Funeral services are pending for Youngstown Bishop George V. Murry, SJ. Bishop Murry, 71, died on June 5 at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City. He had been battling leukemia.
The Catholic Diocese of Youngstown announced on May 26 that a third recurrence of the illness forced him to submit his resignation to Pope Francis. Bishop Murry was named the fifth bishop of Youngstown in 2007.
“Please pray for the repose of our beloved Bishop George V. Murry,” the Youngstown Diocese tweeted the morning of June 5.
Condolences were being expressed on social media over the death of the popular bishop, including from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and Providence, Rhode Island Bishop Thomas Tobin, Bishop Murry’s predecessor in Youngstown. “Stunned and very sorry to learn of the passing of my successor in the Diocese of Youngstown, Bishop George Murry. He was a wonderful priest and bishop, a truly good shepherd of God’s people. Rest in peace, Bishop Murry,” Bishop Tobin tweeted.
Bishop Murry was diagnosed in April 2018 with a form of acute leukemia and was admitted to the Cleveland Clinic for intensive chemotherapy. When he was released in late May 2018, doctors said his leukemia was in remission, but he needed regular follow-up visits.
“In July of 2019, he reentered the Cleveland Clinic for a reoccurrence of leukemia. At that time, tests confirmed that he was in remission and that doctors were not recommending a bone marrow transplant,” the Diocese of Youngstown said in a previously released statement.
However, in April, the leukemia again returned and he resumed treatment. Diocesan officials said as a result of this third bout of leukemia, Bishop Murry’s current state of health left him unable to fulfill his duties as shepherd of the diocese.
After his initial diagnosis, Bishop Murry stepped down from the chairmanship of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ newly formed Ad Hoc Committee Against Racism and chairmanship of the USCCB Committee on Catholic Education.
A native of Camden, New Jersey, Bishop Murry entered the Jesuits in 1972 and was ordained in 1979. He has a Master of Divinity degree from the Jesuit School of Theology at Berkley, California, and a doctorate in American Cultural History from George Washington University in Washington, D.C.
Before he was appointed bishop of Youngstown, he was a high school administrator at two Washington, D.C. schools. Bishop Murry also was a professor of American studies at Georgetown University and associate vice president for academic affairs at the University of Detroit-Mercy.
He was appointed auxiliary bishop of Chicago in 1995 by Pope John Paul II. In 1998, he was appointed coadjutor bishop of St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands. He served in that position until June 30, 1999, when he became bishop of the diocese, and remained there until Pope Francis named him bishop of Youngstown in 2007.
Along with the other Catholic bishops in Ohio, Bishop Murry also was a member of the Catholic Conference of Ohio