Sandro Magister goes after Cardinal Martino

In effect, the premise of the “Corriere” is correct: Martino is a genuine loose cannon in the curia. On repeated occasions, his statements to the press have created serious difficulties for the Vatican authorities.

On the eve of the war in Iraq, for example, his pacifist and anti-American quips were so frequent and so unbalanced that he forced the secretariat of state – even though it was against the war – to impose silence upon him: a silence he observed for a few months.

But as soon as he began speaking again, in December of 2003, he wreaked havoc once more. He was to present to the international press the pope’s message for the World Day of Peace. And instead, the following day the media spoke of something completely different: the accusation Martino had made on the occasion against the United States, charging it with having treated the imprisoned Saddam Hussein “like a cow.”

More recently, Martino won over the newspaper headlines with two other explosive statements.