LifeSiteNews published this Thursday the full testimony of a woman in her 80s who presents herself as the “Agnes” of the novel Windswept House by Malachi Martin, and who claims to have been the victim in 1957 of a satanic ritual abuse in which Joseph Bernardin, then a priest and later cardinal archbishop of Chicago, allegedly participated. The text, signed by Father David Nix and reproduced with permission from Padre Peregrino, recounts the woman’s story and warns the reader of the graphic nature of the details.
According to her testimony, the events took place at St. Mary parish in Greenville (South Carolina) during a nighttime gathering with several people. She claims that Bishop Russell, who had confirmed her, attempted to rape her and that Bernardin abused her after convincing her that she had “passed a test.” She also maintains that they forced her to consume what they told her was a consecrated Host. Father Nix states that he dined with her the week before the publication.
“I am Agnes. Actually, I am not”
The woman explains that a priest referred her to Malachi Martin, whom he presented as a source of the Pope in the United States, because she wanted her account to reach Rome: only the Pontiff, she reasons, has jurisdiction over a cardinal. It was Martin who assigned her the name “Agnes” for his novel. “I am Agnes. Actually, I am not,” she writes at the beginning of her text.
Although she acknowledges that Martin used many details from her story, she specifies that the actual date was 1957 and not “the early sixties,” as it appears in the novel, and that there was no dog or telephones in the incident. She adds that she felt violated by the author’s use of what for her was a sacred moment. According to her account, Martin assured her that he would bring her testimony to John Paul II.
Letters to Bernardin and a visit to the Congregation for Bishops
The woman claims that in 1983 she recognized Bernardin and wrote to him requesting a public act of repentance. The cardinal, she says, referred the matter to his review board, a process she considers illegitimate: “I told them no, they had no jurisdiction.” She also recounts that when Bernardin was accused in a lawsuit by Steve Cook, which was later withdrawn, she filed an amicus brief and that the Archdiocese of Chicago responded with counterclaims, so that for years she was unable to secure legal representation.
She asserts that she and her husband traveled to the Congregation for Bishops, where, according to her account, a priest told her in confession to return home, forget the reason for her visit, and be “a quiet wife.” The published text does not include any response from the Archdiocese of Chicago.
Father Nix concludes his presentation by criticizing attempts to rehabilitate Bernardin’s image and a possible canonization: “Would to God we still had a Devil’s Advocate in the canonization process.”
Bernardin’s anniversary and Cupich’s see
The publication comes weeks after Vatican News devoted extensive coverage to the thirtieth anniversary of Bernardin’s death, as reported by InfoVaticana, including a lecture by his successor in Chicago, Cardinal Blase Cupich. The latter, who occupies the see that Bernardin held from 1982 to 1996, has often defended the so-called “consistent ethic of life” that Bernardin formulated, as analyzed in “Cardinal Cupich and the seamless garment”.