Word: vaticaners
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...Pope has confirmed the Vatican's strictly traditional party line on questions of doctrine and moral theology. But his more progressive counterpart, the former Archbishop, has hardly disappeared. Officially, having stepped down from his Milan post in 2003 after reaching the prescribed retirement age of 75, Martini should be enjoying a quiet, scholarly retirement with his biblical studies in Jerusalem. Still, most Church insiders say the Jesuit Cardinal, who turned 80 on Saturday, remains the single most influential Catholic leader challenging Rome's rigid-as-ever stances on moral issues...
...condoms for AIDS victims and so-called "right-to-die" cases. His long cover-story interview last April with the Italian magazine L'Espresso set off an internal Church debate about whether a married AIDS patient's use of a condom is the "lesser of two evils," and a Vatican document on the issue may come out later this year...
...Ruini, head of Italy's bishop conference, for their repeatedly strong condemnations of an Italian government proposal to legalize civil unions for homosexuals and heterosexuals who don't want to marry. Though no supporter of gay marriage, Martini nevertheless decided it was time to register his opposition to the Vatican's hammering away on family-related issues. "The family is the cell of society, and is therefore very important," he said. "Certainly the family should be defended and promoted. But the promoting, I think, is more important than defending." He went on to warn against the "confrontation among the various...
...Martini and Ratzinger were already acclaimed Catholic scholars when Pope John Paul II promoted them to two of the top spots in the Church hierarchy: Martini to Milan in 1979 as Archbishop of Europe's largest diocese, and Ratzinger to Rome in 1981 as head of the Vatican's doctrinal office. Over the years, the two soft-spoken Cardinals became seen as intellectual and institutional titans, practically alter egos, and the undeclared leaders of opposing theological camps battling for the soul of the Church. Like Ratzinger's backers, Martini fans once hoped their man might succeed John Paul. Still today...
...Church traditionalists, Martini remains a bete noire of liberal leadership. One conservative website described his recent remarks about an Italian euthanasia case as "another subversive blow." L'Espresso's veteran Vatican correspondent Sandro Magister, a supporter of the Pope's clear doctrinal lines, acknowledged Martini's continued weight. His dissent on moral issues, Magister wrote, "pits the highest leaders of the worldwide Church against each other with conflicting positions...