ITALY
The Irish Times
PADDY AGNEW in Rome
THOUSANDS OF people are expected to attend the funeral today in Milan of the Jesuit Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini, one of Italy’s best known and most respected Catholic thinkers. Over the last two days more than 100,000 people filed past his body, which was lying in state in Milan cathedral.
The former archbishop of Milan, who died on Friday at the age of 85, was probably best known outside Italy as the eternal pope in waiting, given that for many years during the papacy of John Paul II he was regularly tipped as his successor.
Martini was a towering figure of the Catholic Church, someone who could conduct a dialogue with believers and non-believers alike and who was never afraid to discuss publicly such controversial church issues as clerical sex abuse, clerical celibacy, homosexuality and the use of condoms in the fight against Aids. …
In his last interview, conducted in early August but published last weekend by Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, Martini left us with some typically provocative thoughts.
“The church is 200 years out of date. Why does it not rouse itself? Or are we afraid? . . . In the wealthy West the church is tired,” he said.
“The church must admit its errors and go down the path of radical change, starting with the pope and bishops. The paedophile scandals oblige us to undergo a process of change.”
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