HISTORY
Established as a diocese in 1843 and as an Archdiocese in 1880. Pastored, in succession by 5 bishops, 2 archbishops and 5 cardinals since 1843.
ADMINISTRATION
Two key advisors, the Vicar General and the Chancellor, coordinate parish life, central services, and responsibilities of the Archbishop. Six auxiliary bishops serve as Episcopal Vicar for regional vicariates, where they are assisted by twenty-five deans, each administering an area cluster of parishes. Seven department directors supervise agencies and programs grouped by service focus. The Administrative Council, Presbyteral Council, Archdiocesan Pastoral Council, Consejo Pastoral, Archdiocesan Financial Council, Women's Committee, and a Board of Consultors serve in an advisory capacity to the Archbishop.
TERRITORY
1,411 square miles in Cook and Lake Counties.
CATHOLIC POPULATION:
2,446,000
Catholic Population as percentage of total
population of Cook and Lake counties: 40%
Racial/Ethnic composition of Catholic
population of Archdiocese:
White: 1,306,000 - 54%
Hispanic: 906,000 - 37%
African American: 94,000 - 3.8%
Asian/other: 104,000 - 4.2%
Multi Racial: 36,000 - 1%
PARISHES:
Number of Parishes: 375
Baptisms: 42,100
First Communions: 31,100
Confirmations: 22,900
Weddings: 9,100
Funerals: 17,300
Scheduled Masses
Weekend Masses Scheduled ( Parishes & Missions)
English: 1,405
Spanish: 238
Polish: 86
Other Language (17): 39
CATHOLIC EDUCATION
Largest Catholic School System in the United States. 11th largest in the country, public or private
CATHOLIC SCHOOLS
Elementary schools: 248
Secondary schools: 42
Elementary school enrollment: 87,100
Secondary school enrollment: 30, 150
RELIGIOUS EDUCATION
Enrollment in elementary school programs: 103,598
Enrollment in secondary school programs: 11,710
SEMINARY SYSTEM
Quigley Prep. Seminary
Enrollment: 231
St. Joseph College Seminary
Enrollment: 43
Mundelein Seminary
Enrollment: 210
CATHOLIC COLLEGES & UNIVERSITIES
5 Catholic colleges and universities serving 44, 000 students
CATHOLIC CHARITIES
600,000 people served
175 types of services
160 locations
CATHOLIC CEMETERIES
46 Catholic cemeteries
20,000 annual interments
CATHOLIC HOSPITALS
21 Catholic hospitals
2.2 million people assisted annually
MILLENNIUM CAMPAIGN
299 parishes have conducted parish
campaigns, raising $220 million dollars
in gifts and pledges. This is the largest
capital fund raising project ever
conducted by any diocese. 80% of the
funds will go back to the parishes in
which the money was raised for capital
improvements. 20% of the funds will
be contributed towards grants to the
neediest of parishes and for capital
expenditures for the seminaries and
the Bishop Timothy J. Lyne Residence
for Retired Priests.
DIOCESAN PRIESTS, DEACONS, WOMEN AND MEN RELIGIOUS, AND LAY PERSONNEL IN THE ARCHDIOCESE
Diocesan Priests (including active and retired): 854
Religious Priests: 839
Religious Brothers: 345
Women Religious: 2,687
Permanent Deacons: 547
Pastoral Associates/Ministers: 173
Full-time Teachers and Administrators in Archdiocesan School System
Elementary Schools: 4,562
Secondary Schools: 1,926
Total: 6,488
Total employed by the Catholic Bishop of Chicago 16,748
CARDINAL FRANCIS EUGENE GEORGE, O.M.I. ARCHBISHOP OF CHICAGO
BIOGRAPHY OF FRANCIS CARDINAL GEORGE, O.M.I.
ARCHBISHOP OF CHICAGO
His Eminence Francis Eugene Cardinal George, O.M.I., eighth Archbishop of Chicago, was born in Chicago to Francis J. and Julia R. McCarthy George on January 16, 1937. He is the first native Chicagoan to serve as Archbishop of Chicago.
After attending St. Pascal Grade School on Chicago’s northwest side and St. Henry Preparatory Seminary in Belleville, Illinois, he entered the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate on August 14, 1957.
He studied theology at the University of Ottawa, Canada, and was ordained a priest by Most Rev. Raymond Hillinger on December 21, 1963 at St. Pascal Church.
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, New Orleans, Louisiana, in 1970. In 1971, he received a master’s degree in theology from the University of Ottawa in Canada. During those years, he also taught philosophy at the Oblate Seminary, Pass Christian, Mississippi (1964-69), Tulane University, New Orleans, Louisiana (1968) and at Creighton University, Omaha, Nebraska (1969-1973).
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 (1987-1990). During that time, he obtained a Doctorate of Sacred Theology in ecclesiology from the Pontifical Urban University, Rome, Italy (1988).
Pope John Paul II appointed him Bishop of Yakima on July 10, 1990. He was ordained and installed as the fifth bishop of Yakima on September 21, 1990 in St. Paul Cathedral, Yakima.
He served there for five and a half years before being appointed Archbishop of Portland in Oregon by Pope John Paul II on April 30, 1996. He was installed on May 27, 1996 as the ninth Archbishop of Portland.
Less than a year later, on April 8, 1997, Pope John Paul II named him the eighth Archbishop of Chicago, to the See left vacant by the death of Joseph Cardinal Bernardin on November 14, 1996. His installation by the Most Rev. Agostino Cacciavillan, Apostolic Pro-Nuncio, took place at Holy Name Cathedral on May 7, 1997.
On January 18, 1998, Pope John Paul II announced Archbishop George’s elevation to the Sacred College of Cardinals. After the Consistory of February 21, 1998, Cardinal George was also appointed a member of the Holy See’s Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and for Societies of Apostolic Life, and the Pontifical Council “Cor Unum.” In 1999, Pope John Paul II appointed Cardinal George to the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples and the Pontifical Commission for the Cultural Heritage of the Church. In 2001, the Pope appointed him to the Congregation for Oriental Churches and, in 2004, he appointed Cardinal George to the Pontifical Council for Culture.
He was a papal appointee to the 1994 World Synod of Bishops on Consecrated Life and a delegate and one of two special secretaries at the Synod of Bishops for America in 1997. He was a delegate of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops to the 2001 World Synod of Bishops. He was also elected to the Post-Synodal Council for the World Synod of Bishops in 2001.
He is Chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops Committee on Liturgy, and a member of the USCCB ad hoc Committee on Shrines and the Subcommittee on Campus Ministry. He also serves as consultant to the USCCB Committee on Pro-Life Activities and the Subcommittee on Lay Ministry. Previously, he served on the USCCB Committees on Doctrine, on Latin America, on Missions, on Religious Life, the American Board of Catholic Missions, on World Missions, and on the ad hoc Committee to Oversee the Use of the Catechism.
He was chair of the USCCB Commission for Bishops and Scholars from 1992-1994, and a consultant to the USCCB Committees on Evangelization (1991-93), Hispanic Affairs (1994-97), Science and Values (1994-97), and African American Catholics (1999-2002).
He is the USCCB Representative to the International Commission on English in the Liturgy (since 1997). He is also the Chancellor of the Catholic Church Extension Society (since 1997) and the University of St. Mary of the Lake, Mundelein, Illinois (since 1997). He is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Catholic University of America (since 1993), a Trustee of the Papal Foundation (since 1997), a member of the Board of Directors of the National Catholic Bio-ethics Center in Boston (since 1994), and a member of the Board of the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception (since 1997). He has been the Episcopal Liaison to the Catholic Campus Ministry Association Executive Board since 1998 and is now also Episcopal Moderator for the Ministry of Transportation Chaplains (2003). He also served as Episcopal Advisor to the Cursillo Movement, Region XII, from 1990 to 1997.
Since 1990, he has been Episcopal Moderator and member of the board of the National Catholic Office for Persons with Disabilities. He brings personal experience to his role after a five-month bout with polio at age 13 left him with permanent damage to his legs.
Cardinal George is Conventual Chaplain ad honorem of the Federal Association of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, Grand Prior of the North Central Lieutenancy of the United States for the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem, and a member of the Kohl McCormick Early Childhood Teaching Awards Advisory Board. He has been a member of the Board of Directors of Oblate Media, Belleville, Illinois, since 1988.
He is publisher of The Catholic New World and Chicago Catolico, the official newspapers of the Archdiocese of Chicago. He writes a column frequently in The Catholic New World. He is also interviewed monthly on “Catholic Community of Faith,” a radio program sponsored by the Archdiocese on WSCN 820-AM, and he is on the Chicago Loop Cable Ch. 25 program “The Church, The Cardinal and You.”
As Archbishop of Chicago, he has issued two pastoral letters: on evangelization, “Becoming an Evangelizing People,” (November 21, 1997) and on racism, “Dwell in My Love” (April 4, 2001).
He is a member of the American Catholic Philosophical Association, the American Society of Missiologists and the Catholic Commission on Intellectual and Cultural Affairs. In addition to English, he speaks French, Italian, Spanish and some German.
