARCHBISHOP OF CHICAGO

Q. Since being named in early April you’ve made two trips to Chicago and been the subject of a lot of media coverage. Are you exhausted? Excited?

A. No, I’m not exhausted. I’m apprehensive, a little bit. I am enjoying it at times. Chicago is a functioning church, and so I have to learn it and try to fit in as best I can. Over a period of time, the bishop shapes the church, but the church certainly shapes the bishop.

Q. One business publication compared your move from Portland to Chicago as the equivalent of a businessperson being named the president of Sears after running a small lumber company. How do you feel about the sheer size of (the archdiocese of) Chicago?

A. It’s daunting, no doubt about it. The administrative chart is really intimidating. It’s going to take me a long time to try to find what buttons to push, even where the buttons are. The other side is _ keeping in mind what St. Paul said about boasting _ I was the vicar general of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate, which means I had 5,500 priests in my responsibility, in six official languages and 48 provinces around the globe. It gives you a vision of things that is pretty broad and rather complex.

Q. Will you live at the archbishop’s mansion?

A. Have you ever been in that mansion? I wish all the people who talk about it would have a chance to walk in the door. I means, its 110 years old. I am not going to criticize it. It’s a symbol in the Catholic community. It’s where the archbishop lives, and so I will go and live there.

Q. What do you bring with you from your experience as bishop in Yakima and Portland?

A. The Catholic church _ no church out here, really _ is not very strong here. It’s an unchurched area, so cooperation with others is more important than if you could imagine you were self-sufficient. There is a sense of being a small and sometimes insignificant minority. It makes you realistic and humble. On the negative side you internalize more rapidly all the general criticisms of the church.

ON PRAYER AND RELAXATION

Q. Cardinal Bernardin talked often about prayer. How do you pray or to whom to you pray?

A. I pray to God! Is there somebody else? I’m not a morning person, but I try to pray when I get up, start with personal prayer and the breviary. I say Mass. I pray before the blessed sacrament. I find the prayer of petition is extremely important, I pray a lot for people that I meet and talk to throughout the day.

Q. What do you do for relaxation? Is it true you’re a subscriber to”Review of Metaphysics?” A. Well, yes, I do read that. I enjoy reading. I read Tony Hillerman novels. He’s a good detective, and he is also very sensitive to indigenous cultures. I read poetry, but not too much, just enough to stop brain rot from setting in. I have read five or six of Father (Andrew) Greeley’s novels. I enjoy being with friends.

ABORTION

Q. What is your plan for the church’s pro-life movement in this country?

A. We live in a culture shaped by an acceptance of abortion, more and more by assisted suicide, and infanticide, really, with partial birth abortion. We have to do what we did from the third to the eighth centuries. The church was born in an empire when all those things were acceptable. We have to preach the gospel, convert people’s hearts. I think we also have to look at whether the political means we have been using have been as effective as they might be.

Q. The vote to ban partial birth abortion is coming up again in Washington. Do you plan to contact Illinois’ two Catholic senators, Carol Moseley-Braun, D-Ill., Richard Durbin, D-Ill., and ask them to change their earlier vote against the ban?

A. No, I don’t have any immediate plans to do that. I might want to talk to them personally, as a pastor, if the occasion presents itself. It would be interesting to know where they’re coming from. Before you say something, you talk to people.

ON COMPLAINING CATHOLICS AND THE MISSION OF THE CHURCH

Q. A priest in Portland said that in a visit to his parish you spoke about being discouraged at receiving letters from Catholics who complain about the church in light of what you call the church’s”mission.” A. No, I’m not discouraged by letters. If I said that, I didn’t mean it. What I find personally problematic is how do I get people off a particular issue that seems to have absorbed all their energies, and which is blocking their contribution to the church’s mission, for which we are all responsible.

Q. How do you describe that mission?

A. Preach the gospel, go and make disciples, baptize, teach. Instead, we are arguing about where the furniture should be in the sanctuary. I get a little bit distracted by that or a little bit impatient with that at times.

Q. Chicago faces a serious priest shortage. How do you plan to increase

vocations?

A. I am convinced that we haven’t brought into the programs all the vocations that are (out) there. I am convinced of that in faith. I don’t have,”This is the solution.”But, if I can take a more active role and have a higher profile, I will do that. Vocations really begin with the family.

UNDERDOGS AND HEROES

Q. One of your colleagues said you are dedicated to the”underdog.”Where does that come from?

A. Because of the Oblates, I have, hopefully, a sense of concern for the poor. That is part of their mission. If I have it, it is certainly a gift from them and from God. I think I learned from them to watch for who is being left out.

Q. Do you have any heroes?

A. I guess the heroes I have are the many Oblates I visited in Africa, Asia, Latin America, (and) the Far North who just decade after decade stay with poor people and bring the sacraments of the church and the love of God to them.

DEA END GAMBER