Could you explain this to me a little? I was born and raised in Illinois, and my husband comes from the Chicago area. I know that Bernardin has been described on FR as having been responsible for recommending a lot of bad U.S. appointments to the Vatican, but I don't know if that's true or anything else specific about Bernardin and his tenure in Chicago. I would welcome some specific info. (however brief) if you are still on the thread.
I grew up near Chicago and was in high school when Bernardin died. At the time he was practically canonized, by the local media as well as by the nuns who ran my high school. Not being very knowledgable about my faith at the time, I had no reason to think he was anything but a saint. It was very disheartening to later find out the truth.
There were many problems with his tenure as Cardinal of Chicago. See my previous post to Aussie about the Gay Men's Chorus singing the funeral Mass at Holy Name Cathedral. In general Bernardin had a reputation for allowing the worst of AmChurch to flourish in Chicago during his tenure. He was and still is a favorite of "progressive" Call-to-Action types.
Bernardin also is credited with being the inventor of the "Seamless Garmet" theory, which has done enormous damage in the Church. I think that this legacy of his will continue to cause problems long after the mess he made in Chicago is cleaned up.
Fidelity magazine published extensive articles on the Chicago scandals of Bernardin's regime in which children of both sexes were molested sexually and physically injured by priests, nuns and parochial school officials. One child was the son of billionaires who are among the greatest contributors to the Archdiocese of Chicago and to the Vatican itself. The mother is a descendant of either Mr. Nash or Mr. Kelly who co-founded the current Chicago Democrat machine. The machine honors the ancestor's memory by patronizing his granddaughter's law firm without quid pro quo. The father went to Bernardin to comlain and made the obvious observation that it would make no sense to sue the Archdiocese, Bernardin (for knowingly covering up) or even the individuals in question since the Church was their family's major charty and they had no need whatever for money damages. Bernardin whitewashed the situation yet again. The parents went to the Vatican where they were allowed by Edouard Cardinal Gagnon, then the Head of the Curial Congregation on the Family to tape their conversation with him. They asked to meet with Pope John Paul II as to Bernardin's administration of Chicago and the abse of their son. Cardinal Gagnon told them that the pope sympathized but would not meet with them as such meetngs were pointless since the American Church was effectively in schism and refused to obey Rome.
Bernardin tolerated the existence of a "priest's Senate" which acted as though it were a legislature of some sort, ever taking the leftmost position available and defying hierarchical authority.
Bernardin was no prize in his previous see at Cincinnati either. He left Joseph Pilarczyk to succeed him there. Pilarczyk is nearly as bad as Bernardin. His seminary has a non-Catholic, a Mason, who is a psychologist of some sort, as the gatekeeper, to prevent the ordination of any orthodox Catholics who slip through. The Diocese of Rockford (next door to Chicago) has benefited from the arrival of several seminarians who fled Bernardin's Mundelein Seminary to come here where we have a very Catholic bishop and more than 40 seminarians, 11 of whom will be ordained this spring. That will be the second class of 11 since my family arrived here in 2000.
Could you explain this to me a little?
I can't speak for Chicago, but many of us in Cincinnati archdiocese were glad to see him go. He left aa mess here, and his successor hasn't done much to clean it up.
My son is a Brother in the order of St. John Cantius, in Chicago. He speaks highly of Cardinal George. The choir he directs frequently sings for the Cardinal's Masses.