CHICAGO — The day before Cardinal Joseph Bernardin was laid to rest this week, Chicago Jewry’s leaders bid the advocate of Catholic-Jewish ties a final farewell.
On Tuesday, a Jewish memorial tribute was held at the Holy Name Cathedral in Chicago where the archbishop’s body lay in state before his funeral Wednesday.
Bernardin, who led Chicago’s Roman Catholics for the past 14 years, was 68 years old when he died of cancer Thursday of last week.
Soon after his appointment as archbishop in 1982, Bernardin pledged to promote Catholic-Jewish relations, telling the Chicago Jewish community, “I come to you as your brother, Joseph.”
“It was then that he set the tone for a relationship which the Chicago Jewish community have treasured,” Michael Kotzin, the director of the Jewish Community Relations Council of the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago, told a cathedral filled with Catholics and Jews.
Bernardin’s initiative led to partnerships between the Catholic Archdiocese and the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago, the Chicago Board of Rabbis, Spertus Institute of Jewish Studies and the American Jewish Committee.
As a result of this interfaith relationship, a Catholic-Jewish Scholar’s Dialogue, a center for the Study of Eastern European Jewry and educational programs to teach Catholic schoolchildren about Judaism all began during Bernardin’s tenure.
It was the culmination of this exchange that brought Bernardin to Israel in March 1995 as a leader of a local Jewish-Catholic delegation made up of representatives from the archdiocese and collaborating Jewish organizations.
The Jewish participants in the Israel trip paid homage to Bernardin at the memorial tribute.
“Cardinal Bernardin’s brotherly embrace has led to a new era in Jewish-Catholic relations. We must never forget that this tribute would have been impossible only 14 years ago. We have bridged the chasm and begun a new journey,” said Rabbi Peter Knobel, past president of the Chicago Board of Rabbis.
Chicago’s Jews and Catholics intend to continue their partnership.
“Our sadness gives way to the determination not to let this work cease. We need to work harder than we ever have before because only then will we truly live a memorial to our brother, Joseph,” said Rabbi Herman Schaalman, past president of the Council of Religious Leaders.
The Jewish memorial tribute coincided with the publication of a collection of Bernardin’s addresses titled, “A Blessing to Each Other: Cardinal Joseph Bernardin and Jewish Catholic Dialogue.”