Divine Mercy and the New York Yankees

“Jesus, I trust in you.” These are the words given to us by St. Faustina Kowalska as revealed to her by Christ in his Divine Mercy appearances. Millions have benefited from this devotion and drawn closer to the heart of God. Certainly, there are too many tales to list in this little story, but, if you will, I want to tell you about just one — my dear friend, George Rose.

George was a deeply active member of his parish in Hamilton, New Jersey (St. Raphael’s). He was also involved in the Diocese of Trenton, served as a key board member of the men’s organization, Catholic Men for Jesus Christ, and was a co-host on Domestic Church Media’s radio program, Brothers in Arms.

You get the picture. George was a man of deep faith and a recognized pillar to the people around him. 

George was a dedicated husband to his wife Cari, and an extremely involved father to his son Sean, who recently graduated from Hargrave Military Academy in Chatham, Virginia, and is off to his dad’s alma mater, College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts. He also headed up Pacific Rim operations for the New York Yankees, where he often split time between the States and the other country that occupied a special place in his heart, Japan. 

To this point, everything I am conveying seems idyllic, save the fact that I’m referring to my friend in the past tense. Yes, if it wasn’t any more obvious, George passed away in August 2023, leaving a gaping hole in all the people around him. 

In February 2017, George was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer that had already metastasized into his lymph nodes. The prognosis was dire, with a five-year survivability of less than 5%. Yet, despite the pessimistic statistics, George had one trump card up his sleeve — trust. This trust was not perhaps fully formalized in his mind at first, but, inevitably, took on shape as a deep-rooted devotion began to mature. “Jesus, I trust in you,” became the architecture that held this man of faith upright for the next 6-and-a-half years. It was as if the image that is so familiar to millions, which shows the rays of blood and water emanating out from Christ’s heart, became like a traversed corridor for George that ever so much narrowed as he drew closer to its point of origin. The beating of our Lord’s heart became the very tempo of the rest of his life. 

I remember visiting George in the hospital just after the diagnosis. He suffered severe back pain that no one could make sense of, leading to an emergency room run. Everything unfolded from there and, amid the sterile smiles from staff and the swallowed angst from family and friends, George (oddly, at least to me) appeared in good spirits. Right away, he attacked this diagnosis on all fronts. A deep devotion to the Divine Mercy developed with a special relationship with Blessed Michael Sopoćko, St. Faustina’s spiritual director. This devotion even led him to the Shrine of Divine Mercy in Poland in 2018 where he took up the pilgrim’s cross. 

George’s diet radically changed as well, since he was a man on a mission. Within months, and after a call from the Yankees’ general manager, Brian Cashman, Memorial Sloan Kettering had him in a clinical trial. Upon initial inspection at Sloan, they were amazed at how much his personal interventions shrunk the tumors even before therapy started. Once the trial began, George, of course, was the best responder.

After an amazing run of physical health and spiritual growth, near the end of 2022, all things began to fall apart following a stint of pneumonia. George deteriorated in health and entered eternity the next year. I was fortunate to pray with him while he was in and out of consciousness the day before he died. Of course, the main prayers consisted of a chaplet of Divine Mercy. Save for the Rosary, I don’t think George would have had it any other way.

What has not been recognized thus far is the daily sanctification that ground on George’s mind, body and spirit like a cluster of rusty chains draped over a torn back. If I painted the picture that he was a modern-day Padre Pio, I apologize for that. George would be in my face at that comparison. What he probably wants right now is more prayers, so I ask you to accommodate him. He’d tell you the only thing he had in common with Padre Pio was his temper. 

Many would agree, since there were indeed those times, especially when heavily dosed with powerful medications. But what we all would agree with was that we saw true sanctification in progress with his life and most recent journey through the crucible of cancer. Like all of us, there were falls, yet George was no Judas. He looked into the eyes of Divine Mercy itself, asked for forgiveness, and got back up — again and again. 

George was a man’s man. But, most of all, he was a man of Mercy and I do believe, given all the prayer poured out, sacraments received, formal blessings from the Church, the life he lived, the scars on his bruised knees, yet constant forward charge, George Rose was greeted with, or will soon hear (due to our prayers): “Well done, good and faithful servant.”

Bill Maher is the president of Catholic Men for Jesus Christ.