c. 1996 Religion News Service

UNDATED _ The church he loved and the nation whose public policy he sought to influence for a quarter of a century said farewell Wednesday (Nov. 20) to Chicago’s Roman Catholic Cardinal Joseph L. Bernardin.

With his friend and colleague Cardinal Roger Mahony of Los Angeles presiding and Vice President Al Gore heading a list of dignitaries filling the pews of the Romanesque Holy Name Cathedral a few blocks north of downtown Chicago, a solemn but joy-tinged funeral Mass was celebrated for Bernardin. His body was later laid to rest in a mausoleum at Mount Carmel Cemetery just outside the city.”What a presence he had in this church of Chicago. Didn’t he teach us? Didn’t he show us the way?”said the Rev. Kenneth Velo, a longtime friend and close aide, in his homily at the funeral Mass.”He took hard stands _ the consistent ethic of life, nuclear disarmament, racial injustice. He stood on the Capitol steps against partial-birth abortions. And in his last days he spoke out loud and clear to the Supreme Court about assisted suicide,”Velo said.

Velo’s homily, filled with anecdotes of Bernardin’s pastoral and spiritual life, brought tears to the eyes of many of the 1,300 worshipers. At the end of the homily, Velo was given a standing ovation.”In this darkened cathedral and darkened archdiocese he brought the light of Christ,”Velo said.”He brought life and light that continues to this day.” The funeral climaxed a three-day wake for the cardinal, the son of Italian immigrants who rose to become one of this century’s most influential church leaders in America.

Thousands of ordinary people _ construction workers and secretaries, cabdrivers and accountants _ filed through the cathedral around the clock to pay their respects.

Taken together, the wake _ during which an estimated 90,000 citizens honored his life and mourned his death _ and the funeral _ with its rows and rows of prelates and dignitaries _ symbolized Bernardin’s connection with his flock and the ease with which he could move in the corridors of power.

All nine American cardinals and 150 U.S. bishops attended the funeral.

Bernardin died Nov. 14 after a long bout with pancreatic cancer, an illness he turned into a visible, living textbook of his faith, embracing death as a friend and dying with dignity.

In one of his last public acts, the cardinal had written the justices of the Supreme Court urging them to overturn two lower court rulings permitting doctor-assisted suicide for the terminally ill.

Before the funeral, which began at 1:00 p.m. EDT, several hundred people attended an early-morning prayer service that Bernardin had planned in the days shortly before his death.

Also on Tuesday, non-Catholic religious leaders gathered at the cathedral to pay tribute to Bernardin, who had worked hard to improve interfaith relations.”His life touched us all and so has his death,”Jonathan Levine, midwest director of the American Jewish committee, told 1,200 mourners gathered in the cathedral.

Bernardin, whose pragmatic progressivism and gentle pastoral style endeared him to Catholics and non-Catholics alike, led the Chicago archdiocese and its 2.3 million Catholic since 1982.

That style helped shepherd not only Chicago Catholics but the whole of the American church through some of the turbulence let loose by the Second Vatican Council. He was often named as the most likely American candidate to become pope.

MJP END ANDERSON