CARDINAL Joseph Bernardin of Chicago has revealed that he has probably less than a year to live following a diagnosis of inoperable cancer of the liver.
The news has come as the cardinal, who is the most senior Catholic prelate in the US, has been under criticism from some fellow cardinals and conservative laity for his Catholic Common Ground project to promote dialogue between liberal and conservative Catholics.
Only a week earlier, the cardinal who is 68, had been told that blood tests had shown he was cancer free but a screening in preparation for back surgery revealed that his earlier cancer of the pancreas had spread to his liver. The news led to an outpouring of sympathy and prayers.
At a press conference called to announce the news he said that his greatest contribution might be the way he handles his illness over the next year. "As a person of faith," he declared, "I see death as a friend, as the transition from earthly life to life eternal."
He said that he intended to continue to be the pastor of the archdiocese "until the end". He would not say if he would ask Rome to appoint a coadjutor bishop to succeed him.
He hoped that his legacy would be "to leave a community that would be more gentle, more loving, more compassionate." He decided to share the news of his illness "because you are my family, the people who are listening to this, who are watching this, they are my family."
It is only three weeks since Cardinal Bernardin announced his Common Ground project to counter what he saw as a growing polarisation among US Catholics and to provide a model for candid discussion of problems facing the church.
The proposal has been criticised by Cardinal Hickey of Washington and Cardinal Law of Boston as well as conservative lay groups, but Cardinal Bernard in said that it did not depend on him personally and he expected it to go ahead.
The cardinal was appointed to head the Chicago archdiocese by Pope John Paul II in 1982. He was then Archbishop of Cincinnati and had headed a committee which drafted the hierarchy's controversial pastoral on nuclear arms and US defence policy. He was the subject of the cover story on Time magazine because of the pastoral.
His period at Chicago has been difficult at times. He had to confront an accusation of sexual abuse which later turned out to be false. The archdiocese also had serious budgetary problems.