No one can grow if he does not accept his smallness.
Living together is an art. It’s a patient art, it’s a beautiful art, it’s fascinating.
We don’t have to expect everything from those who govern us; that would be juvenile.
Indifference is dangerous, whether innocent or not.
If I’m not mistaken, Sigmund Freud said that in every idealisation there’s an aggression. Depicting the Pope as a sort of Superman, a star, is offensive to me. The pope is a man who laughs, cries, sleeps calmly and has friends like everyone else. A normal person.
Just as we need the courage to be happy, we also need the courage to live simply.
We are far from the so called ‘end of history,’ since the conditions for a sustainable and peaceful development have not yet been adequately articulated and realized.
Certainly, possessions, money, and power can give a momentary thrill, the illusion of being happy, but they end up possessing us and making us always want to have more, never satisfied. ‘Put on Christ’ in your life, place your trust in him, and you will never be disappointed!
None of us can think we are exempt from concerns for the poor and for social justice.
People in every nation enhance the social dimension of their lives by acting as committed and responsible citizens.
Because if we destroy Creation, Creation will destroy us! Never forget this!
One of the more serious temptations which stifles boldness and zeal is a defeatism, which turns us into querulous and disillusioned pessimists, sourpusses.
Mary is more important than the apostles.
As your captain, I’m going to push you to not fall back on defense, but to play offense, and to play our match – the Gospel, together.
I cannot live without people. I need to live my life with others.
Abortion is without a doubt one of the greatest moral evils within modernity. As the “Advocate of Christian Memory,” a pope must take up the mantle of defending the culture of life – a defense the Early Church held against the pagans of Rome.
I recognize that globalization has helped many people rise out of poverty, but it has also damned many others to starve to death. It is true that global wealth is growing in absolute terms, but inequalities have also grown and new poverty arisen.
This concern for the poor is in the Gospel, it is within the tradition of the Church, it is not an invention of communism and it must not be turned into an ideology, as has sometimes happened before in the course of history.
The scourge of drug trafficking, that favors violence and sows the seeds of suffering and death, requires of society as a whole an act of courage.
And now I would like to give the blessing, but first – first I ask a favor of you: before the Bishop blesses his people, I ask you to pray to the Lord that he will bless me: the prayer of the people asking the blessing for their Bishop.