YOUNGSTOWN — Public calling hours and an evening prayer are planned this week to honor Bishop George V. Murry, who died last Friday at age 71.

The Catholic Diocese of Youngstown announced Monday that public calling hours will be 2 to 7 p.m. Thursday in St. Columba Cathedral, 154 Wood St.

Monsignor John Zuraw, diocesan chancellor, said with the current COVID-19 health crisis, the public is being asked to be mindful of social distancing during the calling hours.

A public prayer is set for 7 p.m. Thursday with social distancing also to be upheld.

“We will be careful and focus on social distancing and having so many people in the cathedral at a time,” Zuraw said.

Also on Thursday will be a private reception at 1 p.m. prior to the public calling hours.

Zuraw said due to the state and local guidelines for larger gatherings, a private Mass of Christian burial by invitation will take place 1 p.m. Friday at the cathedral. Following the Mass, the Rite of Commital will take place at Calvary Cemetery of Youngstown.

The Mass will be live-streamed at wfmj.com and broadcast live on WBCB beginning at 1 p.m., as well as archived for online viewing.

Memorial contributions may be made to the Cathedral of St. Columba,159 W. Rayen Ave., Youngstown Ohio 44503

Murry died Friday morning at Memorial Sloan Kettering Hospital in New York, where he was receiving cancer treatment.

The bishop had battled leukemia three times in 2018 and 2019 before it returned this past April.

Murry, who had served with the Diocese of Youngstown since 2007 as its fifth bishop, had also recently submitted to Pope Francis his requested resignation for reasons of ill health.

Following his funeral, a group of priests known as the college of consultors will meet and elect a diocesan administrator, who will assume the day-to-day operations of the diocese until a new bishop is named by Pope Francis, according to Zuraw.

He said the whole process may take a year to a year and a half before another bishop is named in Youngstown,

The diocese includes Mahoning, Trumbull, Columbiana, Stark, Portage and Ashtabula counties.

Murry was the first African-American and first minority bishop in the diocese, which marked its 75th anniversary in 2018.

Murry was born in Camden, New Jersey, in 1948. He graduated from St. Mary Seminary in Baltimore, where he received a bachelor’s degree in philosophy in 1972. That same year, he entered the Society of Jesus. He was ordained for the Maryland Province of the Society of Jesus on June 9, 1979. He earned a master’s of divinity degree from the Jesuit School of Theology in Berkeley, California, in 1979 and a doctorate in American cultural history from George Washington University in Washington, D.C. in 1994.

*Public calling hours for Bishop George V. Murry will be noon to 7 p.m. Thursday in St. Columba Cathedral, 154 W. Wood St., Youngstown. A public prayer will be 7 p.m. Thursday. With the current health crisis, social distancing during the calling hours and prayer will be upheld.