Before his death, last year, the Archbishop of Milan, Carlo Maria Martini, another prominent Jesuit, left a shockingly frank interview as a kind of spiritual testament, which was published in Corriere della Sera. In it, he said, among other things:
The Church is tired in Europe and America. Our culture has gotten old: our churches are large but our religious homes are empty, the bureaucratic apparatus of the Church grows while our rites and our vestments are pompous… The scandals of pedophilia should push us toward the road to conversion…. We need to ask ourselves whether people are still listening to the Church on these issues of sexuality?Given Bergoglio’s age and doctrinal orthodoxy, his choice suggests that the Church does want to move—but not much, or too fast.
I think about divorced couples who have remarried, with expanded families.… Let’s say a woman is left by her husband with three children. Her second marriage works. If this family is discriminated against not only she but also her children will end up outside the Church… and the Church will lose the future generation…. The Church has remained two hundred years behind: Why doesn’t it move? Are we afraid?
Photograph: L'Osservatore Romano/Getty.
