My last post regarding Msgr. Higgins received a negative comment. If anyone disapproves of this post, please email me privately and I will delete it.
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Dear Friends,
I write with some unfortunate news. Beneath this text is a press
release from the Catholic News Service about Monsignor Higgins's
collapse and hospitalization in Chicago this past weekend.
Barbara Pfarr spoke with Bridget Doonan, Monsignor Higgins's sister,
on Wednesday about 5p.m., to check in on his health. Her report is
more recent than the Catholic New Service piece below.
Barbara reports that they started dialysis Wednesday afternoon
because his circulation has gotten better. His color is good now; he
had been blue. They're not sure if his heart will hold up for it.
He's in isolation. She says it depends on which nurse
or doctor she talks to as to whether he'll make it.
So please, keep him and his family in your thoughts and prayers.
My best,
Tom Levinson
Msgr. Higgins collapses in Chicago, is hospitalized
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Msgr. George G. Higgins, America's foremost
labor priest, was in critical condition following surgery to fight a
massive
infection Jan. 20 at La Grange Memorial Hospital in his home town of
La Grange, Ill. His sister, Bridget Doonan, told {HYPERLINK
"http://www.catholicnews.com/index.html"}Catholic News Service Jan.
22 that he had not shown signs of consciousness since the evening of
Jan. 20,when his bishop, Cardinal Francis E. George of Chicago, came
to visit him.
"He asked the cardinal, 'When are you going to slow down your pace?'
And those are the last words he's spoken," she said. Msgr. Higgins,
who turned 86 Jan. 21, spent most of his life in Washington working
on national and international labor, social justice and interfaith
concerns, but he returned to La Grange in mid-January to give a
keynote talk Jan. 19 for a social justice workshop at his childhood
home parish, St. Francis Xavier.
Copyright (c) 2002 {HYPERLINK
"http://www.catholicnews.com/index.html"}Catholic News Service/U.S.
Conference of Catholic Bishops.
