The former archbishop of Milan and papal candidate Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini said the Catholic Church was “200 years out of date” in his final interview before his death, published on Saturday.
Martini, once favoured by Vatican progressives to succeed Pope John Paul II and a prominent voice in the church until his death at the age of 85 on Friday, gave a scathing portrayal of a pompous and bureaucratic church failing to move with the times.
“Our culture has aged, our churches are big and empty and the church bureaucracy rises up, our rituals and our cassocks are pompous,” Martini said in the interview published in Italian daily Corriere della Sera.
Well, he was partly right. The Latin Church does need some reforming. Just not the kind he was thinking of. Not to worry though; the current Pope seems to have a handle on that.
On a side note, why didn’t this man just join the Episcopal Church? Maybe there wasn’t a parish within convenient distance.
I find those statements ironic for a man who had no problem accepting a cardinal zucchetto and was about as high up the “pompous and bureaucratic” church as one can get (from his perspective). This is a grade A example of the pot calling the kettle black.
In senectÅ«te vÄ“ritÄs.
Rather, in senectute senio.
The Roman Catholic Church is always I’m need of renewal. To bad Cardinal Martini choose the superficial and populist issues rather than deeper matters of faith and true piety. “Moral arbiter” indeed! The Church proclaims the Word of God. People listen or they don’t. There is no arbitrating. There is faithfulness our faithlessness.