Sunday, May 17, 2015, marked the month anniversary of the death of Francis Eugene Cardinal George, OMI, the emeritus archbishop of Chicago. The traditional Mass known as the “month’s mind Mass” was celebrated in Holy Name Cathedral. It completes the Church’s funeral rites for the Cardinal.
He served Chicago for 17 years he as its archbishop. The Cardinal’s motto was Christo, Gloria in Ecclesia (To Christ be glory in the Church).
There is a red hat, once worn by cardinals but no longer used, called a galero; this wide-brimmed hat with elegantly woven tassles hanging from it (see picture).
George’s silk hat now hangs alongside those of previous Chicago Cardinals Joseph Bernardin, John Cody, Albert Meyer, Samuel Stritch and George Mundelein. The tradition of bestowing the wide-brimmed hat when a man entered the College of Cardinals. Pope Paul VI replaced it with a silk biretta following the Second Vatican Council.
In fact, Cardinal George had two galeros but never wore them: one was gift to him from the seminarians of Mundelein seminary and the second one was given to him by friends just months before his death.