A cardinal once mentioned as a possible successor to Pope John Paul II is reviving calls for a broad council to help the pope govern the church and is suggesting top bishops might also take part in a conclave to elect a new pontiff.
Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini, the retired archbishop of Milan and a Jesuit known for his frankness, made the comments in an interview with the right-wing daily Il Tempo published Wednesday.
Martini noted that since the Second Vatican Council — the 1962-65 meeting that modernized the Roman Catholic Church — there have been proposals to create a "permanent governing council" to help run the church along with the pope.
While periodic synods, or gatherings of bishops, have been convened, they have not become the permanent council that Vatican II envisaged, he said.
"So there's still work to be done," he said.
He stressed that he wasn't calling for a "Vatican III," since that would imply putting up for discussion all the issues confronting the church. But he said convening an assembly that represents the universal church to discuss issues could be "a useful experience to undo the disciplinary and doctrinal knots that periodically reopen like hot issues in the path of the church."
Martini also suggested that the presidents of bishops' conferences could also take part in a conclave to elect a new pope. Currently, only cardinals under age 80 elect the pope — a group that numbers around 130 men.
"It could be reasonable to better represent the episcopal conferences with the presence in a conclave of the presidents of the conferences," Martini was quoted as saying.
Martini, 77, endorsed the 80-year age limit for conclave members, noting that there are ways for older prelates to make their opinions known beyond a ballot.
Martini's veiled calls for change in the Church had endeared him to the minority of liberals among fellow cardinals, and he was widely seen as having the qualities to be a pope.
But in 2002, he acknowledged he had health problems and retired, moving to Jerusalem to dedicate himself to prayer.