Roman Catholic Diocese of Tucson Bishop Gerald F. Kicanas received the 2008 Bernardin Award on Friday for, among other things, his efforts in handling the sexual abuse crisis both locally and nationally.

For anyone who doesn’t remember those harrowing times, Kicanas came to Tucson in 2002 as a co-adjutor bishop and became bishop in 2003, in the midst of what could best be described as a brutal period for Tucson Catholics.

Kicanas led the diocese through its filing of Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization, to its emergence one year later after establishing a $22 million settlement pool for victims. The local diocese was the first Catholic diocese in the country to emerge from Chapter 11.

The victims and their attorneys, who had previously been highly critical of the diocese, praised Kicanas for resolving the issue so efficiently.

Kicanas is also vice president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, and has held several high profile posts with them, including head of the conference’s communications committee.

The Catholic Common Ground Initiative, which selects recipients for the honor, described Kicanas as “a champion of dialogue on contentious issues.”

The award committee said Kicanas is, “a model of reconciliation and understanding and his pastoral concern regarding the abuse crisis was inclusive of all the members of the church — the victims, their families, the communities, the clergy of the diocese and the offenders.”

Kicanas received his award Friday at Catholic University in Washington D.C. Tim Russert, the late moderator of “Meet the Press,” was supposed to be the keynote speaker at the event. But the event ended up honoring him instead.

The New York-based Catholic Common Ground Initiative was one of the final churchwide pastoral efforts of the late and much-beloved Cardinal Joseph Bernardin, the late Archbishop of Chicago.

The Initiative is guided by a 36-member committee chaired by the Rev. Daniel E. Pilarczyk, the archbishop of Cincinnati.

The award is given each year to someone who “recognizes that solutions to the church’s problems most often emerge from a variety of sources. The person looks for valid insights and legitimate concerns of others and tries to address their strongest positions rather than discredit them.”