Cardinal Joseph Bernardin was an American Roman Catholic prelate who served as the archbishop of Cincinnati, Ohio (1972–82), and Chicago (1982–96). Named a cardinal in 1983, he was known for being one of the strongest voices of moderation and compromise in the sometimes contentious Roman Catholic Church of the late 20th century.
Bernardin was influential in the development of a comprehensive moral framework known as the consistent life ethic. In the early 1990s he laid the groundwork for the church’s first policies to address sexual abuse committed by clergy. In 1993 a former seminary student named Steven Cook claimed that Bernardin had molested him in the mid-1970s; however, Cook later recanted. Bernardin died of cancer at age 68 in November 1996.