Bernardin, << BUR nuh `deen,` >> Joseph Louis (1928-1996), was appointed a cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church by Pope John Paul II in 1983. Bernardin had become archbishop of Chicago in 1982. He was general secretary of the National (now United States) Conference of Catholic Bishops from 1968 to 1972 and conference president from 1974 to 1977. He became a spokesman for American bishops opposing the nuclear arms race and seeking greater economic justice in the United States.
Bernardin was born on April 2, 1928, in Columbia, South Carolina. He was ordained a priest in 1952. He served in several administrative positions in the diocese of Charleston, South Carolina, from 1952 until 1966, when he became an auxiliary bishop and was assigned to the archdiocese of Atlanta. In 1972, he became archbishop of Cincinnati, serving in that position until his assignment to Chicago. The cardinal’s reflections on the last three years of his life were published as The Gift of Peace in 1997, after his death. Bernardin died on Nov. 14, 1996.
