“Our culture has become old, our churches and our religious houses are big and empty; the bureaucratic apparatus of the church grows, our rites and our dress are pompous. Do these things express what we are today? . . . the church must recognize its errors and follow a radical path of change, beginning with the pope and the bishops. The pedophilia scandals compel us to take up a path of conversion.”

— Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini, from his final interview Aug. 8, 2012