Cardinal Bernardin’s lasting memory — 15 years after he died
By MICHAEL SNEED msneed@suntimes.com November 18, 2011 8:30PM
Joseph Cardinal Bernardin talks to the media after presiding over the opening mass for the Knights of Columbus convention. neg#96-08-087 Photo by Brian Jackson
Article Extras
Updated: December 21, 2011 8:08AM
The Cardinal’s story ...
It can be said the life of a clergyman is a river of words.
Sneed was reminded of a few of those words in my interview with Joseph Cardinal Bernardin shortly after a cancer diagnosis that eventually led to his death on Nov. 14th, 15 years ago.
“I had forgotten that I was a priest,” he told me. “I was so involved in meetings and minutia, I had lost track of what I was first and foremost. A priest. Someone to comfort and to minister.”
Thus began the Cardinal’s ministry to the sick and the dying; his path back to his people before he died. And when Bernardin died the massive crowds lining up along his long cortege route was evidence of the powerful legacy he forged toward the end of his life.
I once asked him: “If you hadn’t been born a Catholic would you have become a Catholic?”
His response: “I’d like to think so.”
I’ve always felt it was the response of a man who had worked hard to find God and in the end found Him unexpectedly in the earnest work of a simple priest.
The brothers three ...
Get ready: The least known of the three Emanuel brothers, Rahm and Ari’s sibling, Zeke, has penned a memoir!
◆ Backshot: Rahm is very protective of his family and sensitive about personal family stuff, so it should be interesting to see how hard Zeke, a bioethicist and former health policy adviser to the White House, shakes the family tree. It should be fun. Besides having amazing parents, the family also includes a sister.
Rahm ’em ...
Mayor Emanuel made an abrupt detour from a political event at the Pritzker Military Library Wednesday night to meet and greet one of his favorite authors, Sir Max Hastings, who was giving a speech about his latest World War II tome: Inferno: The World at War, 1939-1945 .
◆ The upshot: “The mayor didn’t know Hastings was at the Pritzker Library and made a beeline to meet him to tell Hastings he was a huge fan of his and was presently reading his book, which is now selling daily at 1,000 books a day in England,” a source told Sneed.
◆ The buckshot: Hastings, an award-winning journalist and former editor of London’s Telegraph newspaper, tells Sneed he is an old friend of former Sun-Times editor Nigel Wade , whom he once hired as the Telegraph’s foreign editor.
Beyonce bling ...
Blink bling: My. My. While queen-in-waiting Kate Middleton prepares a baby nursery in hopes of giving birth to an heir to the Brit throne, pregnant singer Beyonce and hubby Jay Z have reportedly been given a $5,500 Swarovski crystal baby bath by Destiny’s Child bandmate/pal Kelly Rowland. It also weighs 3,000 pounds!
La la Liz ...
A pocketbook bling thing: If you couldn’t afford the high-priced bling featured in the tony jewelry auction of the late actress Elizabeth Taylor, whose love of men netted her gems, help may be on the way.
◆ An online auction at Christie’s.com featuring Taylor’s more affordable jewelry, clothes and bags runs from Dec. 3-17. Chanel ear clips or caftans, anyone?
Sneedlings ...
Congrats to Kate and Bud Kerwin on the birth of daughter Elizabeth “Lily” Jane ... and congrats to Sen. Dick Durbin and wife Loretta on the birth of his twin grandkids, Ona Christine and Floyd Alexander ... Today’s birthdays: Bo Derek, 55, Beth Heller, 36, and Steve Dahl, 57.
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