BishopAccountability.org
	Comment: Book about Cardinal Bernadin Laughably off Base By Eugene Cullen Kennedy Kansas City Star [United States] September 2, 2006 http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/living/religion/15419010.htm Cardinal Joseph Bernardin of Chicago has been dead for almost 10 years. He is, however, far more alive than many church leaders because of his great contributions to church and society, and for his holiness as he accepted the suffering from cancer that led to his death. He is certainly more alive than Matt Abbott and Randy Engel, two writers whose current attacks on Bernardin are as hilarious and illogical as the late comedian Lou Costello's lines in the classic "Who's on first" routine. Engel claims Bernardin was a leader of a gay combine and makes accusations the way a bad imitator of Julia Child might concoct a souffle. She stirs her ingredients furiously and ends up with egg on her own face. These two know that you cannot legally libel the dead, so they feel free to make fevered allegations that, like all overheated charges, lose their flavor and their texture as they cool down. Like Abbott with his Costello, they will end up using the last line of the baseball routine when asked what the proof is: "I don't know." I'm talking here about Abbott's column — circulated around the Internet and posted on Alan Keyes' www.renewamerica.us Web site — that is based on Engel's book The Rite of Sodomy: Homosexuality and the Roman Catholic Church. Abbott's column is in fact an excerpt from chapter 15 of Engel's book, titled "The Special Case of Joseph Cardinal Bernardin." Keyes, a Catholic, should be embarrassed for playing host to such fantasies, and Monsignor Michael Higgins should consider doing public penance for reprinting them under the auspices of his Justice for Priests organization. In attacking Bernardin, Engel joins the motley ranks of Catholic conspiracy theorists who charge that homosexuals are among the covert groups to blame for all the ills of society. Engel also scapegoats homosexuals as the covert agents who have partied their way to power in the church, taking occasional breaks from bizarre rituals to water down its teachings. Engel's set piece is the accusation that Bernardin, along with several other bishops, attended a late-night ceremony at a Minnesota seminary in 1995 that involved "occult and satanic" rituals. The records, which Engel could have checked out with a few phone calls, show that Bernardin returned to Chicago immediately after the evening's official function and celebrated Mass the next morning in Chicago. I know; I've seen the records myself. You would not want your lifeline to be made of the frayed thread with which Engel tries to knit her accusations together like someone wearing hockey gloves. This is evident in her attempt to link Bernardin in some way to the 1984 murder of a church organist in Chicago and her charge of his alleged involvement in a "Boys Club" of priests in the archdiocese. What she does not know, or has not bothered to find out, is that the Cook County State's Attorney investigated these charges thoroughly and found no evidence to support them. Engel also tries to pump air into the balloon punctured long ago that the Archdiocese of Chicago paid off Steven Cook, who accused Bernardin of sexual abuse in 1993; the allegations were later deemed false. Unfortunately, facts are to the conspiracy theorist what sunrise is for a vampire — the end of a wild journey in the dark. The alleged source for all of this is the late Father Charles Fiore, who ran his family's business in splendid exile from a $600,000 home near Madison, Wis. He was fighting his own battle against accusations of misbehavior regarding his relationships with students. Fiore feigned heart problems when he was challenged to make his charges regarding Bernardin under oath. Perhaps he did not want to put his hand on a Bible because he was fighting expulsion from the Dominicans at the time. Bernardin's goodness and greatness will survive these vicious attacks. It is, in fact, a tribute to his extraordinary leadership in the church in the last quarter of the 20th century that he draws sniper's fire from a strange array of critics. Bernardin will be remembered as a farsighted leader long after the blindness of his attackers becomes obvious to everyone.
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