BY JOHN KIESEWETTER
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Cardinal Joseph Bernardin
(Michael E. Keating photo)
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The biggest surprise in Bernardin, the new public TV documentary about the late Cardinal Joseph Bernardin, was his sister's reaction to his career choice.
"When he announced he was going to be a priest, I was totally shocked," Elaine Addison says on Bernardin, which premieres Wednesday on WCET-TV (8 p.m., Channel 48).
She and her widowed mother thought he would become a physician, as he had often said he would while growing up in Columbia, S.C.
"Maybe instead of healing people's bodies, he really wanted to help their souls," she says about her brother, who died in 1996 at age 68.
Anyone who knew anything about the former Cincinnati archbishop (1972-82) and Chicago cardinal (1982-96), or his public battles with sex abuse allegations and cancer, never questioned his calling to the priesthood.
ON THE AIR
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What: Bernardin
When: 8 p.m. Wednesday
Where: Channel 48
Repeat: 10 p.m. July 19, Channel 48
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"Joseph Bernardin was a terrific American story, because it was a rise from very simple immigrant roots to become one of the most significant churchmen in this country," says filmmaker Martin Doblmeier (Thomas Jefferson: A View from the Mountain). "In years to come, people will look at who were the effective spokesmen for our generation, and Joseph Bernardin will be right at the top of that list," he says.
More than 20 people -- none from Cincinnati -- were interviewed by filmmakers Frank Frost (States of Faith) and Mr. Doblmeier, who had reported on the archbishop in the 1970s for Real to Reel, a weekly syndicated program on religion.
Bernardin captures the humor of the man, as well as his leadership role in American Catholic church policies on abortion, poverty and nuclear weapons. Only passing mention is made of his decade in Cincinnati, as Mr. Doblmeier struggled to cram the cardinal's life into one hour.
"It would have been a totally different film, if I had been able to do two hours. I'm sure we will be criticized for not going deep enough," he says.
This Man Bernardin, the cardinal's biography by Eugene Kennedy, was told in 300 pages. The one-hour film, shot on a $350,000 budget, had a 60-page script.
"If you had to do his life in 60 pages, what would you include?" Mr. Doblmeier says.
The first half of film details his social activism, including his controversial attempt to influence the abortion stance of 1976 presidential candidates Jimmy Carter and Gerald Ford.
The second half focuses on the 1993 sexual abuse allegations by former seminarian Steven Cook, and his fatal encounter with cancer which prompted the Newsweek headline: "Teaching us how to die."
Viewers will see the cardinal call charges by Mr. Cook, who died of AIDS in 1995, "totally untrue and totally false" in 1993.
"I was flabbergasted. I'm hurt. How would you feel if such allegations were made against you?" he told Chicago reporters.
When asked directly about his sex life, the cardinal replied: "I'm 65 years old, and I can tell you that all my life I have led a chaste and celibate life."
Bernardin includes footage of Mr. Cook recanting his charges against the cardinal, and an account of the cardinal's reconciliation four months later with his accuser at a Philadelphia seminary. Their meeting was described by "Kevin," Mr. Cook's long-time companion, who was there.
"I think it was very difficult for him to talk about it," says Mr. Doblmeier, who did the interview in Kevin's Pennsylvania home. "In some ways he wanted to do the interview because he felt he owed something to Joseph Bernardin -- and that Steven owed something to Joseph Bernardin -- because of the dignity he showed Steven Cook. "Joseph Bernardin believed in the sanctity of life. He really lived a consistent ethic in his own life. That's refreshing," Mr. Doblmeier says.
"The priesthood has been at an all-time low, with so much attention paid to priests who have acted less than priestly."
Mr. Doblmeier says not everyone agreed with the cardinal's social agenda.
"He was too liberal for some conservatives, and too conservative for some liberals," the filmmaker says.
"But I could find very few people who disagreed with him as a person, the way he lived his life. I think that speaks volumes.
"I came to like the man a lot. Joe Bernardin was one of the good ones."
John Kiesewetter is Enquirer TV/radio critic. Write him at 312 Elm St., Cincinnati, 45202.
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