Obituaries

Chicago (April 10, 2025) – Rev. George J. Kane, retired priest of the Archdiocese of Chicago and pastor emeritus of Church of the Holy Spirit in Schaumburg (now part of St. Gregory of Nyssa Parish), passed away Monday, April 7, 2025, at the age of 99.

Kane was born on Jan. 17, 1926, in Chicago. He attended Quigley Preparatory Seminary in Chicago and the University of St. Mary of the Lake/Mundelein Seminary in Mundelein.

Kane was ordained to the priesthood on May 3, 1951, by Cardinal Samuel Stritch, and celebrated his first solemn Mass on May 6 of the same year at St. Hilary Parish in Chicago.

After ordination to the priesthood, Kane served as assistant pastor at Holy Rosary Parish on 113th Street, Holy Cross Parish on 65th Street, and St. George Parish on Wentworth Avenue, all in Chicago, and at St. Hubert Parish in Hoffman Estates. Kane became a faculty member of St. Mary of the Lake University/Mundelein Seminary where he taught seminarians from 1966 to 1972. He was the founding pastor of Church of the Holy Spirit (now part of St. Gregory of Nyssa Parish which merged Holy Spirit and St. Marcelline Parish) and retired in 1996 when he was bestowed the title of pastor emeritus of Church of the Holy Spirit.

Between his assignments at Holy Cross Parish and St. George Parish, Kane served as a United States Air Force chaplain from 1959 to 1963 serving in Korea. There he ministered to fighter pilots preparing to go to  Vietnam.

As a result, in 2023, Kane participated in an Honor Flight for veterans of World War II and the Korean and Vietnam Wars visiting armed services and war memorials in Washington, D.C. The oldest of 111 veterans on that flight, Kane was struck by the affirmation  the veterans received from those who greeted them in the nation’s capital, “especially when we returned to Midway at about 9 o’clock at night, and there were hundreds of people there,” Kane added during an interview with the archdiocesan newspaper Chicago Catholic. Read more about the historic Honor Flight Chicago: Priest veteran visits Washington, D.C., with Honor Flight Chicago.

Rev. John Hoffman, retired archdiocesan priest, had known Kane since his seminary internship at Kane’s parish, more than 50 years ago. “He was a great homilist, wicked smart and had a great sense of humor,” Hoffman said. According to Hoffman, Kane was often invited as a speaker and would offer TED Talk-style sessions on the structure of the Church, mission of the Church, spirituality, and so on. Hoffman added that he was a supporter of women's participation in the Church and Vatican II. “He believed in it, he believed it made such a difference for the laity, parishes and the Church,” Hoffman noted. “He believed in Christ’s way of life for us and that it is Jesus Christ we seek, as Pope John Paul II said.”

During a January 2024 interview with Chicago Catholic, Kane looked back on his ministry in the archdiocese and impact of the Second Vatican Council. “I was hoping we would get away from this ultra-authoritarian mode the church had, and get into the way of Vatican II,” he said during the interview. “That struck me as a life-giving kind of a vision, and it correlated with the best I had in my seminary training.”

Very Rev. Gregory Sakowicz, rector of Holy Name Cathedral in Chicago, recognized that he had lost not only a dear friend of 49 years but also a mentor. “He was a man of compassion and a Vatican II priest through and through,” Sakowicz said. “He would tell people ‘you are the Church and together we are the body of Christ.’” The last time Sakowicz visited Kane (about six months ago), he asked his mentor about heaven and life. Kane responded without hesitation that “heaven is fullness of joy, fullness of life and fullness of God” and that “life is a mystery to be lived and not a problem to be solved.”

Rev. Bill Stenzel, another retired archdiocesan priest who also interned under Kane, noted that “he was without a doubt the best teacher to other ministers because he never stopped learning about ministry himself,” Stenzel stated about his mentor and distant relative. “I am who I am today because I was shaped by his vision of the Church and ministry. He truly left a ‘mark of Kane’ anywhere he went.”

Visitation hours will be Friday, April 11, 2025, from 3 to 8 p.m. at Holy Family Parish, 2515 W. Palatine Road in Inverness (with a prayer service at 7 p.m.).

Visitation hours will also take place on Saturday, April 12 from 9 to 10:15 a.m. at Church of the Holy Spirit of St. Gregory of Nyssa Parish, 1451 Bode Road in Schaumburg.

The funeral Mass will be held at 10:30 a.m. at Church of the Holy Spirit of St. Gregory of Nyssa Parish. Hoffman will celebrate the funeral Mass and Sakowicz will be the homilist.

Interment will take place at All Saints Cemetery in Des Plaines.