Clergy from France

"Officium officialium, quorum te numero aggregasti, hodie est, jura confundere, suscitare lites, transactiones rescindere, innectere dilationes, suprimere veritatem, fovere mendacium, quaestum sequi, aeqitatem vendere, inhiare exactionibus, versutias concinnare."

"Aqua turbida piscosior est."

"Male ulciscitur dedecus sibi illatum, qui amputat nasum suum."

"If pastors and theologians are asked to reflect and follow the direction indicated by the Holy Father, they are certainly not obliged to think that the proposed approach, with the preambles supporting it, are exempt from danger, nor that the advice given is appropriate. They are even fully justified in drawing the attention of the Holy See of the bishops to the serious ambiguities of the underlying doctrine and on the dangers of the proposed pastoral care."

"The grace of God can do all things, but in face of so many moral miseries... one sees clearly that human means are powerless, and that God alone can effect so great a transformation. Prayer and penance I The farther I go, the more I see that these are the principal means of acting upon these poor souls."

"Journalist: According to you, the term "proof" does not apply to God. You prefer the term "sign". Why? God is not an entity of the same order as an atom or a galaxy. The existence of the atom is corroborated by theoretical schemes and experimental evidence. Almost the entire scientific community recognizes its existence. God, at least from my Christian point of view, is not a matter of demonstration. He is a personal God with whom we can establish a relationship. This is an act of faith and freedom. The word "proof" does not apply to the existence of God, because proof is a matter of logical reasoning, not of personal choice. When faced with a mathematical proof, we do not have the freedom to accept or reject the result. Even in physics, where there is no absolute certainty, scientists reach situations of consensus. The theory of general relativity, for example, is accepted by almost all scientists. But this is far from the case with the existence of God! A sign, however, requires interpretation. And interpretation refers to the freedom of the interpreter. If we have a pleasant encounter on the street, we can see it as a sign of God's benevolence or simply as a result of chance. It is a question of freedom of interpretation. No demonstration can conclude that we should have met that person on that day and at that time. The believer can be free to find signs of divine action in the structure of the universe. Isn't it a sign of something that the universe is so coherent? There is room for debate here. But this is not proof."

"The word "proof" is often understood in the strong sense of "rigorous demonstration that leaves no room for interpretation." Admitting the conclusion of a mathematical theorem does not commit freedom. It can be used in a weaker sense, but I prefer to speak of "signs", as in the Gospel according to John. They are, if you like, "clues". That an unexpected event spurs me to give thanks to God poses no difficulty to me, even if other people can see the result of chance in it. The sign presupposes the commitment of a freedom."

"From a Christian perspective, God is not a "thing", an object that exists like the desk I am sitting at exists, but a person with whom I am in a vital relationship. "Knowing" is not of the same order as knowing an electron, a chromosome or a galaxy: this presupposes a theoretical model and objective experimental verification. Proving the existence of the atom is one thing, but the same procedure cannot be used for the God who revealed himself in Jesus Christ. The relationship I form with him is about freedom."

"Journalist: What is the difference between a "great watchmaker" god and the God of Jesus Christ? The "great watchmaker" refers to the poetry of Voltaire: it is based on the idea that the world is a clock, that is, a mechanical construction. The model is the vision of Newton and the founders of modern science, such as Descartes. It is known that Pascal was critical of this God "of philosophers and wise men". The God who reveals himself in Jesus Christ presents another "profile", if we can put it that way. Its power manifests itself in its opposite, as Saint Paul of Tarsus vigorously underlined. This shows us the divine creative action in a very different way than according to the model of the manufacture of a machine."

"We are looking to be more numerous, to gather more faithful for the Eucharist, to manifest more strongly the Catholic presence in our secularized societies. However, we cannot be satisfied by these quantitative perspectives. We are also called upon to a task of internal renewal of our Christian life."

"This Church was born a year after Vatican II which placed the accent on the universality of the People of God. She is inscribed in the Universial Mission of the Church; she is an integral part of the whole which she serves and benefits of its support. To her alone, she is the whole Church and, however, she can only survive through the other members which make fraternal love interdependent. Because of this, she counts especially upon the solidarity of the unique college of all the Bishops."

"His energy, sound judgment, and an eloquence which caused Pope Leo XIII to compare him to Bossuet, as well as his unbounded charity, endeared Archbishop Perché to the people of Louisiana."

"Archbishop Perche was a great scholar, but he lacked administrative ability."

"The lives of the missionaries who are devoting themselves exclusively to the native population are lives of intense isolation, but their personal sufferings and inconveniences count for little when there are souls to be saved."

"During nearly twenty years of devoted work for the church he won the esteem of thousands of its best citizens."

"His administration was marked by piety, zeal, and providential prudence."

"With an eye to the future he endeavored to provide for the growth of his diocese by bringing Catholic immigrants from European countries to the fertile plains of Minnesota. Withal he did not neglect his ministerial and pastoral office."

"His gentleness and self-sacrifice wrought wonders."

"Like his predecessor, he spent the whole of his priestly life in arduous missionary work in southern Texas, often helping to build churches with his own hands. He was consecrated 28 October, 1895, and d. 11 March, 1911, deeply loved and regretted by all classes."

"In carrying my remembrances back to those sad days, of which I am writing, I recognize that I never have thanked God, as I ought to have done, for those particular graces, by which he preserved me in the midst of so great madness and impiety. Those who were at the head of the irreligious frenzy which then devastated our France, presided forward with all the confidence of success. Every device of cruelty and malice was put in operation, to attain the end they had in view: to destroy the Catholic Religion, not only in France, but throughout the world. So far, as I am witness, did their detestable hopes of the complete final triumph over the Christian Faith extend. And yet, at that very moment, how strong and imperishable was its hold upon thousands of hearts; how fervently did every true Christian family pledge its love and life to our blessed Lord."

"His great influence on the entire church, his wonderful success in planning, financing, and carrying out necessary ecclesiastical reforms, and the constructive and executive ability he displayed in his diocese, make him one of the foremost Catholic emigrants to the United States."

"In spite of the avowed infidelity then prevalent in the schools, he remained proof against sophistry and ridicule."

"Some historians have pretended that pagan philosophy entirely dominated Justin's Christianity, or at least weakened it. To appreciate fairly this influence it is necessary to remember that in his "Apology" Justin is seeking above all the points of contact between Hellenism and Christianity."

"Conversions from paganism progress slowly, but continuously. The native Catholics, now numbering rather more than one thousand, are well instructed and faithful to their religious duties."

"(Nam) corporea pulchritudo in pelle solummodo constat. Nam si viderent homines hoc quod subtus pellem est, sicut lynces in Boetia cernere interiora feruntur, mulieres videre nausearent. Iste decor in flegmate, et sanguine, et humore, ac felle, consistit. Si quis enim considerat quae intra nares, et quae intra fauces, et quae intra ventrem lateant, sordes utique reperiet. Et si nec extremis digitis flegma vel stercus tangere patimur, quomodo ipsum stercoris saccum amplecti desideramus?"

"There is a middle position, represented by the judgment of serious, right-minded men, which commends itself to the commonsense public. I need not say that I believe that position to be mine; I may deceive myself. But the folly of some of the theories is as repugnant to me as the foolishness of some of the legends. I think even that if I had to choose I should prefer the legends, for in them at least there is always some poetry and something of the soul of a people."

"The religion of the Malagasies appears to be fundamentally a kind of mixed Monotheism, under the form of a Fetishism which finds expression in numerous superstitious practices of which these people are very tenacious."

"Having been inured for many years to the labors of a missionary life, we feel ready, in spite of our advanced age, to share with you all the hardships' of the ministry. We are ambitious of no distinction. We expect to find in each of you a friend."

"His episcopal career, which promised to be one of great usefulness to the Church, was cut short by his untimely death."

"I have a Vicariate as large as all France, and three churches and two priests."

"It was but natural that in view of the extraordinary discoveries made in recent years in physics, mechanics and chemistry, the minds of men should be fascinated by new and unheard-of physical, mechanical and chemical phenomena, admitting of scientific examination, and holding out such rich and transcendent promises. Now, by imitating and even surpassing the effects of natural agents, pure spiritual substances can thus easily conceal their operation and gain access to man. They can even, on the pretence of furthering scientific progress, induce man to indulge in these unlawful practices, and thus attack him unawares. This is so much easier in an age when the study of the human soul and its faculties, and of the angelic nature and the spiritual world in general, is so greatly and universally neglected."

"Exercise is as essential to the health of the soul as it is to that of the body. A condition of habitual quiescence and stagnation were fatal to the health of both."

"I have trusted very much and been sometimes deceived; but I know that had I trusted less I would have been still oftener deceived."

"He was to me, for more than a quarter of a century, a most affectionate, devoted, and faithful friend, and a wise and able counsellor."

"Catholic scholars justly regard Biblical introduction as a theological science. They are indeed fully aware of the possibility of viewing it in a different light, of identifying it with a literary history of the various books which make up the Bible. They distinctly know that this is actually done by many writers outside of the Church, who are satisfied with applying to the Holy Scriptures the general principles of historical criticism."

"Variations are naturally to be expected in four distinct, and in many ways independent, accounts of Christ's words and deeds, so that their presence, instead of going against, rather makes for the substantial value of the Evangelical narratives."

"We have to give account only to God. The contribution of the Catholic Church in Ghana cannot be reduced in numbers, because we deal with persons, persons with wonderful dignity regardless of their origins, tribes and religion. A human person is the noblest being on earth. We believe that he is coming and going to God, for that reason we want to serve God through him in the best way."

"Hic breve vivitur, hic breve plangitur, hic breve fletur: Non breve vivere, non breve plangere retribuetur."

"Urbs Syon aurea, patria lactea, cive decora Omne cor obruis, omnibus obstruis et cor et ora Nescio, nescio, quae jubilatio, lux tibi quali Quam sociala gaudia, gloria quam specialis."

"It would seem that the victories of the Egyptian monarchs were far from decisive, and that Ethiopia always retained enough liberty to openly aspire to independence."

"Respect for the decisions of the Church, veneration and the most pure singleness of affection are too deeply rooted in your hearts that any foreign or presumptuous sentiment should mar the integrity or tarnish the brilliancy of your allegiance or even suggest any grounds to fear these and the like calamities. You will submit in all cheerfulness and humility to the decisions which have been come to you"

"Gifted with keen foresight, Bishop Guigues formed a diocese with the slender resources at his disposal."

"Well meant though it undoubtedly was, and perhaps necessary under the circumstances, the French leader's intervention in the inter-tribal politics of the natives likewise resulted in their paying more heed to the war songs and the satisfaction of their passions than to the question of their spiritual advancement."

"His life was one alternation of triumphs and defeats. At times he had to prevent the Indians from adoring him as a god; at others they were about to sacrifice him to their deities."

"The cardinal showed heroic courage in tending the plague-stricken. He was also a diligent promoter of the decree passed by the council in favour of the Immaculate Conception of Our Lady."

"His violent action at Basle seems to have resulted from an earnest desire for the reform of the Church, and having made his submission to Nicholas V, he is believed to have done penance for his former disloyal and schismatical conduct. He died shortly after in the odour of sanctity. His private life had always been a penitential one."

"There is not in the history of heroism a figure more forlorn and pathetic than that of the President of the Council of Basel."

"I am a sacrificed man; may the divine will be done."

"Allow Father Leray to go into Vicksburg? Why, I would sooner let in Forrest's Brigade."

"Thérèse of Lisieux was one of the sources of inspiration for the philosopher Henri Bergson during the final stage of his search, in which he found God thanks to the testimony of mystics."

"Christ does not even grant her [to Mary] the satisfactions of motherhood according to the flesh, however legitimate they may be."

"Mary shared the obscure condition of faith that is that of the other redeemed."

"It cannot be said that Mary's Redemption is of a different kind from ours, because it is the same redemption as Christ's, but in its supreme fulfillment and with its own modes of anticipation and perfection."

"If she is our queen, we too will reign with Christ; Mary is not superior to us except in being closer to us."

"Through the apparitions at Lourdes, Our Lady wanted to restore in us a love for the poor and for poverty, a love that is ingenious and liberating."

"Conversion: this is the word that most specifically expresses the meaning of pilgrimage."

"The events at Lourdes present an order, a harmony that becomes increasingly apparent as one delves deeper."

"Mass and the Body of Christ have become the very center of pilgrimage to Lourdes."

"The mid-19th century saw the triumph of the reign of money over the medieval reign of honor and traditions."

"The prayer of Bernadette is contagious."

"The Virgin [Mary] is the one in whom no sin has diminished love."

"Lourdes does not disappoint, even though miracles remain the exception there."

"We sinners oscillate dangerously between harshness and complicity towards others."

"There is no true love for the sinner without hatred for his sin."

"One cannot understand the sinner through sin, because sin is not a positive technique: in its essence it is deprivation, absence, nothingness; it is sin to the exact extent that it decapitates the good of the act performed. It is therefore not a factor of understanding but of obscurity."

"If heaven chooses what does not exist according to the world, it is not for the gratuitous pleasure of mocking the world."

"One is capable of mercy to the extent that one knows one is the object of mercy."

"A contemporary is always at a disadvantage in forming a clear opinion of his age, of those deep causes of which the slow but measured action must inevitably transform society."

"Sire, God protect the crown of the king, for many royal crowns too have been shattered."

"Mary was conceived without sin. Behold! what the Church of Paris glories in professing and maintaining; what her Doctors hold it an honor to teach and defend; what her children are jealous of preserving as one of their dearest possessions after the sacred dogmas of faith; what they do not hesitate to regard as an immediate consequence of their faith, not believing it possible to separate in Mary, the title of Immaculate Virgin from that of Virgin Mother of God, and not considering it possible to refuse the privilege of a Conception without spot, to her who was to receive and who indeed did receive, that of the divine Maternity."

"When a priest can do any good to a soul he must make that his first business."

"Learned, theological, lucid, varied, firm. supernatural, and austere. Mgr. d'Hulst's direction was also sincere. 1 mean he was ever anxious to practise himself what he counselled others to do"

"Gentle as I am now towards every one, it is part of my character never to give way to fear, or to do anything under compulsion."

"Give to the faithful the example of submission and obedience to the Republic. You have long cherished the hope of enjoying the liberty which makes our brethren of the United States so happy; the liberty you shall have."

"Fear is a natural passion, which, like all the others, is in itself neither bad nor good, but bad when it is excessive and disquieting, good when it is subordinate to reason."

"While the religious idea of a crusade inspired the secular policy of Père Joseph, intense sacerdotal and Apostolic zeal characterized him amid all his political preoccupations."

"Bishop Flaget's great experience, absolute self-denial, and holy life gave him great influence in the councils of the Church and at Rome."

"It is not by a succession of periods of progress and decay only That nations manifest their life and individuality. Taking any one of them at any period of its existence, and comparing it with others, peculiarities immediately show themselves which give it a particular physiognomy whereby it may be at once distinguished from any other; so that, in those agglomerations of men which we call nations or races, we see the variety everywhere observable in Nature, the variety by which God manifests the infinite activity of his creative power."

"Father Thébaud was a man full of energy, even in old age, an untiring student, and well-informed scholar. Withal he was a most agreeable companion, witty and full of life, and universally beloved by his friends and his pupils."

"In none of his writings to which I have had access, does there appear a disposition to judge too favourably of Chinese notions, but the reverse."

"There is nothing that can contribute so much to its quietude and stability as the zeal and piety of kings in preserving the discipline of the Church and in defending her liberties."

"In our opinion nothing so clearly proves the assistance of the Holy Spirit and the necessity for a ruling power in the bosom of the Church as this law of harmonious development. It would seem that those who reject the idea of such a power are obliged either to ignore all that is done by that power and to raise up an entirely new Church, or to take the illogical and insincere method of adopting for their own a part only of the Church's institutions and rejecting the rest."

"I think you will hardly take him by surprise. However, you can come with me, and we will search for him. Did I not tell you from the first that you would not find him?"

"Colmar worked like a true apostle."

"As the conversion of these poor folk is not the work of man, but the effect of the mercy of our Divine Master, let us endeavour to obtain it by prayers and holy deeds. A day never passes, without my remembering these unfortunate people before the altar. May it please the Mercy of the Lord to grant the prayers that I offer for their conversion!"

"The nations which have been converted to Christianity are in a way like branches which have been grafted upon Judaism. They were Jews who announced the Gospel to the world, and they were Jews who composed the first Christian community, to which all the other peoples of the world are successively joining themselves. Evidently, therefore, these Jews in becoming Christians did not change their religion, for they only acknowledged the Messias whom they were expecting ; it was the Greeks, the Romans, and the Egyptians, and all the heathen who, in embracing the faith, renounced the worship of idols."

"Character is one of the most estimable gifts of the Creator, with which he has enriched your family. Exercise courage then, and strength of mind, to rise superior to misfortune. Let no economy appear a sacrifice. At this moment we are all poor."

"As a diplomat, Fesch sometimes employed questionable methods. His relationship to the emperor and his cardinalitical dignity often made his position a difficult one; at least he could never be accused of approving the violent measures resorted to by Napoleon. As Archbishop, he was largely instrumental in re-establishing the Brothers of Christian Doctrine and recalling the Jesuits, under the name of Pacanarists. The Archdiocese of Lyons is indebted to him for some eminently useful institutions. It must be admitted, moreover, that in his pastoral capacity Fesch took a genuine interest in the education of priests."

"Do not imagine each moment that all the Chinese are at my heels and think only of destroying me. These are the men whom I love much more than I fear."

"A Christian is a complete being, a being having the knowledge of its strength in the order of nature, and walking under the eye of God to perfection, to supernatural transfiguration, but never to the annihilation of the faculties."

"The Catholic Church has no other weapons but prayer and brotherhood among all peoples. I leave here hundreds of young people who are the future of humanity. I beg them not to give up in the face of violence but to be apostles of the civilization of love."

"Since perhaps there are some, who may think themselves concerned in this History, because they are the Grand-children or Descendants of those who are here mentioned, I desire them to consider, Writing like a faithfull Historian, I am oblig'd sincerely to relate either the good or ill, which they have done. If they find themselves offended, they must take their satisfaction on those who have prescrib'd the Laws of History: let them give an account of their own rules; for Historians are indispensably bound to follow them; and the sum of our reputation consists in a punctual execution of their orders."

"Fluery had the qualities of a great minister. He was the first to foresee that France would not always be at enmity with the Hapsburghs."

"It may be asked what possible object a redactor could have had in combining the narrative of a rebellion against civil authority with another having for its moral to warn against usurpation of the priesthood. The story presents nothing improbable. We need not search deeply into history to find similar examples of parties with different, or even conflicting interests, uniting for a common end."

"To select well among old things is almost equal to inventing new ones."

"In love, if inconstancy gives some pleasure, constancy alone gives happiness."

"Great iniquities still exist in the world. Slavery has been holding her ground for the last eighty years in the United States, and was a stain upon the American Republic long before becoming the instrument of her ruin, or at least of a scandalous dissolution. In Sweden, civil liberty of conscience is still proscribed by laws of another age, and is only bought by exile or loss of property. Perfidy and violence are going hand in hand to destroy the nationality of Poland, and crush in her the last struggles of Catholic faith by the united force of schism and despotism. In fine, there is in the East of Europe an anti-Christian empire crumbling away visibly under the weight of its own corruption; whose protestations do not hinder indignant Europe from requiring an account of the thousands of victims butchered by Moslem fanaticism almost under our eyes, which empire is, nevertheless, protected by the mutual jealousy and distrust of western nations. All these facts are so many outrages upon justice, and so many insolent triumphs of might over right."

"He was untiring in his efforts to conserve the moral life within his diocese, especially among the clergy and the religious orders."

"Though his services were peculiarly valuable n his early fields of labour as he had mastered both the Montagnais and the English languages, yet an able man being needed to organize parish and mission work among the French Canadians at Lowell, Father Garin was ordered thither and in a short time his remarkable good sense, courteous manner, and kindly disposition won for him a wonderful influence over his people."

"I desire, if by any possibility I should become a priest, to be a missionary, and if I am a missionary to be a martyr."

"Persecution is upon us; it will be terrible; we will pass through torrents of blood."

"France must have the blood of the pure to raise her again; which one of us indeed, is worthy to offer his life, and what a joy, should we be chosen."

"There will be sacrifices in thus referring everything to God; there are sacrifices, and there will be always. But what matters it ? This is our life, the end for which we were created, our destination, — to sacrifice everything to God with devotion and courage, and to find everything in God in eternity."

"How is it possible we should taste true joy for one moment, in this life, in which we are beset with miseries, and sin, — are continually in danger of being lost forever, and are exiles from Paradise, our true country?"

"Te de pauperibus natum suscepit alendum Christus, et immeritum sic enutriuit et auxit, Vt collata tibi miretur munera mundus. Nam puero faciles prouidit adesse magistros, Et iuuenem perduxit ad hoc ut episcopus esses. Reges, pontifices, populi te magnificabant, Seruum prudentem censentes atque fidelem Esse pii Domini. Sed pro pudor ipse nefande. Nec prudens neo fidus eras ut res manifestat. Nam contra memorare pudet quam nequiter ipsum Laeseris et sanctos eius tua praua tuentes, Quae uix ulla satis possunt tormenta piare. Prestolatur adhuc Dominus tamen ille benignus, Et te uiuere perpetitur, si forte resciscens Segnitiem zelo perimas, meritoque reatum."

"Chorus novae Ierusalem novam meli dulcedinem promat colens cum sobriis paschale festum gaudiis.Quo Christus, invictus leo, dracone surgens obruto, dum voce viva personat, a morte functos excitat."

"Let Man remember that he is the Master, but not a Tyrant."