Bernie is a minister and one time priest who has a healthy marriage to a much younger woman.
Born and raised in Chicago by a fine Christian family, Bernie is an alcoholic because he drank way too much for way to long.
His dad was a periodic and mother a budding Al-Anon. Alcohol ran through his family.
Being good at school got him attention. In 1953 he was ordained a priest. He became one partly because people paid attention to priests.
At 26 years old, supervising 15 teachers, he was introduced to the Manhattan and the journey began.
Fascinating story and one of the earliest in the WeJoy collection.
Bernie also spoke at the 2005 International in Toronto:
(1 hr 11 min) (24.4 MB) (id#1305)