Italian Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini has described the Roman Catholic Church as being “200 years behind” the times. The cardinal died on Friday, aged 85. Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera has published his last interview, recorded in August, in which he said: “The Church is tired… our prayer rooms are empty”. Martini, once tipped as a future pope, urged the Church to recognise its errors and to embark on a radical path of change, beginning with the Pope.
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.
Well, the cardinal had got things wrong in many aspects…
The goal of church is NOT to gain more power or more followers.
The goal of the Church is to provide good advice for life to people and helping them.
And if this advise seems old fashioned, well this is because IT IS old fashioned!
AND THAT IS A GOOD THING!
If people want the approval of the church for bad things they do, well they will not have it. They can still go on with their lives and move on, but without that approval, which in any case would be void of meaning.
Yes, people will continue getting divorces and the church will continue holding marriage as one of the greatest holy mysteries to which humans become part of.
Good advice, like “love each other”, are good advice no matter how many years pass! Moral advice is not a matter of… fashion!
Would someone really ask from the church to say “yes, do whatever you want, fuck everyone you want like you do now, cheat on each other” to… be more “modern” and “gain more followers” ?!?
Related article: Religion as a Guide
