Cardinal George Released

Chicago's archbishop -- and the de facto leader of the American hierarchy -- went home from the hospital yesterday after two days of tests....

Doctors said they think George may have an inner ear problem and may be suffering from stress of recent airplane travel, said Colleen Dolan, a spokeswoman for the Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago.

Testing at Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood did indicate that the 69-year-old spiritual leader of Chicago-area Roman Catholics did not suffer a stroke, Dolan said.

She said more may be known about his health next week, when results of tests done become available.

The cardinal made no statement as he walked out of the hospital at about 3:45 p.m. but waved and said, "Fine, thank you," in response to an inquiry about how he felt.

George recently completed a trip to New Zealand and Rome. Dolan said in a briefing outside the hospital that the cardinal had been experiencing light-headedness and dizziness for three weeks or so, but symptoms had become more pronounced since his return home Wednesday.

"It apparently was no single thing but a combination of air travel, his medication and possibly an inner ear problem," Dolan said.

A friend had something of this kind last year. It's very easy to get worried about, as you feel a lot of the symptoms which accompany something terribly serious, but the only thing out of whack is the alignment of some crystals in the inner ear. So they turn you over -- for some reason, it's done while you're upside-down -- some inner-ear chiropracting gets done and, voila!, you feel like new in three days.

Notably elsewhere, Francis George raised some eyebrows yesterday by saying to John Allen that "The church seems to have incorporated into herself all the divisions of the world, which makes her a less effective missionary, and, I think, betrays the intentions of the Second Vatican Council, which still have to be fulfilled." (Italics mine.)

Vatican II's intentions still have to be fulfilled.... Well, we know this.... But what things could he be referring to, specifically?

That's a nut I'd love to crack.

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