April 21--Seattle Archbishop J. Peter Sartain, former leader of the Joliet Diocese, will return to the Chicago area this week to preach at the funeral of Cardinal Francis George.
According to a spokesman for the Seattle Archdiocese, George invited Sartain before he died to deliver the homily. Sartain, who had been appointed to reform the statutes, speaker selection process and publications of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, was in Rome for a meeting to conclude that process when George died Friday.
Sartain succeeded the beleaguered Bishop Joseph Imesch as the fourth bishop of Joliet in 2006. He has been in Seattle since 2010. Some Vatican observers included Sartain on an unofficial shortlist to succeed George.
George's funeral arrangements include a public visitation beginning at 2:30 p.m. Tuesday in Holy Name Cathedral, and a funeral at noon Thursday, which will require a ticket to attend, the archdiocese said.
He will be buried in the George family plot at All Saints Cemetery Mausoleum in suburban Des Plaines, where his parents, Francis J. and Julia R. George, were laid to rest.
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