Thank you for the superb and poignant article on Cardinal Bernardin (“A Cardinal’s Lessons,” Nov. 2). When I read it, I was reminded of one big regret.
A few years ago, my cousin, who was a priest, died suddenly and unexpectedly. The cardinal officiated at his burial mass. On a regular basis, the cardinal would telephone my aunt and ask how she was coping. I marveled at how he found the time in his supremely busy schedule to call her.
Later, when he fell ill, I kept telling myself that I should write to him and express my gratitude for his time and his attention directed to my aunt. I never got around to writing the letter, because I’d forget at times or I’d feel I didn’t have the time at the moment. But, how could I be busier than he?
We were so lucky to have this great man among us.
Jim Bauman, Crystal Lake
When I read the excerpt from Eugene Kennedy’s memoir of his friendship with Cardinal Bernardin and got to the author’s description of his farewell to his old friend, I started crying and had to go do something else for a while.
And yet, even though Kennedy’s words were heart-wrenching, there is something horrible about his invasion of Bernardin’s privacy during the last hours of his life. I’m still haunted by Kennedy’s description of the cardinal slumped in his chair like an abandoned rag doll, too weak to raise his head or sniff back the mucus running from his nose.
Did we really need to see our cardinal like that? Remembering the big stink about the paparazzi snapping pictures of the dying Princess Diana, is what Kennedy did so very different?
Judith Anne Testa, DeKalb
Of the hundreds of beautiful portraits of Cardinal Bernardin that are available, you decided to use none! The caricature that appears on the magazine cover is an insult to the memory of a great and holy man. Are you honoring Cardinal Bernardin, or mocking him? The sketch by C.F. Payne adds nothing to, but instead detracts from, the touching tribute paid to him by Eugene Kennedy.
Sister Jane Zawadzki, S.S.J., Chicago
I was disturbed by the caricature of Joseph Cardinal Bernardin. Why memorialize him as a man with a small and twisted head? Or was this artistic introduction meant to serve as a visual metaphor for the article by Eugene Kennedy that you printed inside?
Madonna Marsden, Marquette, Mich.
THE CURVES OF LIFE
Joan Frank’s “Making Room for Otherwise” (Nov. 2) hit the nail of unpredictability squarely on the head. Life is indeed full of surprises. Just when we feel confident we can foretell the future with some degree of reliability, the unexpected happens.
I look at young people nowadays who seem to need all the advantages before even thinking of saying “I do,” and wonder where their spirit of adventure, sacrifice, loyalty and perseverance has gone. There are no sure things in life except taxes and death. You can plan until you’re blue in the face, but life has a way of throwing you a curve that’s impossible to hit.
Al Carli, Chicago
SUCCESS TIMES TWO
Congratulations on two beautifully written essays. The Eugene Kennedy remembrance of Cardinal Bernardin was elegant and touching. And reading Joan Frank’s “Making Room for Otherwise,” I said to myself, this Joan Frank’s a poet. I was struck not only by the precision of her words, but by her expressive flair.
Patricia Solari, Elmwood Park
———-
The Magazine welcomes letters. Send mail to The Editor, Chicago Tribune Magazine, 435 N. Michigan Ave., Chicago, Ill. 60611, or to our Internet address, tribmag@tribune.com.
All correspondence, including e-mail, must include the writer’s name, home address and phone number. Letters may be edited for space and clarity.
