Having learnt “with sadness” the news about Cardinal Martini’s death, which came “which he lived with a tranquil soul and with confident abandonment to the will of the Lord,” the Pope expressed his “profound share in [the] sorrow” for the death of “this dear brother who served the Gospel and the Church so generously.” Benedict XVI will talk about the cardinal’s death at the earliest opportunity, probably at the Angelus on Sunday.
The Pope kept track of the late cardinal’s deteriorating health condition right from the beginning and was constantly updated on Martini’s long suffering.
“We last met ten days ago. The deep emotion and interest triggered by the cardinal’s death stretch beyond the Catholic community and this is a sign that his mission of evangelisation was successful,” the Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi explained to Vatican Insider just a few hours after the death of his fellow Jesuit brother Carlo Maria Martini.
The cardinal’s corpse will be exhibited to the public from 12:00 onwards on Saturday in Milan Cathedral (the Duomo), until the funeral which will take place at 16:00.
“Now that we are really thinking of ways to announce the Gospel in today’s society, ahead of the Bishops’ Synod in October, Martini’s example is especially valuable - Fr. Lombardi went on to say-.His example contributes hugely to the essential themes of the new evangelisation. The cardinal was able to communicate not just with faithful but also with people who were far from the faith, bringing the message of the Gospel to everyone. The reflections he was able to develop appear extremely relevant to me. And the vast interest shown in the light of his death shows that his ministry stretched across many social and cultural strata.”
The cardinal’s embrace with Benedict XVI during the World Meeting of Families sealed his pastoral path. “The meeting in Milan two months ago was a highly significant moment and demonstrated continuity in the pastoral service of the archdiocese. Martini knew he had reached the end of the line and meeting the Pope, for him, was the greatest gift and gesture of recognition for the work he had done over the years in the Diocese of Milan,” Fr. Lombardi said.
The death of Carlo Maria Martini, the conciliar bishop par excellence, coincides with the beginning of the celebrations for the 50th anniversary of the Second Vatican Council.
“He celebrated his last mass yesterday morning,” said Fr. Cesare Bosatra, Superior of the Aloisianum College in the northern Italian city of Gallarate, where the late cardinal had been residing over the past years.
“Martini had been sedated since yesterday and died peacefully in his sleep today, at 15:45.”
Meanwhile, on Twitter, the #martini hashtag made it among the top ten most talked about topics. But a part from the countless messages of condolence (he remained a great man up until the end, an example of reflection and of dialogue with both believers and non believers) posted, there were also a great deal of comments about the news that the cardinal had rejected futile medical care as was confirmed by his neurologist Gianni Pezzoli.
The cardinal had refused to have a nasogastric tube inserted into him to feed him. He had not been able to swallow for fifteen days and was only being kept alive through parenteral hydration.
The neurologist’s announcement of this to the press seems like a last minute message in a country (Italy) where the most controversial part of the end-of-life law is precisely the obligation to feed a patient, as it is considered a crucial part of therapy.
The cardinal had already made his position on the matter clear back in 2007, in an article titled: “Welby and death and me”, written just a few weeks after the death of Piergiorgio Welby, a terminally ill Italian suffering from muscular dystrophy, who asked for his treatment to be suspended. He had reiterated his position in his last book entitled "Credere e conoscere" (“Believing and knowing”), published by Einaudi last March.
In the book, he appeals to reason, even on the subject of euthanasia: “The new technologies which make increasingly efficient operations on the human body possible, require a dose of wisdom, to prevent prolonging treatments when they no longer benefit the patient.”