October 2025
Since Pope Leo has resuscitated the moribund views of the late Cardinal Archbishop of Chicago, we are duty bound to reprint (for the third time in 23 years) this recap of the actual life and times of the Luciferian figure whose warped philosophy Leo finds fit to exalt.
For years the author headed the courageous Roman Catholic Faithful; an organisation of unsung heroes that fought tirelessly for the innocent victims of clerical predators. He was trained as a police officer and spent more than a year on special assignment in Illinois after receiving a Secret Security Clearance from the Federal Government. Although RCF finally ceased operations, his investigations continue on today in a private capacity. (This article appeared in the Spring/Summer 2000 edition of RCF's Newsletter, Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam.)
Bernardin: The Real Legacy
Just what is the Bernardin Legacy? Ask that simple question to any Catholic and the answers you receive will vary from one extreme to the other. One either loved him or despised him. But regardless of your personal opinion of the man there is one point, I believe, we can all agree on: He was a powerful and influential individual, both politically and spiritually.
James Hitchcock wrote in an article published shortly after the Cardinal's death that: "He [Bernardin] consistently used his influence to promote liberal causes, even attacks on Church teachings and traditions." Hitchcock went on to say:
"...he consistently used his power to build a network of allies within both the hierarchy and the bureaucracy, a network which in effect has controlled the direction of the 'American Church'."
Bernardin received the Presidential award from President Clinton and was honoured, posthumously, by the Masons. He was a friend of Call To Action (CTA) and allowed them to operate on Church property. He even went so far as to speak out against Bishop Bruskewitz for excommunicating CTA members in his own [Nebraska] diocese. History has taught us that the Cardinal usually came down on the liberal side of every issue, but what is his legacy? What about his faith?
As Catholics we know that our purpose in life is to know, love, and serve God, and as Archbishop of Chicago Bernardin had an even greater responsibility. Defending the Faith and safeguarding the souls of the faithful was his job. How did he do? What was the condition of the Church in Chicago at the time of his passing, after 15 years of his leadership? That is his legacy.
Who did he live with? Who were his friends? (According to the Nov. 1997 Washington Blade, a homosexual newspaper, the Cardinal himself had arranged for the Windy City Gay Chorus to sing at his wake at Holy Name Cathedral. It did so behind a sign prominently displaying its name. What kinds of men did he associate with and help elevate to bishop? Who praised him? Who followed him and what was the result? RCF has spent the last four years looking for those answers.
Liturgical Abuse: Heresy: Perversion
In 1996, RCF approached the Cardinal asking for his help in solving the problems faced by faithful Catholics in the Springfield diocese, the home of Bishop Ryan. His Eminence made it clear he would do nothing to help. But one could hardly blame him; back in Chicago dozens of schools and parishes were closing. Immoral sex education was common, and an alarming number of sex abuse cases were surfacing. Some of the Cardinal's closest friends, Msgr. Hopwood (who pled guilty to sexual abuse charges in 1994) from Charleston and Fr. Harsham from Cincinnati were accused of sexual abuse. Even the Cardinal was accused of abuse by seminarian Steve Cook. Cook later dropped his suit and many claimed that was proof of the Cardinal's innocence. But was it?
According to a Wanderer article by Paul Likoudis (18/6/98), Msgr. Hopwood was "not your ordinary paedophile. He did hundreds of boys, and I can't imagine Bernardin not being aware of it, since they lived together for such a long time." RCF recently contacted one of Hopwood' s victims and discovered that the law firm which represents the Chicago Archdiocese brokered the settlements with some of Msgr. Hopwood's victims.
Many newspaper and magazine articles have been written regarding the Cardinal's life. Some suggested he was an active homosexual and did indeed have a relationship with Cook. I had a conversation with a Vatican official as well as a Chicago priest who mentioned an alleged incident in California. But where is the proof?
Many individuals find it difficult to accept the fact that any bishop could ever deny the faith, let alone sexually abuse a child. But recent history proves otherwise. Bishop Symons of Palm Beach, Florida, resigned after admitting he sexually abused altar boys while a priest. The bishop claimed it happened 30 years ago. Why, then, did he resign 30 years after the fact? Public exposure-that's why. Bishop Ziemann of Santa Rosa, California, also resigned after admitting a two year sexual affair with a priest he brought into the country from Costa Rica. He stepped down after the priest threatened a lawsuit.
While we realise that sexual perversion is a sure sign one has fallen from grace, what else does it tell us especially when the pervert/predator is a Catholic priest or bishop?
Experience has taught us that, more often than not, when we find a priest or bishop whose flock has been subjected to liturgical abuse or heresy you will find a priest or bishop with a sexual weakness or perversion.
Liturgical abuse and heresy along with case after case of the sexual abuse of children by clergy has long been part of the Chicago Church: The real Bernardin legacy, some might say. The question is: Which came first? This brings to mind the statement: "the first sign of a bankrupt spirituality is a disordered sexuality. "
The Bernardin legacy is the current condition of the Catholic Church in America. From his days as Chancellor in South Carolina to Chief of Staff and then President of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops (NCCB) to the Cardinal of Chicago, Bernardin has been a force in the Church and is responsible, in part, for what we have today. Look around — what do you see? The evidence is there. One diocese after another is dying out with no sign of help coming from Rome. The Catholic faithful are on their own.
But what about the charges of sexual abuse? RCF has been searching for those answers. Police officers, lawyers, private investigators, and clergy have provided RCF with details of alleged abuse by the Cardinal, but no one has been able (or in some cases, willing) to provide first-hand information — that is — until now.
If you are still with us—still reading—but are not ready to hear the truth: Please go no further. We are going to present you the story of "Agnes," an 11-year-old child, along with information RCF received from a former seminarian who admitted to a 4 year sexual relationship with a Catholic bishop.
Clerical Predators: The Bernardin Circle
It was not quite 6:00 am on Thursday, April 6, 2000. I was on my way to the Amtrak station to catch the train to Chicago. I was looking forward to the ride to Chicago, the 4 hours it would take to reach my destination would give me plenty of time to reflect on the chain of events that had brought me to this place and time in history. A train ride to Chicago was nothing new for me but the purpose of the trip was somewhat unsettling to say the least.
I had been asked to travel to Chicago to provide federally funded investigators with information Roman Catholic Faithful (RCF) had obtained. A 1984 unsolved Chicago murder had been reopened. While RCF had no information about the murder, we did have information regarding an alleged clergy paedophile ring operating in Chicago that may have been connected to the murder. Now this story, and that of an 11-year-old child known as Agnes, along with the 1998 murder of Fr. Alfred Kunz (a priest advisor to RCF) and many other Church-related events will be always present—buried within the pictures permanently implanted in my mind. The one common denominator in this sordid mess seemed to be Father/Bishop/Cardinal Bernardin and his machine.
Over the last 30 years, under the leadership of Cardinals Cody, Bernardin, and George, Chicago Catholics have been subjected to all sorts of scandal—the worst being the sexual abuse of children and the cover-up by the hierarchy. General absolution goes on even today at Holy Name Cathedral in Chicago, and Communication Ministry, Inc. (CMI), a not-for-profit corporation whose members are homosexual clergy and religious, operates out of Chicago today, and its board of directors includes a Chicago priest and nun.
Father Andrew Greeley's newly published book Furthermore! Memories of a Parish Priest was released on December 1, 1999. If he had only known the chain of events it was about to set in motion he may have never published it. Like the Chicago church, Greeley himself was not new to scandal or controversy. He has made his living, it seems, playing one side against the other in Church politics. It was the following quote from page 80 of his book that set in motion a chain of events that led to my trip to Chicago:
...But even in Chicago, the ring of predators about whom I wrote in the paperback edition of "Confessions" remains untouched. There is no evidence against them because no one has complained about them and none of their fellow Priests have denounced them. Those who have been removed are for the most part lone offenders who lacked the skill to cover their tracks. The ring is much more clever. Perhaps they always will be. But should they slip, should they get caught, the previous scandals will seem trivial...
A footnote states:
They are a dangerous group. There is reason to believe that they are responsible for at least one murder, and may perhaps have been involved in the murder of the murderer. Am I afraid of them? Not particularly. They know that I have in safekeeping information which would implicate them. I am more of a threat to them dead than alive. (p. 80)
What is one to think of Greeley's admission? If he indeed has evidence concerning an unsolved murder would he not be obliged to step forward and share this information with local authorities? One would think a Catholic priest would be the first to seek justice for the victim and thereby possibly prevent this "ring of predators" he speaks of from harming another child. What about Cardinal George's responsibility in all this. Has Greeley, in his effort to sell his books, suggested a cover-up. If that is the case, by his own admission, he has been part of the cover-up and his silence may well have contributed to the sexual abuse of other children.
Page 80 of Greeley's book deeply disturbed at least five businessmen in Chicago. While one wrote to the Chicago Police, the other four wrote to Cardinal George and all demanded an investigation and called on the Cardinal to make Greeley produce the information he had in "safekeeping." It wasn't long until a murder investigator, working for the local District Attorney's office, showed up at the office of one of the Chicago businessmen who had demanded action from the Cardinal.
My train arrived in Chicago at 10:00 am. From Union station I walked to an office building several blocks away where I met the five Chicago businessmen who had called Greeley to account. We had time for lunch prior to a 1:00 pm meeting with the (federally-funded) murder investigator.
On May 30, 1984, Francis E. Pellegrini, 47, was found murdered in his apartment at 2953 S. Parnell Ave. in Chicago. He had been stabbed at least 20 times. His dog had also been stabbed. Pellegrini was the organist and choir director at All Saints-St. Anthony of Padua Catholic Church located at 518 W. 28th Place in Chicago. He was also assistant professor of Sociology and Social Science at City College. There are those who believe that Pellegrini was about to expose the "Boys Club," an alleged group of paedophile clergy operating out of Chicago. RCF received information regarding the existence of the "Boys Club" while it was investigating Springfield's homosexual bishop Daniel Ryan, who resigned from his see on October 9, 1999.
Ryan was an active homosexual who had sex with priests and male prostitutes as young as 15. Ryan was chancellor of the Joliet diocese and spent many years in and around the Chicago area. Bishop Imesch of Joliet is also no stranger to scandal and he, too, has spent many years in the Chicago area and was included in the Bernardin Circle of Friends. Imesch came from Detroit where he and Bishop Gumbleton worked under Cardinal Deardon. Gumbleton is well known for his support of dissenting homosexual groups. Imesch, as Bishop of Joliet, according to statements from two attorneys, has lied under oath in an apparent effort to protect paedophile priests. The murder investigation is ongoing.
Agnes' Story
At this point in time RCF believes the Catholic population may be ready to hear Agnes' story. (Her name, of course, is not Agnes; that is the name given her by Malachi Martin in his fictionalised retelling of her story). She is a real person, and has gone on to live her life as a faithful Catholic.
Prior to exposing such serious and scandalous materials to the reader, we ought to remind ourselves that although the Catholic laity may never know the good vs. evil struggles that take place within the Church hierarchy, one thing we do know is that there is an element within the Church that is controlled by "The Father of Lies." (This was alluded to by Pope Paul VI himself). We may never know the whole story, the whole truth until the day we stand in judgment. It is enough that we do all we can to protect the innocent by shining the light of truth on those who operate in the dark. And it is the least we can do: it is a bit of justice for the victims.
Several months ago I received a phone call, followed by a statement, from a young man in the Detroit area who was abused by a priest when he was only 14 years old. He was married now and had a family. He had never told anyone of the abuse but upon finding RCF's web page, wanted to call and thank us for all that we are doing. RCF checked out his story and found that the priest who had abused him had been arrested for molesting other children and had moved to the Joliet diocese.
I have heard many similar horror stories in the last four years. Upon meeting and getting to know those who were the victims of childhood sexual abuse, I found they react in many different ways. It is heartbreaking to hear their stories and learn of their lost innocence. In each and every one of them I met, I saw the face of one of my children, and I wondered how on earth they managed to survive the ordeal. Often the only defence they had was the ability to block the memory from their minds. Some of the abused went on to abuse others or turned to drugs or alcohol to wipe away the memory and pain. There were those who, as teenagers, ended up selling their bodies to survive, living on the streets. As though they had not suffered enough, those few who did approach Church authorities were often treated as if they were the enemy. I have seen it happen.
The youngest victim of childhood sexual abuse I had ever known was only 7 when I met her. The state had placed her in our home for a short time because her parents were unable to care for her. No one knew at the time that she had been abused. Her psychological difficulties became evident to my wife and me when the child started to act out while in our home and around our younger children. I sat in the courtroom with the child when her parents had to appear before the judge to answer the charges against them. I received an education that day.
But allow me to get back to Agnes. Agnes has a family and grown children now. She and her husband live in a southern state. Her husband makes a living in law enforcement.
I first heard of Agnes' story from a friend in 1996. This friend of mine had met Agnes a few years earlier when she came to him for advice. He never gave me her name or location but only made reference to her situation because it fit into a conversation we were having regarding the Archdiocese of Chicago. In 1998, when I first learned who Agnes was, I found that she had been on RCF's mailing list for some time. I also learned that a private investigator, as well as a lawyer from Chicago who had provided RCF with information, had met with Agnes a few years earlier in an attempt to help her find a way to bear witness to what had happened to her. This same investigator and lawyer provided RCF with information they had obtained regarding the alleged sexual activity of the priest who had abused Agnes many years earlier. That priest was the young Joseph Bernardin.
Over the past 12 years, in sworn deposition, in accounts to investigators, in affidavits submitted in support of others' cases, in direct statements to Bernardin, in phone calls and letters
to Church officials, and in correspondence with Vatican officials (all of which RCF has examined), Agnes has testified to the following story:
In the fall of 1957, in Greenville, S.C., Fr. Joseph Bernardin raped 11-year-old Agnes as part of a Satanic ritual that involved, among others, Bishop John Russell of Charleston. Brought to the event by an abusive father, Agnes "was able, at first, to resist Bishop Russell physically, out of the knowledge that God had made me good, not bad as I was being told I was" (her words). As a young child, she had been victimised by a "sadist" cousin, and her identity was based upon "bad things", which included Bernardin. Bernardin then showed kindness and approval of her resistance, in order to gain her trust and get her to relax, and then he raped her. He followed the rape with a perverted use of a host, in an attempt to make Agnes swallow the guilt of the event.
In the fall of 1992, Agnes passed a polygraph examination regarding these events. She also, in early 1990, told her story to Malachi Martin, who had been recommended to her as someone who could get her information to the Vatican, which Agnes knew had sole and immediate jurisdiction over such a case. Martin wrote a novel, Windswept House, with the premise that Agnes had given him: that the Catholic hierarchy's tolerance of heresy, liturgical abuse, clerical sexual misconduct, and clerical paedophilia had one overarching explanation at root; a network of Satanists whose smoke had ascended high in the Church. Her story is greatly theatricalised in the novel, but the essential fact of ritual rape is there, as is the spiritual reality of Christ's presence in the victimised child. Thirty-four years later, Agnes went to visit Bishop Russell in a nursing home. In and out of lucidity, he agreed to testify against Bernardin if asked. He died without the opportunity to do so.
Agnes later came to know Steve Cook, and submitted an affidavit in support of his suit [against Bernardin]. Before he died, Cook told Agnes he was writing a book to tell the truth about his abuse, and he gave a different account of his lawsuit retraction than the one publicly accepted.
Someone who knew Cook earlier than Agnes is a former seminarian RCF interviewed who admitted to a four-year sexual relationship with a Catholic bishop who now heads a western diocese. This man stated that he also had forced sexual contact with Cardinal Bernardin, and that, through Bernardin, he came to know Steven Cook. This individual, interviewed in November of 1998 by RCF, claims to have received a cash settlement. RCF confirmed, through an attorney, that this seminarian did indeed receive a cash settlement.
These additional extracts from an earlier piece by Stephen Brady titled "Bernadin's Boys," both amplify details provided in the foregoing article, and fill in gaps (e.g., the important Steven Cook connection). The aim is to lay bare the cover up and false narrative (clearly imbibed by Leo XIV).
Impresario to the End
When Joseph Cardinal Bernardin, Archbishop of Chicago, died November 14, 1996 of pancreatic cancer at age 68, he proved himself an impresario to the end, conducting a public relations/ media blitz that crescendoed with calls for his canonisation.
Typical of the sycophantry he was so skilful at evoking was that of the National Catholic Reporter's Tim Unsworth, who wrote a week after Bernardin died:
"Bernardin's final months were spent just as he planned and predicted: in loving, compassionate and gentle service. He spent much of his time comforting other terminally ill cancer patients. He came to know many of them during his hospitalisation at Loyola. 'I felt like a priest again,' he said often .... Bernardin's biographer and close friend, Eugene Kennedy, has called him 'the most influential bishop in the history of the American church.' ...[A]t the time of his death he was the senior active American prelate among the country's more than 350. But his influence far exceeded his seniority. His writing and speaking on national and even global issues caused him to eclipse megabishops of the past such as Baltimore's James Gibbons (1877-1921), Boston's William O'Connell (1907-1944), Chicago's George Mundelein (1915- 1939), New York's Francis Spellman (1939-1967) and Bemardin's own mentor, John Dearden of Detroit (1958- 1980)."
Everything he did — from the well-publicised death-bed visit by his dear friend Ann Landers [the pro-abortion newspaper columnist], to the gay choir that sang at his funeral Mass, the visit by Hillary Clinton and the letter from her husband, Bill, to the Bernadin books and the documentary video produced and released as soon as he was buried — was orchestrated perfectly. One of his closest friends — one of the original "Bernadin Boys" — Santa Fe Archbishop Michael Sheehan, who served as one of Bernardin's four Assistant General Secretaries at the beginning of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, commented that Bemadin "was able to look at death as a friend, rather than as an enemy."
Behind the Spin
There were many reasons why Bernardin welcomed death, least of which was that his carefully crafted image as the saintly prelate, the good listener, the consensus builder, the faithful son of the Church, was rapidy dissolving.
His closest friend from his South Carolina days, Monsignor Frederick Hopwood, had been accused of abusing hundreds of boys dating back to the early 1950s, when he and Bernadin shared a residence at the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in Charleston where some of the alleged abuse took place.
An attorney involved in representing some of Hopwood's victims told Roman Catholic Faithful, "Hopwood was not your ordinary paedophile. He abused hundreds of boys at the rectory at a time when Bemadin was serving, theoretically, as Assistant Chancellor — and at Camp St. Mary's in Beaufort." To the legal defense of Hopwood and the Diocese of Charleston came the Archdiocese of Chicago's powerhouse firm, Mayer, Platt and Brown, which negotiated the cash settlements to
Hopwood's victims.
At the time the Hopwood allegations became public in late December 1993, Bernardin was having trouble on another front. A former seminarian from the Archdiocese of Cincinnati, Steven Cook, filed a $10 million lawsuit against Bernardin and Cincinnati priest Ellis Harsham. The suit accused Harsham, when he was a priest at St. Gregory seminary in Cincinnati in the mid-1970s, of numerous coercive sexual acts against him, and then delivering him to Bernardin, then Archbishop of Cincinnati, for the same purposes.
Several months later, however, in February '94, Cook dropped Bernardin from the suit, saying he couldn't trust his memory. Cook never retracted his charges; nor did he say it was inaccurate contrary to the accepted party line that Bernardin had been exonerated, which persists to this day. Four months later, Cook's suit against Harsham was conveniently — at least for Bernardin — settled out of court. While Bernardin was allowed to remain as Archbishop of Chicago, Harsham was placed immediately on administrative leave when the lawsuit was filed; and he left the priesthood a few months later.
Bernardin went on to have a very public (and filmed) reconciliation with Cook, showing the world what a generous man he was in forgiving a man who had accused him of sexual crimes. Bernardin's lawyers were involved in hushing up another case in which seminarians in Winona, Minnesota, had accused Bernardin and three other bishops of participating in sexual/ satanic rituals at the seminary. Among the facts that the plaintiffs in that case marshalled for their suit: Bernardin was frequently accompanied by Steven Cook! The settlement stemming from the lawsuit has been sealed, but Roman Catholic Faithful was given details of the settlement from a bishop who received a copy of the settlement.
Bernardin and Hopwood
In the two years leading up to his death — even as he orchestrated brutal assaults against victims of clerical sexual abuse and their parents in Chicago — one after another of Bernardin's closest clerical friends from his native Diocese of Charleston made the newspapers, all for charges of paedophilia: Father Eugene Condon, Father Justin Goodwin, Father James Robert Owens-Howard, Father Paul F.X. Seitz, in addition to continuing allegations against Hopwood. [...]
Power: Patronage: Perversion
Bernardin was named monsignor in 1959, and continued to serve the Archbishop as Chancellor and, after 1966, as an auxiliary bishop in Atlanta, under Archbishop Paul Hallinan, his mentor who was among the most strident and aggressive "Americanists" in the U.S. hierarchy at the time.
Bernardin acquired power rapidly. As his friends back in Charleston continued buggering little boys. Bernardin used his influence, starting in 1968, as General Secretary of the U.S. Catholic Conference, to select bishops (many of whom are still ordinaries) who would (to put it charitably) condone and promote homosexuality as an acceptable lifestyle and tolerate the sexual abuse of children by priests.
In December 1994, another of Bernardin's circle was accused of sexual abuse, Father Paul Seitz, then 67, pastor of Prince of Peace parish in Taylors, S.C.
At the time charges were filed, diocesan spokeswoman Mary Jeffcoat said the abuse happened while Seitz was stationed in Aiken County 30 years before, in 1964.
In June 1996, another priest in Bernardin's circle of friends, Father Eugene Condon, then 66, retired from active ministry, three weeks after the 9th Circuit solicitor's office informed the diocese it was investigating Condon on charges he had sexually abused minor males and exposed them to pornography and alcohol.
In June 1995, Father Justin Goodwin, then 89, was charged with sexual abuse of minor males.
Goodwin had served in the Charleston diocese, which includes all of South Carolina, since 1953. Before that he served in Washington, D.C., New York and North Carolina churches.
Interestingly, he too spent time at the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in Charleston [where Bernadin and Hopwood resided].
The Other Boys
Lest we forget, another aspect of the "Bernardin Legacy" was the notorious Rudy Kos case that ran for nearly four years in the Diocese of Dallas.
As the trial evolved involving Kos, who was accused of sexually abusing hundreds of males while serving as a priest in Dallas, it was revealed that two of "Bernardin's boys" — Archbishop Thomas C. Kelly, OP, of Louisville and Archbishop Michael Sheehan of Santa Fe — were responsible.
In 1976, Kelly, as Assistant General Secretary of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops (who moved to the post after serving as a secretary to the papal nuncio in Washington, Jean Jadot), fraudulently approved the annulment of Kos' marriage, so that he could enter the Dallas seminary, then under the direction of Father Michael Sheehan, and train for the priesthood.
The annulment Kelly approved, canon lawyer Father Thomas Doyle, OP, explained during the trial proceedings, was patently invalid for at least five reasons: Kos had lied in the evidence he presented; his ex-wife, who claimed that the marriage was never consummated and that her husband was a paedophile, was never interviewed during the process; Kos' ex-wife was never notified that the annulment process had been initiated; and the Dallas priest who supervised the annulment process in Dallas acted as both judge and defender of the bond — a conflict of interest.
Sheehan, who had served as Bernardin's "hatchet man" at the NCCB, ordering the resignations of longtime employees when Bernardin was restructuring and reorganising the conference, accepted Kos into the Dallas seminary, little more than a year after he received his annulment, and less than a year after his predecessor, Monsignor Gerald Hughes, had rejected Kos.
Another Bernardin creation was Bishop Robert N. Lynch of St. Petersburg, who once revealed how, when he was a young man not knowing what to do with his life, was encouraged by Bernardin to enter the priesthood. He took the advice and enjoyed a great career, moving, from his ordination in May 1978 as a priest of the Archdiocese of Miami, to seminary rector, to general secretary of the NCCB, and bishop of St. Petersburg in 1996. Other Bernardin creations are Bishop Wilton Gregory of Belleville, a native of Chicago, slated to be the next president of the NCCB; and Archbishop John Vlazny, former seminary rector in Chicago and former bishop of Winona.
Mention must also be made of the dissenter Archbishop John Quinn, of San Francisco, a native of San Diego and close friend and working ally of Bernadin. Bernardin thought so highly of Quinn that when he needed to move Quinn into a bishopric, Oklahoma City, Quinn was made its first archbishop so that he could have a rank equal to his talents.
Quinn's reign in San Francisco was marked by numerous scandals involving paedophilia and theft by some of his closest aides.
A Nefarious Legacy
U.S. Catholics today are the questionable beneficiaries of the Bernardin Legacy, which includes:
• 25-50 Bishops of dioceses who owe their positions to the blessings of Bernardin
• a national episcopal bureaucracy honeycombed with homosexuals and radical feminists. (Two deceased friends of Bernardin are the late Father John Muthig and the late John Willig. A former editor at St. Anthony Messenger in Cincinnati, Muthig was a Bemadin protege who went on to work at the National Catholic News Service, to the priesthood, and to posts at the United Nations and the Vatican. He died young, allegedly of liver cancer. The other Bernardin protege, Willig, died of AIDS after he was
exposed as the head of the radical homosexual group Dignity, in Washington, D.C. Willig worked in the NCCB's finance office, where he had access to all the financial information of America's Catholic dioceses).
• a 30-year program of obstruction and obfuscation of Roman directives pertaining to education, liturgy, priestly formation, religious practice (altar girls, Communion in the hand, etc.).
• a Call To Action agenda and Common Ground initiative which militate against sound Catholic practice, belief, and life.
To paraphrase Shakespeare: the good we do is interred with our bones, but the evil goes on and on and on.
It is clear that in the four years since his death, not only did Bernardin leave a legacy in his words and deeds, but in the bishops he helped create who continue the process of ecclesial deconstruction he engineered.