The cardinal died on Friday, aged 85.
"Our culture has grown old, our churches are big and empty and the church bureacracy rises up, our religious rites and the vestments we wear are pompous."
"Catholics lacked confidence in the Church, he said. "Our culture has grown old, our churches are big and empty and the church bureaucracy rises up, our religious rites and the vestments we wear are pompous."
Unless the Church adopted a more generous attitude towards divorced persons, it will lose the allegiance of future generations, the cardinal added. The question, he said, is not whether divorced couples can receive holy communion, but how the Church can help complex family situations.
He was not afraid, our correspondent adds, to speak his mind on matters that the Vatican sometimes considered taboo, including the use of condoms to fight Aids and the role of women in the Church.
In 2008, for example, he criticised the Church's prohibition of birth control, saying the stance had likely driven many faithful away, and publicly stated in 2006 that condoms could "in some situations, be a lesser evil".
And the advice he leaves behind to conquer the tiredness of the Church was a "radical transformation, beginning with the Pope and his bishops".
5 comments:
Another heretic meets his Maker.
Not my post, but I don't disagree with the sentiment ^
Btw, perhaps the RCWP should read this: "our religious rites and the vestments we wear are pompous."
That includes you too.
For your edification, the following religious rites and vestments are now de rigueur on the RC fashion runway:
http://www.stpeterslist.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/Cardinal-Burke-Cappa-Magna-Featured.jpeg
Their understated allure is indicative of a genuine Teacher of Faith and Doctrine.
^
Not my post, but I couldn't agree more.
It is a little-known fact that at age 85, Cardinal Martini was ripe for the senior home.
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