RECENTLY, your correspondent had occasion to ask a Rome based Jesuit priest what he made of the insistent, international media speculation that Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini of Milan, also a Jesuit, is "the man most likely to be the next Pope".
My interlocutor could offer plenty of reasons for such speculation. But before detailing them, he recalled a celebrated remark attributed to Cardinal Martini himself in response to the same question: "Adolescent fantasies".
The international media have probably got it wrong. Cardinal Martini will probably never be Pope. His age, his order and his nationality may all tell against him - he is now 68 years old, "he would be the first Jesuit Pope and he would become a Pope at a time when many in the church feel the moment may be right for a Pope from outside Europe.
"Next Pope" or not, Cardinal Martini has already earned an important place in church history, particularly in the history of the Italian church.
When he took up his appointment as Archbishop of Milan in December 1979, his first act as the new pastor of Italy's business capital was to invite young people for weekly meetings of prayer and silence. He is a believer who firmly advocates the need for meditation, prayer and silence in the face of an ever noisier, more discordant modern world.
He is also, of course, a formidable intellectual with more than 50 publications to his name, as well as being an authoritative biblical scholar, an impressive linguist and an excellent pastor in Milan. More importantly, he is by far the most authoritative moral figure in today's Italian church, someone whose carefully articulated social conscience tends to go against the tide of a modern Italy whose public life is wracked with corruption and dishonesty.
At a time of cynical disbelief in Italy, Cardinal Martini has worked a small miracle. Without fuss or clamour, he gets himself listened to.
His best seller status with his many publications and his regular media exposure testify to his stature in his own land.
His membership of the Jesuits, his spirituality, his intellectual powers, his sympathy for Marxism and, more recently, his willingness to enter regular public dialogue with a non believer such as the novelist Umberto Eco could lead one to mistake his attentive, caring attitude for liberalism.
There is a belief, especially in the international media, that, as Pope, Cardinal Martini would reverse the Catholic Church's ban on contraception, would welcome women to the priest hood, would drop the priestly vow of celibacy etc, etc.
He has regularly been seen as the "opposite" of Pope John Paul II, someone who would guide the church in a radically different direction. Yet, in all the many interviews, addresses, homilies and sermons he has given over the years, there has never been anything to seriously confirm the image of the radical or revolutionary.
Take an interview in this week's Rome daily, La Repubblica, in which he was asked about the ordination of women:
"The Pope insisted in Mulieris Dignitatem ("On the Dignity of Women", Apostolic Letter of 1988) on the need to give women a full role in the church. One could always open up possibilities of service for women without touching the priesthood which is governed by a tradition that touches on Christian doctrine," he said.
In that same interview, he was asked why divorcees should be denied Communion: "The Gospel teaches us to live out meaningful human relationships".
One has to respect the Christian ideals of fidelity and perseverance. You cannot put fidelity and infidelity on the same level. One can understand a breakdown, but you cannot consider as equal he/she who has resisted [temptation] and he/she who has not."
Furthermore, when asked in the same interview to identify the greatest challenges facing the contemporary church, he answered: "Indifference, lack of solidarity and the abandonment of the poor of the world."
Pope John Paul II himself could not, nor indeed would not, have answered any differently. The above are hardly the utterdances of a revolutionary on the eve of completely changing the church's direction, teaching and customs.
If Cardinal Martini has gained a reputation as a liberal, it may owe more to the form than to the content of his message, as well as to his immense communication skills.
One senior Curia figure commented, this week: "Cardinal Martini is a man of dialogue, someone who has maintained contact with people on the margins of society and outside the church. He appears to be listening to you. In this he differs from the Pope who often appears not to listen . .. It is a question of mentality, of horizons, of wavelength, if you like".
Cardinal Martini's excellent international reputation, both inside and outside the church, has been well earned. As President of the Episcopal Conferences of Europe from 1987 to 1993, he did much to improve relations between the Catholic and the Orthodox churches and between the Vatican and Jews.
His strong links with senior Catholic Church figures around the world are interpreted by the media as another reason why he could win a papal election. For him, however, those links are real and not based on "political" opportunism.
When Cardinal Joseph Bernardin of Chicago was accused of child molestation three years ago (a charge subsequently dismissed), he received a call from Cardinal Martini to tell him that he had a couple of days free the following week and that he would be out to "be with you".
In Italy, Cardinal Martini has often found himself challenging the accepted wisdom. The point is well borne out by the "legendary" story concerning a senior monsignor in his service in Milan. The elderly cleric had evidently been accustomed to a different type of cardinal before Martini for, when asked about the "new man", he replied:
"This cardinal has the bad habit of praying".