The whole world heard about the news because of the cardinal’s description of the Catholic Church as being “200 years out of date” and his comments about the need for the Church to be more open in areas such as sexual ethics and the provision of the sacraments to remarried divorcees.
These were all subjects which the Emeritus Archbishop of Milan had discussed in person with Fr. Sporschill in 2007, in his best selling book “Nocturnal conversations in Jerusalem. On the risks of Faith” (published by Mondadori).
But whatever one makes of this, the Jesuit cardinal who passed away last week certainly deserves recognition for the courage of his ideas. A friend of the then Archbishop of Westminster, Cardinal Basil Hume, from whom he inherited the role of President of the Council of European Bishops’ Conferences, Martini often visited him in London. It was during these visits that he gave his most controversial statements to the press. On 26 April 1993, The Sunday Times published a large colour photograph of Martini on its front page, with an interview by John Cornwell titled: “The next Pope?”
Contemplating the situation within the Catholic Church, Martini had said: “This is 1993, but some Catholics are still mentally in 1963, some in 1940 and some even in the last century. It’s inevitable that there will be a clash of mentalities.” They cannot all be in the right, Martini had gone on to say. Some are closer to the Gospel that others and this is precisely the danger.
In his interview with The Sunday Times the cardinal discussed the problem of birth control. He stated that contraception is something special which involves particular aspects of moral teaching. Northern and Latin countries differ in their attitudes towards moral questions. Italy, he said, believes we should set ourselves high ideals in order to achieve something. Other countries believe that ideal really has to be reached and they worry if the fail.
The Archbishop of Milan added that although he did not know how the contraception situation would unfold, he believed that the teaching of the Catholic Church had not been communicated well. The contraception problem was relatively new, he said, and really became possible over the past forty years or so, thanks to modern methods. The late cardinal stated that the Church thought very slowly and expressed his belief that a way would be found for things to be presented in a more clear way so that the issue would be better understood and adapted to reality in a more efficient manner. He admitted there was a divide but trusted it would be overcome.
On 4 January 1994, about a month after this interview was given, Martini returned to the issue of contraception in another interview with two journalists from French newspaper Le Monde. During it, he stated that the public could not see in what way contraception and its use in the prevention of AIDS could be considered an attack on human dignity.
During the 1993 interview with The Sunday Times, the Archbishop of Milan had expressed his openness to the idea of a revision of the law prescribing priestly celibacy. He went on to tell Le Monde that the crisis in vocations threatened the transmission of the evangelical message. To questions on whether the discipline of the Latin Church, which limits the priestly ministry to celibate men only, was likely to change and whether there was any light at the end of the tunnel for married men, the cardinal said he believed an answer to this could be found.
Not only did Martini’s ideas remain unchanged, but on 11 April 2005, the cardinal stressed these again during one of the cardinals’ pre-conclave meetings. He asked for more collegiality and consultation between the Pope and bishops on family and sexuality related matters, in order to find a new language with which to communicate with today’s mankind.
But Martini’s proposals were never brought to the attention of the electors.