Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini, who appears in this extraordinary and never-before-seen video made a month before his death by two priest friends, Fr. Giovanni Barbareschi and Fr. Giuseppe Grampa, who went to visit him last 24 July, strikes us one last time.
With his dwindling voice and a rare intensity, he treats us to some of his memories from the Second Vatican Council (“We were enthusiastic, we looked to the future, we spoke with the world”) and his last explanations on the “word of God”.
This word, he says, “takes the word of man and invests it with power.”
Italian daily newspaper La Stampa was able to publish an extract of the last video interview with the late cardinal Martini, courtesy of the Parish of St. John Lateran in Milan (Piazza Bernini, Città Studi district).
An impressive and moving video, particularly because of the spiritual force of a man who whilst recalling “the diocese he carried in his heart,” bestowed a blessing on Milan, the city who loved him so much, a love that was reciprocated right to the end.
The full video will mark the opening of a series of meetings that are due to run until next spring in the parish of St. John Lateran in celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Second Vatican Council.
“Cattedra del Concilio” (series of meetings on the Council), a name Cardinal Martini was very fond of, perhaps because as Fr. Giuseppe Grampa (director of “Il Segno”, the monthly magazine of the Diocese of Milan and parish priest of St. John Lateran) said, “it reminded him of an important initiative of his: the “meeting place of non believers.
In the Aula Magna of the State University the cardinal, for a number of years, gave voice to female and male thinkers who asked themselves serious questions relating to faith. There is a believer and a non believer in all of us, the cardinal used to say. The two argue, compare and take the measure of each other, even using words of faith.”
This Council meeting will also be open to everyone.
The first gathering will take place tomorrow at 21:00 with Saverio Xeres, Professor of Church History at the Theological Faculty in Milan.
The meetings, which will take place on a monthly basis, will be attended by figures such as Enzo Bianchi, Prior of the monastic community of Bose, Giuseppe Laras, Chief Rabbi of Milan, Andrea Grillo, Professor of Liturgy in Padua (Italy), Pastor Paolo Ricca, theologian at the Waldesian Faculty of Theology in Rome and the Jesuit Fr. Silvano Fausti.
The Cardinal of Milan, Angelo Scola will also be taking part.