Joseph Cardinal Bernardin
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His Eminence, Joseph Louis Cardinal Bernardin (originally Bernardini), (April 2, 1928–November 14, 1996) was an American clergyman, the twelfth bishop (seventh archbishop) of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago, serving from 1982 to 1996 (succeeded John Cardinal Cody).
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[edit] Biography
He was born on April 2, 1928 in Columbia, South Carolina to a family of Italian immigrants, and ordained a priest on April 26, 1952, serving in the Diocese of Charleston, which is co-extensive with the State of South Carolina. On March 9, 1966 he was appointed Titular Bishop of Ligura and Auxiliary Bishop of the archdiocese of Atlanta, Georgia, and became the youngest bishop in the nation at the age of 38 when he was ordained a bishop on April 26, 1966. In 1968, he resigned as auxiliary bishop of Atlanta to become General Secretary of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, a post he held until 1972. He was appointed Archbishop of Cincinnati, Ohio on November 21, 1972, where he was installed December 19, 1972. He was appointed Archbishop of Chicago on July 10, 1982 and installed August 25, 1982. He was elevated to Cardinal on February 2, 1983, and served as archbishop until his death from pancreatic cancer at the age of 68.
| Styles of Joseph Cardinal Bernardin |
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| Reference style | His Eminence |
| Spoken style | Your Eminence |
| Informal style | Cardinal |
| See | Chicago |
Until the early 1990s he was considered a possible candidate to become the first American Pope. He also served as President of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops. He was interred in the Bishops' Mausoleum at Mt. Carmel Cemetery, Hillside, Illinois, following a Funeral Mass celebrated by his good friend, Roger Cardinal Mahony. In the weeks before his death, he emphasized to the faithful and the public that he was at peace because of his life's profound reliance on God's sustaining grace in his ministry and his struggles with cancer, seeing death as acontinuation and a friend to prepare properly for by conducting ourselves well and letting go to abandon one's self to God in the end.
In 1996, Bernardin inaugurated the Catholic Common Ground Initiative and was among the authors of its founding document "Called to Be Catholic: Church in a Time of Peril” (released August 12, 1996)
Bernardin is also noted for his interest in the concern of young adults, which was in part evidenced by his involvement in the nascent Theology on Tap lecture movement in the early 1980s. In 1985, he told attendees of a special Theology on Tap Mass, “If I had children of my own, they would be your age. You are very special to me and to this Archdiocese.”[1]
[edit] Philosophy
Bernardin is best known for popularizing the Consistent Ethic of Life philosophy, which holds that life must be consistently valued and protected from conception until natural death, regardless of the surroundings. The philosophy sometimes is called the Seamless Garment of Life, a reference from John 19:23 to Jesus' seamless tunic, which the soldiers who executed him did not tear apart. The philosophy argues that issues such as abortion, capital punishment, militarism, euthanasia, social injustice and economic injustice all demand a consistent application of moral principles that value the sacredness of human life. In response to critiques from some anti-abortion activists, Bernardin clarified that the ethic never meant that all threats to life were equal, from a societal or political standpoint.
[edit] False accusation and illness
A few years before his death, Bernardin was accused of sexual abuse by Stephen Cook, a former seminarian who claimed to have been abused by Bernardin and another priest in the 1970s. However, Cook recanted and before he died in 1995 from AIDS, he and Bernardin reconciled beginning in a meeting at Saint Charles Borromeo Seminary in suburban Philadelphia.
Bernardin surrendered control of the day-to-day care of the Archdiocese to his vicar general and auxiliary bishop, Most Rev. Raymond Goedert, after his doctors at Loyola University Medical Center's Cancer Center told him the pancreatic cancer that had metastasized to the liver was not responding to experimental and palliative treatments, which were discontinued. (Even today, pancreatic cancer is not amenable to treatment.) In his last public appearance as Archbishop, that cancer center was renamed for him during a violent storm. He bade an emotional farewell to the clergy of the Archdiocese at Holy Name Cathedral weeks before his death.
Bernardin was also lauded for his anti-pornography work, his leadership of the U.S. bishops, and the presidency of the Catholic Extension Society. He relied in the last few years on the assistance of his adviser Rev. Monsignor Kenneth Velo, director of Catholic Extension. He wrote a best-selling book about the end of life (and about his own approaching death in particular) called The Gift Of Peace, with the help of his good friend Eugene Kennedy. The canonization process for his sainthood cause is now underway. An award sponsored by the United States Conference Of Catholic Bishops called the Joseph Cardinal Bernardin Award For Social Justice and Anti-Poverty is given to a Catholic youth who has done outstanding advocacy in this area. Years after his passing, he is widely regarded by many as a kind, moderately conservative prelate who displayed manifest holiness.
[edit] See also
| Preceded by: Paul Francis Leibold |
Archbishop of Cincinnati 1972–1982 |
Succeeded by: Daniel Edward Pilarczyk |
| Preceded by: John Cardinal Cody |
Archbishop of Chicago 1982–1996 |
Succeeded by: Francis Cardinal George |
| Preceded by: John Cardinal Krol |
President of the United States Catholic Conference and National Conference of Catholic Bishops 1974–1977 |
Succeeded by: John R. Quinn |
