Bishops Rally Around Accused Cardinal : Religion: President of prelate conference has harsh words for media treatment of Chicago’s Bernardin. Abuse charge dominates session.

Rallying around Cardinal Joseph Bernardin of Chicago, the nation’s Roman Catholic bishops on Monday expressed complete confidence in the popular prelate’s “ultimate vindication” on sexual abuse charges and roundly applauded a denunciation of the news media by their president.

The criticism of the news media and the show of support for Bernardin came as 275 bishops opened the annual fall meeting of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops here.

The U.S. hierarchy had hoped that, unlike last year’s conference, which was dominated by such sexual issues as pedophile priests and the ordination of women, this year’s session would be focused largely on issues of world peace and a report from the committee on marriage and family chaired by Bernardin.

But on Friday a $10-million civil lawsuit was filed in federal court in Cincinnati by Stephen Cook of Philadelphia, accusing Bernardin and another priest of sexually abusing him when he was a teen-age seminarian nearly 20 years ago.

Bernardin, who has categorically denied the charges, received a minute-long standing ovation from his fellow bishops. “I am deeply moved by this expression of support,” he told them. “From the bottom of my heart I thank you. I have only one request--that you continue to remember me in your prayers.”

Moments earlier, Archbishop William H. Keeler of Baltimore, president of the conference, recalled that another bishop had been wrongly accused and later found innocent of sexual abuse.

“As is true of cases of sexual abuse itself, one case of unfounded allegations is one too many since the injustice done to a bishop or a priest so accused is not easily repaired,” Keeler said.

While Bernardin, in remarks to reporters Monday, said he believed the coverage of the charges against him had, for the most part, been fair and balanced, the controversy appeared to harden the views of some bishops toward the news media.

Hours after the subject was thought to have been laid to rest for the day, Bishop Robert H. Brom of San Diego rose on the floor to assail what he called “media hype” in covering accusations of sexual abuse. The result, he said, is that all priests “live under a cloud of suspicion. . . . We need to walk with our priests in solidarity.”

The often unvarnished expressions here of alarm about media coverage follow several years of stories dealing with sexual abuse within the priesthood as well as other issues that have divided Catholics. Even after bishops said they began taking steps to redress the sex abuse problem--which Pope John Paul II has called a scandal in the church--bishops complained that media reports often fail to reflect the church’s progress on the issue.

“The message of the church and other churches seems to be blunted by a kind of predetermined agenda or point of view very narrowly taken on the part of the media,” Cardinal Roger M. Mahony said Monday in an interview. “I think we’ve come a long ways.”

In Chicago, Bernardin established what is widely viewed as a model program for dealing with allegations of pedophilia by clergy. It includes a review panel to investigate such charges and a “fitness review administrator” to determine whether charged priests represent a danger to children and should be put on administrative leave.

In his presidential address, Keeler criticized the national news media for its coverage of the church in general.