At the end of September, Sandro Magister commented that the more conservative and traditional Catholics of the United States, “while still reeling from the news of the … removal of Cardinal Raymond Burke … [have] been dealt another blow with the appointment of the new archbishop of Chicago". Pope Francis’s selection of Archbishop Blase Cupich as the new pastor of the third-ranking diocese in the US, comments Magister, “has plunged this particularly dynamic component of American Catholicism into a profound depression, almost to the edge of a nervous breakdown… the more progressive segment of American Catholicism, historically hypercritical of the recent pontificates, has celebrated with enthusiasm the arrival of Cupich…” One would in any case have surmised that Cupich’s immediate predecessor, Cardinal Francis George (who is described by the commentator John Allen Jr as “America’s Ratzinger”) must be wondering what on earth Pope Francis is up to. Magister comments that “Cupich seems to be bringing Chicago back to the heyday of Cardinal Joseph Bernardin, George’s predecessor, a champion of 'liberal' Catholicism in the United States and the creator of the mountainous bureaucratic machine of the episcopal conference”. Everything in the American Church, in other words, that Cardinal George fought (with considerable success) during his entire episcopal career to reverse. John Allen worked out that there was an interesting story here; and he hit journalistic paydirt: just before he handed over his diocese to the new man, Cardinal George gave Allen a fascinating interview (more next Monday) on the Crux website about his attitude, not to his successor but to the Pope who appointed him.   Cardinal George is currently undergoing experimental treatment intended to stimulate his immune system to fight off the cancer spreading from his bladder, liver, and kidneys through the rest of his body. But even now, says Allen, as the cardinal fights for his life, his mind remains remarkably nimble. And one thing occupying his mind these days is Pope Francis. He’s puzzled: and what he had to say exactly mirrors, I suspect, what many of us too, have also wondered about. If time and health allow, says Allen, Cardinal George would really, really like to have a heart-to-heart with Francis.   “Aside from the sheer fun of knowing what one of America’s best Catholic minds wants to ask the Pope,” comments Allen, “George’s dream Q&A has political relevance because he remains a point of reference to the Church’s conservative wing. These aren’t just his questions, in other words, but what a large and influential Catholic constituency would like to know.”     He began the interview by telling Allen that he’d like to ask Pope Francis if he fully grasps that in some quarters, he’s created the impression that Catholic doctrine is up for grabs: