Pope Francis and the Legacy of Cardinal Bernardi

[KatherineS]

Pope Francis breathes new life into Cardinal Bernardin’s contested legacy | Religion News Service



Pope Francis breathes new life into Cardinal Bernardin’s contested legacy



The election of Pope Francis in March heralded a season of surprises for the Catholic Church, but perhaps none so unexpected – and unsettling for conservatives – as the re-emergence of the late Chicago Cardinal Joseph Bernardin as a model for the American Catholic future.


...
The point that (Bernardin’s) consistent ethic makes is exactly the same point that Pope Francis is making – let’s look at the whole picture and not just focus almost exclusively on three or so issues,” said Archbishop Michael Sheehan of Santa Fe, N.M., who had been close friends with Bernardin since the 1970s.

“I certainly think that if Cardinal Bernardin were alive he would be very pleased with what Pope Francis is saying and doing,” echoed Archbishop Joseph Fiorenza, retired archbishop of Galveston-Houston, whose 1998-2001 term as president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops was seen as one of the last in the mold of Bernardin.

“The consistent ethic of life theory that Bernardin proposed is getting a second look,” Fiorenza said.

 

[S.ilvio]

I know little of the late Cardinal but he sounds like my kind of guy...

 

[judechild]

There was never a man who ever walked the Earth with only one nature who was more virtuous than Cardinal Bernadine, I am firmly convinced. Unfortunately, he had a terrible model of the Church and too-subjective a system of morality. If it becomes adopted than the Church has no future.

 

[AvilaSurfer]

What a nice little story with a nice little spin.