SURPRISE

Cardinal: Catholics ‘200 Years Behind’

In interview published after his death.

Are these his Last Rites? Eighty-five-year-old Italian Cardinal Carlo Martini died on Friday but has slammed the Catholic Church for being “200 years behind” the times in an interview he asked to be published after his death. Corriere della Sera, an Italian newspaper, published the last interview with the archbishop of Milan, which urged the church to change their “tired” ways, which are “200 years behind.” He gave the interview as he knew he was dying, and was unafraid to criticize the church, in living and in death. “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,” he said. In 2008, Cardinal Martini had come out in support of condoms as a “lesser evil” and had disagreed with prohibitions on birth control.