CHICAGO (IL)
Chicago Tribune

By Manya Brachear Pashman
Chicago Tribune

Cardinal Francis George, the first Chicago native to serve as the local archbishop and a man who during that 17-year tenure became the intellectual leader of the American church, died Friday morning at his home after a years long struggle with cancer. He was 78.

“A man of peace, tenacity and courage has been called home to the Lord,” George’s successor, Archbishop Blase Cupich, said during a brief announcement Friday afternoon.

He said George died at 10:45 a.m. at his home.

Cupich remembered George as “always choosing the church over his own comfort, and the people over his own needs. …

He also became a point person between the U.S. and the Vatican on the abuse scandal and matters such as liturgy of the Mass, playing a key role in revisions that brought the English translation closer to…