CHICAGO -- Flags flew at half-mast across this city Thursday, as Chicagoans joined mourners around the country and the world in marking the death of Cardinal Joseph Louis Bernardin.
People of all faiths streamed into Holy Name Cathedral, television stations carried continuous coverage and a shrine of flowers and candles arose on the steps of the late cardinal's residence.
Sharon Jordan of Chicago spread her arms in prayer at the front of the cathedral, the cardinal's home church. ''He'll always be with us... he's in our hearts,'' said Miss Jordan, 35, who felt ''sadness, happiness and joy'' over the cardinal's death.
Back in southwestern Ohio and across the Tristate, the former archbishop of Cincinnati also was remembered.
''Today is a sad day for the church: It lost a great leader. It is a sad day for our nation: It lost one of its most ardent advocates for peace and justice,'' said the Rev. James Bramlage during 11:30 a.m. Mass at St. Peter in Chains Cathedral.
It was also a personal loss for Father Bramlage: He shared the apartment over St. Louis Church with the archbishop for seven years.
''But it is a happy day for Cardinal Bernardin. He spent his life trying to make this world the best place it could be. (But) all the time... he had his eyes fixed on the new and better Jerusalem.''
An imposing single white candle, bearing a card with the cardinal's name, greeted 50 people who attended the Mass in the cathedral's Blessed Sacrament chapel.
Before the Mass, sacristan Dorothy Volz of Western Hills stood before the candle, hands clasped, and prayed for the ''saintly, good bishop. I'm sure he's on his throne in Heaven, looking down on all of us as the shepherd of his flock.''
Back in Chicago, ecumenical leaders for a National Council of Churches meeting gathered at Holy Name for a prayer service Thursday afternoon. They joined senior citizens, school children and young professionals who knelt in prayer or sat in tears.
''Cardinal Bernardin belonged to us as well,'' said the Rev. Dr. Joan Brown Campbell, general secretary of the council.
The Rev. Dr. Campbell first met the cardinal when she was with the Ohio Council of Churches. In fact, he had the archdiocese of Cincinnati join the state council.
Fellow bishops and others spoke fondly of the cardinal.
''It goes without saying that I am much saddened by the death of Cardinal Bernardin. He was a great human being, a great churchman, a great diocesan bishop, and a great teacher of the Gospel of the Lord,'' said his successor in Cincinnati, Archbishop Daniel E. Pilarczyk.
''Obviously, life will go on for the rest of us, but it will not be the same.''
In Covington, Bishop Robert Muench, said, ''He certainly has been a pre-eminent man of God.''
Retired Covington Bishop William Hughes, who came from Youngstown and met the cardinal in the 1970s, said, ''What made him special was his ability to relate to all the members of the community and I'm thinking both of the Catholic community and the wider community. He cared about the suffering people, the hurting people and those who felt the church did not welcome them.''
Rabbi Alfred Gottschalk began his career as president of Hebrew Union College when Cardinal Bernardin became archbishop of Cincinnati. Then-young religious leaders and sons of immigrants, they rose to national and international prominence together.
Rabbi Gottschalk, now HUC chancellor, called the cardinal ''the natural leader of modern Catholicism in America... The Bible says that when a righteous person leaves a place, his imprint remains.''
In the HUC chapel, Cardinal Bernardin's name was added to others for whom the students offered the memorial prayer at the daily worship, said Jay Moses, the student rabbi who led the service.
Cincinnati City Council passed a memorial resolution introduced by Councilman Dwight Tillery, and Mayor Roxanne Qualls said ''the entire Cincinnati community feels a deep sense of personal loss due.''
This Sunday in Oxford, Pastor Marquis Evans Sr. will ask members of Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church to observe a moment of silence in memory of Cardinal Bernardin.
''Perhaps maybe he touched someone's life in our congregation who might want to stand and have a few words,'' said Pastor Evans, 38, a North Avondale native who remembers the cardinal for the dignity with which he faced false allegations of sexual abuse.
''I remember... the charges brought against him. The manner in which he handled that was very Christian-like. He didn't condemn the person who brought those charges. He let his life, his character, what he represented, speak for itself.''
Reporters Andrea Tortora, Ben L. Kaufman, Laura Goldberg, and Kathleen Hillenmeyer and photographer Glenn Hartong contributed to this story.
Published Nov. 15, 1996.
