Are You Ready to be a Martyr? The Time is Near!

Several years ago as he suffered with terminal cancer, Cardinal Francis George of Chicago made this, now famous, statement:

I expect to die in bed, my successor will die in prison and his successor will die a martyr in the public square. His successor will pick up the shards of a ruined society and slowly help rebuild civilization, as the church has done so often in human history.[i]

Anyone with fingers on the pulse of American culture can hardly be surprised at a prince of the Church predicting impending persecution.