ROANOKE TIMES 

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, March 1, 1994                   TAG: 9403010223
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: CINCINNATI                                 LENGTH: Short

CARDINAL DROPPED FROM LAWSUIT

A man who accused Cardinal Joseph Bernardin of sexually abusing him in the 1970s dropped his lawsuit against the Roman Catholic prelate Monday, saying his memory was unreliable.

Steven Cook, 34, had filed a $10 million lawsuit Nov. 12 in Cincinnati claiming that Bernardin and the Rev. Ellis Harsham of Beavercreek sexually abused him from 1975 to 1977 when he was a high school student attending a program at a Cincinnati seminary.

Bernardin, now cardinal of Chicago's 2.3 million-member archdiocese, was Cincinnati's archbishop at the time.

Cook also accused the Archdiocese of Cincinnati and archdiocesan officials, including current Archbishop Daniel Pilarczyk, of negligence for allowing the alleged abuse.

Only Bernardin was dropped from the lawsuit, which is to go to trial May 9.

Bernardin, Harsham and the other defendants have said repeatedly they did nothing wrong.

- Associated Press 


 by CNB