Cardinal continued to preach reforming ideas to the end

Carlo Martini, who was buried yesterday, was for progressives in the Church a symbol of the fading dream of open reform, writes Tom Heneghan

CARLO Maria Martini, an Italian cardinal buried in Milan yesterday, represented for many Roman Catholics a vision of a Church that might have been and a papacy that never was.

Many considered him a “pope in waiting”. For progressives in the Church, Cardinal Martini was the wise and understanding pastor who symbolised the fading dream of reviving the open reformist spirit of 1962-1965 Second Vatican Council.