Early life Joseph Bernardin was born on April 2, 1928, in
Columbia, South Carolina, to Joseph "Bepi" Bernardin and Maria Maddalena Simion. They were an
Austro-Hungarian-born immigrant couple, from the village of
Fiera di Primiero, now located in the
Northern Italian region of
Trentino. Bepi first went to South Carolina to work in a quarry, then came back to Italy to marry Maria. The whole family then moved to Columbia. After his ordination, the diocese assigned him as an assistant pastor at St. Joseph. He also joined the faculty of
Bishop England High School in Charleston. In 1954, the diocese moved Bernardin to an administrative position in its
chancery. He was named superintendent of the diocesan cemeteries and chaplain at
The Citadel, a military college in Charleston. From 1966 to 1968, Bishop Bernardin served as
rector of the
Cathedral of Christ the King in
Atlanta, Georgia.
General Secretary of National Conference In 1968, Bernardin resigned as auxiliary bishop of Atlanta to become the first general secretary of the
National Conference of Catholic Bishops in Washington, a post he held until 1972. In 1969, Bernardin was instrumental in founding one of the conference's most influential and successful programs, the anti-poverty
Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD). During this period, Bernardin also became affiliated with the
Order of Friars Minor, being received into the first order with a habit in 1972.
Archbishop of Cincinnati Pope Paul VI appointed Bernardin as archbishop of Cincinnati on November 21, 1972, and he was installed there on December 19, 1972. Bernardin served in Cincinnati for nearly ten years. While there, he appointed the first woman as editor of the archdiocesan newspaper,
The Catholic Telegraph. During this period, the Vatican appointed Bernardin to the
Sacred Congregation of Bishops in Rome and to the permanent council of the
Synod of Bishops.
Archbishop of Chicago Following the death of Cardinal
John Cody of
Chicago,
Pope John Paul II chose Bernardin, already prominent among his fellow American bishops, to lead the
Archdiocese of Chicago. He was appointed the seventh archbishop of Chicago on July 10, 1982.
Elevation to Cardinal In the
papal consistory of February 2, 1983, Bernardin was elevated to the
College of Cardinals by John Paul II as
Cardinal-Priest of
Gesù Divino Lavoratore (
Jesus the Divine Worker), his
titular church in Rome. In 1993, Bernardin announced that he was being sued for sexual misconduct. The plaintiff was a former seminarian, Stephen Cook, who said that Bernardin and another priest had abused him in the 1970s. However, Cook later said that his memories of the abuse emerged under hypnosis; after becoming uncertain of Bernardin's guilt, Cook dropped him from the lawsuit. The two men later met and reconciled. In 1995, Cook said that he had relied on people who told him things that were not true, "asserting that he is absolutely convinced of Bernardin's innocence".
Final illness In June 1995, following a string of international visits and pilgrimages, Bernardin underwent surgery for
pancreatic cancer. Imaging performed after his surgery showed him to be in
remission. However, August 30, 1996, Bernardin announced that the cancer had
metastasized to his liver and was inoperable. He turned over the administration of the archdiocese to his vicar general and auxiliary bishop,
Raymond Goedert. Bernardin then focused his ministry on the sick, becoming the "unofficial chaplain" to cancer patients at
Loyola University Hospital in Chicago. On September 23, Bernardin traveled to
Rome to visit
Pope John Paul II and the town of
Assisi. Bernardin was interred in the Bishops' Mausoleum at
Mount Carmel Cemetery in Hillside, Illinois. Bernardin was an influential figure in the
Catholic Church in the United States following the
Second Vatican Council;
George Weigel called him "arguably the most powerful Catholic prelate in American history". In December 2023, James Grein said that former cardinal
Theodore McCarrick and Bernardin had sexually assaulted him when he was 18 years old at a house near
Geneva Lake in Wisconsin. == Honors ==