"There is a real spiritual hunger on the part of the people. They are not reaching out to me. They are reaching out to the Lord. Perhaps there is a personal dimension, but I am just a symbol." - Joseph Cardinal Bernadin, interview in Time magazine
(Author Note: This post was written in 2013, and it was the last post in this series of notes, so I have republished it since it actually is the prologue to what I wanted to say.)
Growing up in Chicago, I barely remember Cardinal Meyer. I was only nine when he died, but he impressed me almost as much as our dear "Papa John". With the excitement of a truly humble pastor as Pope, the thrill of
aggiornamento that was Vatican II, I remember also that Cardinal Cody, his successor, repelled me from the first.
Joseph Cardinal Bernadin was of great help to me during his life. I never met him, but living in the Chicago area it was impossible not to hear his quiet voice on the TV. As I had married into a family of chemists with Jewish heritage and disdain for religious sentiment, I benefited from his work in the Catholic/Jewish dialogue and from the updated catechesis in the
Theology on Tap programs he encouraged. My father-in-law had no use for religion in general and Catholics in particular, but he greatly admired the Cardinal. His outreach and work to change attitudes towards the divorced and separated benefitted many I later persuaded to return to the Church, his insistence on the morality of using condoms with AIDS-infected partners, his firm stand against clerical sex abuse--all this should have been a model to the rest of the Church, but instead he was condemned as a progressive in the reactionary reign of JP2. Even now there are many
As my husband was dying of lymphoma, he took heart from our brother Joe's tranquility in dealing with his own pancreatic cancer. I lost my husband in May; six months later we lost Joe. I cried both times.
More important, though, is the help he has given me these many years from heaven. For some reason, perhaps because he lost his own father when he was small like they were, our brother Joe has always helped my boys when no one else would. For a long time, I didn't understand it, and even now I'm always amazed when aid comes to them in unexpected ways that are connected to him.
I really don't know how to thank him for his intercession: I re-read his sermons and speeches from time to time, thank him in prayer, and I had a mass said for his soul this past year. Perhaps this little tribute can join those other gifts of thanks.
His speech at Fordham University in 1983,
A Consistent Ethic of Life: An American-Catholic- Dialogue very clearly states my own feelings on the issues we still fight about:
...
If one contends, as we do, that the right of every fetus to be born should be protected by civil law and supported by civil consensus, then our moral, political and economic responsibilities do not stop at the moment of birth. Those who defend the right to life of the weakest among us must be equally visible in support of the quality of life of the powerless among us: the old and the young, the hungry and the homeless, the undocumented immigrant and the unemployed worker. Such a quality of life posture translates into specific political and economic positions on tax policy, employment generation, welfare policy, nutrition and feeding programs, and health care. Consistency means we cannot have it both ways. We cannot urge a compassionate society and vigorous public policy to protect the rights of the unborn and then argue that compassion and significant public programs on behalf of the needy undermine the moral fiber of the society or are beyond the proper scope of governmental responsibility. ~ Joseph Cardinal Bernadin aka "Our Brother Joe"
...The substance of a Catholic position on a consistent ethic of life is rooted in a religious vision. But the citizenry of the United States is radically pluralistic in moral and religious conviction. So we face the challenge of stating our case, which is shaped in terms of our faith and our religious convictions, in non-religious terms which others of different faith convictions might find morally persuasive. Here again the war and peace debate should be a useful model. We have found support from individuals and groups who do not share our Catholic faith but who have found our moral analysis compelling.
