11 quotes found
"Pain undoubtedly frightens everyone. But when it is enlightened by faith it becomes a way to cut back selfishness, banalities and frivolities. What’s more, we Christians live pain in communion with the Crucified Jesus: clinging to Him, we fill our pain with love and transform it into a force that challenges and overcomes the selfishness that is still present in the world."
"There is a need for something else that only the priest, as a man of God, can give. Ultimately, it is God that man lacks."
"The priest lives in constant spiritual tension, but the scenario in which he lives is anything but exhilarating. If he is unable to defend himself, he stumbles in the mud."
"There is no cause-and-effect relationship between celibacy and paedophilia. Paedophilia is a perversion, a disease, a fragility that is also found in married people."
"There is a crisis of vocations, but first there is a crisis of life. Today, people no longer have children."
"Holy priests move history and set it on the right path."
"Those who love the truth understand the truth better, understand it sooner, understand it more."
"True theologians are saints: a recent and admirable example is Saint Thérèse of Lisieux, who reached a point of synthesis of all revealed truth and was proclaimed Doctor of the Church."
"The gift of counsel prevents a perpetually adolescent life: it is a gift that makes us adults."
"(About In vitro fertilisation) Let us look at how it is written, how the architecture of life is conceived. Looking at birth, at the conception of human life, we see that the human cell is composed of 23 chromosomes, which come from the father's genetic heritage, and 23 chromosomes, which come from the mother's genetic heritage, forming the human cell, which has 46 chromosomes. And all this composition takes place in the act of love that unites the father and mother, the future father and the future mother. This is written in the book of life; this is certainly the architecture of life, as conceived by the one who gave life. And even if someone wanted to say that there is no one who gave life, they must nevertheless admit that this is the architecture. So, faced with this reality, I ask myself: do we want to disrupt this plan? Do we want to disrupt this architecture? Does man have the right to disrupt this architecture? Is it possible that he can shatter this architecture to make life a laboratory product? Such a leap jeopardises the whole meaning of conception and, consequently – because an initial error has subsequent repercussions – the whole meaning of the human journey through life. We say: be careful! A mistake made at the beginning will ultimately have tragic consequences. I would add that today many people, even non-believers, are rediscovering ecology. That is excellent. What is ecology? It is the recognition that in nature – we say in creation – there are laws. And if man violates these laws, there is a repercussion, almost a rebellion of nature, because it has laws within itself. So are there no laws, no clear signs at the most important moment of human life, which is the conception of human life? And will breaking those laws, violating those laws, not have dramatic repercussions on the very life of the unborn child?"
"(About the opening of the holy door) This is a great opportunity that God is offering us: let us all welcome it. A few days ago, I was in Loreto with Don Oreste Benzi and three elderly priests who were celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of their ministry. One of them said: 'The year 2000 is coming: what do you want to change? Don q:it:Oreste Benzi looked at us and replied: “There are five of us: if we five change, a lot will change”. So, we must take these words as an example: each of us can do something, each of us can give a little light, because each of us is an open window through which God's light can pass."