The Bishop's 25th

The banker was astonished at the bishop. It was 1939, the packinghouse workers were on the verge of striking for recognition of their C.I.O. union, and here was the Most Rev. Bernard James Sheil, senior auxiliary bishop of Chicago's Roman Catholic archdiocese, accepting "as a great privilege" the invitation of John L. Lewis to appear on a C.I.O. platform in the stockyard district. "I want you to remember, Your Excellency," said the banker, a Catholic layman, "that the minute you step on that platform, you lose your chance to become archbishop."

For a moment, the stubby little prelate just looked at him. "You should know," he said after a while, "that I wasn't ordained a Catholic priest in order to become an archbishop."

Bishop Sheil, 65, has never become an archbishop. But he has become something possibly greater--one of the most loved and respected Christian leaders in the U.S. Last week Chicago showed him so by celebrating his 25th anniversary as bishop with a party that jammed the banquet space of the Palmer House.

Boxing v. Brothels. Father William Bergin was there. Tipperary-born Father Bergin, 86, could easily remember young Benny Sheil, his pupil at St. Viator College in Bourbonnais, Ill. who pitched a no-hitter for St. Viator against the University of Illinois. ("I had a terrifying amount of speed," says Bishop Sheil, thinking back.) Benny Sheil turned down offers to try out with both the Cincinnati Reds and the Chicago White Sox before he went back to study for the priesthood.

Retired President Britton Budd of the Public Service Co. of Northern Illinois was invited to last week's party, too. He could remember helping Bishop Sheil found the organization that is his chief monument: the Catholic Youth Organization (C.Y.O.). As a young priest, Father Sheil served part-time as a chaplain at the Cook County jail. He walked many a doomed man to the execution chamber, and once a "mad-dog killer" said to him near the end: "Father, why do they wait until now before they start to care?" Later, when Father Sheil was consecrated a bishop at 40, he tried to answer the condemned man's challenge.

With his own inheritance from his father and $10,000 from Utility Man Budd, Sheil set out to lure off the streets young potential gangsters--white and Negro, Protestant, Catholic and Jew--with a social and athletic program that kept moralizing to a minimum. Boxing was the major attraction. When some high-minded people clucked at the stress on boxing, Bishop Sheil's reply was: "Show me how you can inspire boys away from the brothels and saloons with a checker tournament and I'll put on the biggest checker tournament you ever saw."

Today the bishop has a staff of 500 to help him run the C.Y.O.. which spent $1,500,000 last year in Chicago alone on such projects as two large community centers in Italian and Negro neighborhoods, medical, psychiatric, child-guidance and remedial-reading clinics, a radio station, and an orientation program for Puerto Ricans. There are hundreds of other C.Y.O. centers throughout the U.S. and abroad.

"Rabbi!" Saul Alinsky and Joe Meegan were also there last week for the bishop's 25th anniversary. The Jewish sociologist and the Irish playground director were the bishop's right & left hands in the late !30's when he set out to fight Communism among the tough, discontented unemployed of Chicago's stockyards. The Back of the Yards Neighborhood Council brought democracy and self-respect into an explosive situation. The packers, who at first did not like the unionization that went with it, learned to be grateful for the bishop's work.

Bishop Sheil made himself just as unpopular with fringers on the right as with those on the left. At one forum on Christian-Jewish relations he was viciously heckled by a delegation of Christian Fronters, and a virago pushed her way towards him as he was leaving. "I'm a Catholic!" she screamed. "You're not a Catholic--you're a nigger-lover and a Jew-lover. You call yourself a bishop. You're not a bishop, you're a rabbi." And she spat in his face.

Bishop Sheil did not move a muscle. "I thank you. madam, for the compliment of your action and your words." he said calmly. "Rabbi? That is what they called our Lord."

Corned Beef & Cabbage. Bishop Sheil's Silver Jubilee began last week with Mass. Into the nave of Holy Name Cathedral crowded a congregation of 1,800, and in the sanctuary were 29 bishops. Chicago's archbishop, Samuel Cardinal Stritch, read a message from the Pope: "Ever since you received the fullness of the priesthood you have performed a zealous and fruitful ministry . . . Wishing in some outstanding way to render testimony of our affection toward you, we have decided to name you Assistant at our Pontifical Throne.''*

Eight hours later, more than 2,300 people came to dinner. Their tables overflowed the Palmer House grand ballroom into the foyer, into the halls, almost into the elevators. There was a cake 15 ft. high which Bishop Sheil had to cut standing above it on the balcony. There was a main course of the bishop's beloved corned beef & cabbage, and over & over the band played his favorite tune, MacNamara's Band.

At the head table sat Theologian Jacques Maritain and Labor Leaders John L. Lewis and James B. Carey, Illinois' Governor William G. Stratton and Capitalist Marshall Field. Chicago's Episcopal Bishop Wallace Conkling gave the benediction and Rabbi Louis Binstock of Temple Sholom asked God's blessing on Bishop Sheil in Hebrew. A check for $131,582 was presented to the bishop for his various funds, and 26 separate awards, each with appropriate words of praise, kept coming until midnight.

At last the bishop himself rose to speak from a full heart. "I have offered up to God all of these awards given to me," he said.

* Bishops bearing this honorary title take precedence in papal processions over other bishops and archbishops. Present number of assistants: 82 bishops, 49 archbishops.

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