Vatican is rocked by Cardinal’s final words
One of Italy’s most revered cardinals has stunned the Catholic Church by issuing a damning indictment of the institution from the grave, calling for its “transformation”.
Hours after Milan’s former archbishop, Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini, passed away on Friday at the age of 85, the leading daily paper ‘Corriere della Sera’ printed his final interview, in which he attacks the church — and by implication its leadership — for being “200 years out of date”.
“Our culture has aged, our churches are big and empty and the church bureaucracy rises up, our rituals and our cassocks are pompous,” the cardinal said.
“The church must admit its mistakes and begin a radical change, starting from the Pope and the bishops. The paedophilia scandals oblige us to take a journey of transformation.”
Church insiders believe he wished for the interview to be published following his death.
Cardinal Martini, who was on the liberal wing of the church hierarchy, was once tipped to succeed as Pope.
His chances of being elected fell away when he revealed he was suffering from a rare form of Parkinson’s disease and he retired in 2002.
Instead, the ultraconservative German cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was chosen to be Pope Benedict XVI in 2005 following the death of John Paul II.
The body of Cardinal Martini has been laid out in Milan cathedral since noon on Saturday, with thousands of people coming to pay their last respects.
His funeral will take place there this afternoon.
The left-wing mayor of Milan, Giuliano Pisapia, who recently angered church authorities by recognising gay couples and providing them with the same rights the city gives married couples, led the tributes to the dead cardinal.
“Difficult times require words of wisdom and hope from great men,” he said. “Carlo Maria Martini illuminated the way for the entire city, not just for part of it. For this reason, today more than ever, Milan mourns its archbishop.”
Cardinal Martini was noted for supporting the use of condoms, at least a decade before the Vatican grudgingly accepted they might be acceptable in certain situations to prevent the transmission of HIV.
Conservative
He also questioned the church’s line on gay relationships and divorce — calling on it to reconsider what constituted a family in the 21st Century or risk losing even more of its flock.
Conservative voices in the church tried to repair damage caused by Cardinal Martini’s criticism. Marco Tarquinio, the editor of the bishops’ daily paper, ‘L’Avvenire’, accused the mainstream press of distorting the cardinal’s comments, although he did not give specific examples.
“The attempts to distort and manipulate in an anti-ecclesiastical way the cardinal’s final hours on this earth are a bitter reminder of similar actions against even the blessed John Paul II,” he said.
The suspicion that the Vatican has tendrils everywhere, even in the mainstream press, was heightened by the failure of the article to appear on the ‘Corriere della Sera’ website.
Following inquiries, editor Ferruccio de Bortoli said there had been no pressure to keep it off the website.
It was then published online yesterday evening. (© Independent News Service)
Irish Independent
this time it seems okey. i am sorry but i am confused I dont know enough about computers.has anyone seen the comments of rev. benedict groeschal in a catholic newspaper. it describes the way in which the church sees child abuse. its the young victims who seduce the adults. this man has been dealing with cases of sexual abuse. in his optic its not at all a crime the catholic church is totally out of touch in a society where there is a question of child protection. Thay havent got it yet.he was saying that in most cases the children turned to priests as fathers to replace thier own absent father. So it wasent sexual abuse but tendress.
my comments wont pass because even when i correct it comes back
When no one pay any attention to what decrepit old men in dresses say whether, it’s good bad or indifferent then the world will be better off.
correction: “monkeys breed monkeys”
Lots of people have “Death Bed Confessions”. Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini is no exception. He gave his life to that “divine” Catholic Church, as it were, poor sod – much the same way so-called Junkies, e.g., heroin or coke addicts, become dependent on their suppliers. Same mind-manipulation game. “Get ’em young’ – or, as the Jesuits would have it:-
“Give me the boy until he is seven, and I will give you the man”. Some man, eh?!
Misogynists breed misogynists – same way as monkeys monkeys. Its the way the Natural World works. But, what do those “apes” in the Vatican “cellars” know about all of that? NOTHING!
As Dave Allen used to say: “Good night, and may your God go with you”
Some of us are just “blown to bits” …