BENEDICT XVI: NEWS, PAPAL TEXTS, PHOTOS AND COMMENTARY

From left, Cardinal Martini visits B16 in May 2005; on his 80th birthday in Jerusalem (Feb 2007); next 2 photos taken 2009-2010 after he retired to a Jesuit home in Gallarate, near Milan; last 3 photos taken 2011-2012.

'Dialog with the heart defies time:
My three happy years as a columnist with Corriere'
by Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini
Translated from

June 24, 2012

The time has come when age and illness are giving me a clear signal that it is the time to retire from the greater part of earthly concerns in order to prepare for the imminent coming of the Kingdom.

I assure my prayers for all those whose questions have remained unanswered in this column that I have held for three years in Corriere. Dialog with the heart defies time.

I wish to start the last page of this column to thank all those who have written me in these years. I have received thousands of letters of affection, of gratitude, of encouragement, and of criticism.

I ask forgiveness from those whom I was not able to answer and from those who, though receiving an acknowledgment of their questions, have considered the answer barely exhaustive or not at all.

I thank the editor of Corriere who has allowed me this time of dialog despite the fact that my voice has weakened, and I thank all his co-workers.

Thanks from the heart also to my successors on the Chair of St, Ambrose for the patience that they have shown during these monthly interventions.

Now the time has come to retire. May Jesus respond to the most profound questions in the heart of everyone.

He proceeds to answer the letter he has chosen:

The greatest sorrow
is to lose a young child

Dear Cardinal Martini, On Monday, April 2, I lost my 10-year-old son. I humbly ask you for a word of comfort and the way to follows so that somehow I can bo back to living. How, Eminence, can I believe in Jesus? I beg you, Eminence, help me, you who are a special man. - Francesco Rizzo

Dear Francesco, there are really no words of comfort before a sorrow that is so great, perhaps the greatest sorrow for a human being. Nor can I show you the right ways exactly. I can tell you that I pray for you in order that Jesus himself, Son of God, may show you the way. It certainly will not come right away, because such great sorrows take away our strength, our sight and our hearing, and even harm our fundamental strength to have the courage to face any event.

I have not been able to get the last part of the column, but a writer who reported on Cardinal Martini's farewell to his Corriere readers, writes this about it:

The emeritus Archbishop of Milan also answers a reader who asks him what is happening in the Church. Citing the Gospel of Matthew, the Cardinal assures the reader - and the Pope - that "the gates of Hell shall not prevail".

It is the second time in a few weeks that Cardinal Martini, often portrayed as an antagonist of Benedict XVI, has given his explicit and affectionate support for the Pontiff. [The first was after their brief meeting at the Archbishop's Palace in Milan when the Pope was there for the VII World Meeting of Families. Before that, they met in the Vatican on April 4, 2011, at the time the Pope was deciding on who would be the next Archbishop of Milan..]

Cardinal Martini has been suffering from Parkinson's disease since 2002 - he announced he had the first signs of the disease shortly before retiring at age 75 as Archbishop of Milan. It has now advanced to the point where he has difficulty moving and talking. In 2008, he wrote an essay saying he felt that death was imminent, but apparently, the Lord did not think so. In 2010, he wrote a beautiful essay on how he has been coping with his ailment, and revealed how, spiritually, he relies on the well-known Exercises of St. Ignatius Loyola, but that he discovered it was the music of Mozart that helps him best not just to counteract depression with joy, but also to accompany the necessary exercises to keep him physically moving. I will translate it when I can... I think it might have been a small shock to Benedict XVI earlier this month to observe the difference that a year could make (since their April 2011 meeting), and I am sure he has Cardinal Martini in his prayers every day. Let us pray for him, too.