Cardinal Martini: "I am losing my voice, but I am not afraid of silence"

"I find myself in a situation which is not yet a total loss of my voice. Thanks to the help of therapists, and with the assistance of technological means, I can still communicate, though only with great effort. I cannot, therefore, describe what I am living through very well, whether it is a closing off of verbal communication or the effort to continue speaking, despite everything". In this way, Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini responded in Corriere della Sera to a reader's questions about the Parkinson's disease which is slowly making him lose his voice.

"I am not afraid of silence," Cardinal Martini says. And he continues: "I am going forward, asking myself what the Lord is trying to say to me by means of this increasing difficulty, which on the one hand I am fighting against, but on the other hand I am accepting".

"I call upon the patronal intercession of Pope Wojtyla, since his most human act was to pound his fist on the table on the day when it had become obvious that he would no longer be able to communicate with people with his voice. He knows how painful it is not to be able to express verbally what one has in their heart. I am, therefore, still on this journey and, like on every journey, I am seeing and experiencing new things. I feel that this involves a condition which opens (me) up to mysterious horizons, without necessarily needing to conflict with other horizons."