Tributes on the Passing of Cardinal Renato Martino

By Austin Ruse

Pope John Paul II & Cardinal Renato Martino listen to the United Nations International School Choir, 1995.

WASHINGTON D.C., November 21 (C-Fam) The longtime Papal Nuncio to the United Nations, Cardinal Renato Martino passed away a month ago. We reported on his passing last week. UN pro-life advocates from the early days of our fight have submitted tributes to Cardinal Martino.

Leonardo and Martha Casco of Honduras told the Friday Fax:

Cardinal Martino was an extraordinary person with a very clear vision of what the United Nations was creating hidden from humanity and the majority of the world’s governments.

Thanks to the Cardinal, all that perversity that has unfortunately been penetrating most nations was unmasked. He was an enlightened teacher who taught us to fight with insight and tenacity for the rights and principles that sustain our Christian civilization. An exquisite example of diplomacy and firmness. The truth for him was non-negotiable. A group of authentic leaders and fighters in the defense of life and family formed around him.

Dan Zeidler was involved in the UN pro-life movement from the very beginning, a key person in the early efforts to block a global right to abortion. He told the Friday Fax:

“I recall Christine Vollmer of Venezuela, at the time a delegate of the Holy See, calling me from Rio de Janeiro where the UN World Conference on the Environment was being held in 1992. Archbishop Renato Martino, head of the Holy See’s delegation, was lamenting that the pro-abortion NGOs were so many and so active, but the pro-life, Catholic NGO presence was very weak. He asked if Christine could help by involving more pro-life and faith-based groups to present a pro-life/pro-family message at future UN conferences.

The word went out and lots of pro-life/pro-family groups responded to Archbishop Martino and started to lobby the following year at the UN in New York at the preparatory meetings for the Conference on Population and Development to be held in Cairo in 1994.

By the time the Population Conference began, hundreds of knowledgeable, dedicated activists showed up in Cairo as a loose coalition to lobby country delegations to reject making abortion an international human right. These individuals were encouraged by the archbishop and worked closely with the members of the Holy See delegation at Cairo, as well as with friendly delegations of other countries.

Archbishop Martino’s vision was crucial in all of this.”

John Klink was for many years Cardinal Martino’s lead negotiator. I watched John through the years, roam through the conference rooms and in the UN hallways, quietly negotiating with dozens of UN delegations. That there is no global right to abortion is owed a great deal to Cardinal Martino and John Klink who reflected on the life, the work, and the final journey of Cardinal Martino:

“Cardinal Martino never ceased to care for the underdog and was a great advocate for the hundreds of thousands of Khmer refugees on the Thai border.  And during his first visit to the Thai/Cambodian border when we discovered that there were Cambodian seminarians in the refugee camps, he personally followed each of their cases and ensured they were able to finish their studies in third countries, and throughout the coming years he assisted at each of their ordinations wherever they might be.

Similarly, on his trips to Laos where he was also the Vatican diplomatic representative, still under communist rule at the time, he would gather as many supplies as he was able to personally carry/ship to displaced persons.

Recognizing his unique talents, Pope St. John Paul II called him to Rome and named him President of both the Pontifical Council of Justice and Peace, and the Pontifical Council for Migrants and Itinerant Persons.  During his therefore doubly busy times he managed to publish the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church and personally visited approximately 185 of the 195 countries of the world.

In further recognition of his contributions, he was created Cardinal in 2003 at the same consistory at which Cardinal Pell was also created Cardinal.

Before sealing His Eminence’s casket, the Archbishop in Charge of Vatican ceremonies and his assistant read a beautiful Papal obituary written on parchment and officially stamped.   After being signed by all family members and friends in attendance it was then placed in a sealed canister inside the casket. The casket was then sealed in lead and a bronze cross and the cardinal’s name, crest and dates of birth and death affixed to the steel top.

We then proceeded on foot from the Cardinal’s apartment next to Via della Conciliazione to St. Peter’s where initial prayers were said, followed by a solemn high Pontifical Latin Mass with Cardinal Re, the dean of the College of Cardinals, who gave his homily/eulogy.  At the end, Pope Francis came for the blessing and commendation of the body.

It was a beautiful ceremony with a magnificent choir singing primarily Latin chants.

His Eminence was then taken to his native Cathedral in Salerno where he was buried in the Cathedral crypt per his expressed desire.

Cardinal Martino was a great man and a great personal friend who inspired many in a multitude of countries throughout the world and he will be greatly missed.  I would recommend not only praying for him, but to him as I believe that he will continue to be as active in his advocacy for those seeking his help in his eternal life as he was in this temporal one.”

 

Rest in peace, Renato Raffaele Martino (23 November 1932 – 28 October 2024).

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