Cardinal George returns to hospital for routine care

Chicago, Ill., Mar 30, 2015 / 10:43 am

Cardinal Francis George, the Emeritus Archbishop of Chicago, was readmitted to the hospital over the weekend for planned pain management and hydration issues.

The Chicago archdiocese said the visit to Loyola University Medical Center was not due to a medical emergency, ABC 7 Chicago reported.

However, the cardinal will not be able to participate in Holy Week or Easter liturgies at Chicago's Holy Name Cathedral due to his health.
 
Cardinal George spent a week in the hospital earlier this month shortly after being dropped from a cancer drug trial in April.

The 78-year-old cardinal was first diagnosed with bladder cancer in 2006 and underwent a five-hour surgery to remove his bladder and other parts of his body affected by cancer. In 2012, his doctors discovered that the cancer had returned, this time to his kidney and liver.

In an effort to battle the returning cancer, Cardinal George took part in a cancer drug clinical trial last year, which experimented with helping the body recognize cancerous cells through the immune system. After it was determined that his trial was proving to be ineffective, he halted the treatment in January.

The first Chicago native to become the city's archbishop, Cardinal George retired in 2014 amid his battle with cancer and was succeeded by Archbishop Blase Cupich. He had shepherded the archdiocese since 1997.

Last year, he said that the cancer could be the cause of his death, but that he was counting on prayers so that he "might be of service to the Lord and His Church in the time left."

"As one nears the end of his or her life, I think the Lord sends us signs through a transformation of desire that, finally, in the end, helps us recognize more clearly that the only thing that is important is life with God," he said during a press conference at the time of his retirement.