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Cardinal George has been released from the hospital:

"I'm ready to go back home," George said outside Loyola University Medical Center before using crutches to walk to his car....

Doctors have said they succeeded in removing all the cancer and George--one of the most prominent U.S. cardinals and the spiritual leader of more than 2.3 million Roman Catholics in the Chicago area--will not require chemotherapy or radiation.

"Right now there is no sign of cancer in his body. He is a cancer survivor," Sheehan said. "We cannot promise that he is cured. It is certainly our hope and prayer."...

George said he was not always patient in the hospital and admitted he experienced "a lot of pain."

"I'm extraordinarily grateful to those that remembered me in prayer before the Lord," George said. "And I hope that in their bringing me before the Lord they had to bring themselves and therefore their relationship to the Lord has deepened."

"So I'm hoping that this will have a good spiritual result, as well as a good physical result for me and many others," he said.

PHOTO: George Thompson/Chicago Tribune

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