John Cody - Cardinal

Cardinal

Cody was appointed Archbishop of Chicago, on June 16, 1965 and installed August 24, 1965. He was elevated to Cardinal on June 26, 1967. Cody's time in Chicago was marked by strife and controversy, including federal investigations of financial improprieties and an ambiguous relationship with Mrs. Helen Dolan Wilson, who was alleged to be his mistress. Mrs. Wilson, who "followed (Cody's) every move about the diocese" for a period of some 25 years, was alleged to have received large sums of money diverted by Cardinal Cody, some of which purchased her a "house in Boca Raton...a luxury car, expensive clothes and furs, and holiday cash presents."

Despite the fact that approximately one million dollars of church funds disappeared under Cody's tenure, and the National Conference of Catholic Bishops lost more than four million dollars in a single year while Cody was treasurer of that organization, all investigations were suspended upon Cody's death.

Roy Larsen, the Religion Editor of the Chicago Sun-Times wrote:

"Legally, the investigations by the paper and the federal prosecutors ended inconclusively. In that sense, the legal tactics followed by Cody and his lawyers—chiefly a strategy of delays and stalling—succeeded in preventing any indictments. Eight months before the first story was published, the U.S. Attorney’s office issued subpoenas to Cody and the archdiocese, but the information that was sought was never turned over to the government. Even after the series was published, the stonewalling continued. A new U.S. Attorney, Dan Webb, had taken over the government’s investigation and issued new subpoenas, but Frank McGarr, the chief judge of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, did nothing to move the case along. Finally, the Cardinal’s health became an issue. On April 25, 1982, he died. In July 1982, Webb terminated the investigation, stating: “Once the cardinal passed on, the investigation as to the allegations against the cardinal became moot.”"

Cody found his traditional view of episcopal authority often in conflict with a number of priests of his diocese. He was opposed to some of the decisions of Apostolic Delegate Jean Jadot and led a protest campaign against what he felt was excessive progressivism and radicalism on the part of the delegate.

The opposition waned as the Cardinal's health declined in the early 1980s, when he was succeeded in the summer of 1982 by Joseph Bernardin at the time of his death.