By Catholic News Service CHICAGO (CNS) -- Cardinal Francis E. George of Chicago will work with his doctors to determine a course of treatment after test results showed cancerous cells in his kidney and in a nodule removed from his liver. The archdiocese made the announcement Aug. 17. The cardinal received the results after undergoing a procedure Aug. 15 at Loyola University Medical Center. After resting at home over the weekend, Cardinal George went on retreat for a week. "We have no further information at this time," the archdiocese said. Prayers were said for the cardinal and all those battling cancer during all weekend Masses. Cardinal George has headed the Chicago Archdiocese since 1997. He was made a cardinal a year later. He was president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops from 2007 to 2010. In late July 2006, he underwent surgery for bladder cancer. Doctors removed Cardinal George's bladder, prostate gland and sections of his ureters -- the tubes that carry urine from the kidneys to the bladder -- after a biopsy showed there was cancer in his bladder and a blockage indicated that the disease was moving into one of the ureters. After his release from the hospital, he recuperated at home and kept a limited schedule. By late fall of that year, he resumed a normal schedule. Pathology tests after his surgery showed that the cancer had not spread and his doctors called him a "cancer survivor." A native of Chicago, Cardinal George is a member of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate. He was ordained a priest in 1963. He is widely traveled, has doctorates in philosophy and theology, is fluent in Spanish, French and Italian, and knows some German. He was his order's vicar general in Rome from 1974 to 1986. He was the bishop of Yakima, Wash., from 1990 to 1996, when he was named archbishop of Portland, Ore. About a year later, he was appointed to the Chicago Archdiocese, succeeding the late Cardinal Joseph L. Bernardin.
PHOTO: Paul Brill, Charlene Conarty, Katie Brill and Alicia Brill pray for petitions offered during Mass at Holy Name Cathedral in Chicago Aug. 18. Prayers were said for Cardinal Francis E. George and all those battling cancer after it was announced the day before that doctors had discovered cancer in his kidney and liver. Cardinal George fought bladder cancer in 2006. (CNS photo/Karen Callaway, Catholic New World)