Cardinal George's Statement Chicago Sun Times 5-3-2002

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'I think it killed him'

May 3, 2002

BY CATHLEEN FALSANI RELIGION REPORTER (Chicago Sun Times)

Cardinal Francis George believes anxiety over false accusations of sexual abuse against Cardinal Joseph Bernardin hastened his death from pancreatic cancer in 1996.

"I think it killed him," George said in an interview Thursday. "Cancer is a psychosomatic disorder very often. Would he have died as quickly as he did if he had not gone through that terrible ordeal? I don't know. Others have suggested that might be the case."

In November 1993, Steven Cook, a 34-year-old from Philadelphia, filed a lawsuit against Bernardin claiming the cardinal and another priest had sexually abused him in the 1970s while Cook was a pre-seminary student in Cincinnati.

Bernardin vehemently maintained his innocence, saying at the time the accusations first surfaced: "I am 65 years old, and I can tell you that all my life I have lived a chaste and celibate life."

In March 1994, Cook recanted his accusations against Bernardin, saying they were based on false recovered memories. Bernardin died almost three years to the day after Cook made his accusations of sexual abuse public.

George said he saw firsthand the toll the scandal over Cook's false allegations had taken on Bernardin when the two met at a bishops meeting.

"He told me once, 'Now, whenever my story is told, the accusation, even though it was a false accusation, will always be associated with my name.' This was a man who had a sense of his own role in history, and he was saddened by this. It was a great tragedy," George said.

"This is why some sense of caution, in my experience and I've said this, accusations against priests in this domain usually have some truth to them . . . but not always. And in this or any other domain, we should all be more careful about making huge statements and false accusations, or any accusations, unless we know they are true."

George made his comments about his predecessor during a wide-ranging interview during and after a WBBM-AM taping about the ongoing national scandal fueled by revelations that some Roman Catholic priests who were known to have sexually abused children were allowed by church officials to move from parish to parish, and diocese to diocese.

The cardinal said the more people talk about the issue of clergy sexual abuse, the better it is for everyone, although the ongoing experience has been trying for him.

"I never imagined I would have the shame of talking about this because it's a terrible thing, what happens to victims, the betrayal of the priesthood, the betrayal of the church," he said. "Sometimes at night I like to think, well, is there some way I wouldn't have to do this? It wasn't part of the job description when I signed on to be a priest 30-some years ago."

In the coming weeks, members of the Catholic Lawyers Guild will hold a series of 10 to 20 public hearings on behalf of the Chicago Archdiocese to glean input from ordinary Catholics about what they want to see in a national church policy governing priests who abuse, George said.

"I would like to hear from Catholic lay people, so when I go into the meeting with the other bishops in June I can say, there are these ideas. I don't know that there can possibly be a consensus around something as inflammatory and shameful as this, but at least I'll have a better sense of what ideas are out there among the lay people," he said.

Details of when and where the hearings would be held are still being worked out, he said.

George also said he'd encourage any victim, regardless of gag orders or confidentiality agreements attached to settlements reached with the archdiocese in abuse cases, to speak out publicly about their experiences if they want to.

"Let them say what they want to say. Some people want to say and some people don't. Let them make the choice," he said. "What are we going to do? Are we going to sue? That would be ridiculous."

-- Fred Bishop (fcbishop@globaleyes.net), May 03, 2002

Answers

For All of the Forum People to read. This will give you all an idea of what this child abuse crisis and false accusations can do to a peerson. This is about Cardinal Bernardin's own crises and what it did to him. Please read this. And KEEP the comments clean please.

-- Fred Bishop (fcbishop@globaleyes.net), May 03, 2002.

top

-- *.* (chi@suntimes.com), May 03, 2002.

"Cancer is a psychosomatic disorder very often"

It is? No, it's not! He should stick to talking about what he knows.

Frank

-- Someone (ChimingIn@twocents.cam), May 03, 2002.


Frank,

Would a statement like this be more appropriate:

The severity of the symptoms of cancer is dependent upon psychosomatic factors.

This statement seems to make more sense in the context of the point he's trying to make.

Enjoy,

Mateo

-- (MattElFeo@netscape.net), May 04, 2002.


That's the way I understood it too, Mateo.
I doubt that anyone -- and surely not someone as brilliant as Cardinal George -- would ever saying that a cancer could suddenly appear purely from a psychological trauma.

Frank, I believe that he is indeed "stick[ing] to what he knows" -- what he knows from ministering to the sick for almost 30 years. He has observed that things that bear a strong psychological impact -- positive or negative -- can have a beneficial or a deleterious effect, respectively, on a person trying to recover from a physical illness.
God bless you.
John

-- (jfgecik@hotmail.com), May 04, 2002.



Frank

I guess it is that you have never really had the full time opportunity to be around a cancer victim. It can be easily be controlled by the mood of the patient. If he/she is surrounded by negativety, then the desiese would become more dramatic and possibly death will incurr more rapidly. Whereas, a patient in a strong loving envirionment would possibly survive a bit longer with a possitive outlook.

This is from taking care of a cancer victim (wife died in 1992, ill for 10 years) and medical studies. Cardinal George was merely showing that Cardinal Bernardin had suffered both from Cancer and Depression as a result of the false accusations. Illness and depression can have devastating affects on the health of a person.

My posting of this article has a dual purpose: first to show the effects on people as a result of this current crises of the Church and secondly, to show the effect that false accusations will have on a person.

Need we hear more. I say NO.

-- Fred Bishop (fcbishop@globaleyes.net), May 04, 2002.


up........

-- love God (seem@alike.com), May 04, 2002.

Mateo,

Yes, I like your statement better than his. To me a psychosomatic illness is one that has physical symptoms, but no organic cause outside of the emotional or mental state of the patient. Cancer in no way falls into this definition, as it is a physical disease that can (and should prior to therapy in most cases) be proven pathologically.

He should have just said that the emotional state affected his progression of disease, which many people would have agreed with. OTOH "cancer" isn't a single entity, each individual has an individual disease, some are agressive, some indolent. Some people die regardless of therapy and goodwill, others with terrible attitudes and no support network do great. It's still a mystery to me.

Frank

-- Someone (ChimingIn@twocents.cam), May 04, 2002.


Frank

I tried to say that the depression suffered by Cardinal Bernardin helped to speed up the ravages of the cancer. It is well believed the mental state of the victim can have an effect on cancer. That is basically what Cardinal George was trying to convey.

-- Fred Bishop (fcbishop@globaleyes.net), May 05, 2002.


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