Clergy from Italy

"Pange, lingua, gloriosi Corporis mysterium Sanguinisque pretiosi, Quem in mundi pretium Fructus ventris generosi Rex effudit gentium."

"Down in adoration falling, Lo! the sacred Host we hail; Lo! o'er ancient forms departing, Newer rites of grace prevail; Faith for all defects supplying, Where the feeble senses fail."

"Thus Angels' Bread is made The Bread of man today: The Living Bread from Heaven With figures doth away: O wondrous gift indeed! The poor and lowly may Upon their Lord and Master feed."

"O saving Victim, opening wide The gate of heaven to man below, Our foes press on from every side, Thine aid supply, Thy strength bestow."

"Anything done against faith or conscience is sinful."

"Reason in man is rather like God in the world."

"Charity, by which God and neighbor are loved, is the most perfect friendship."

"It must be said that charity can, in no way, exist along with mortal sin."

"The reason, however, why the philosopher may be likened to the poet is this: both are concerned with the marvellous."

"If … the motion of the earth were circular, it would be violent and contrary to nature, and could not be eternal, since … nothing violent is eternal.… It follows, therefore, that the earth is not moved with a circular motion."

"A hymn is the praise of God with song; a song is the exultation of the mind dwelling on eternal things, bursting forth in the voice."

"Omne verum a quocumque dicatur a Spiritu Sancto est."

"Raynalde, non possum, quia omnia quae scripsi videntur mihi palae. Replying to Reginald of Piperno: Videntur mihi palae respectu eorum quae vidi et revelata sunt mihi."

"Jesus Christ: Bene scripsísti de me, Thoma; quam ergo mercédem accípies? Aquinas: Non áliam, Dómine, nisi teípsum."

"Anima mea non est ego."

"The order of authority derives from God, as the Apostle says [in Romans 13:1-7]. For this reason, the duty of obedience is, for the Christian, a consequence of this derivation of authority from God, and ceases when that ceases. But, as we have already said, authority may fail to derive from God for two reasons: either because of the way in which authority has been obtained, or in consequence of the use which is made of it. There are two ways in which the first may occur. Either because of a defect in the person, if he is unworthy; or because of some defect in the way itself by which power was acquired, if, for example, through violence, or simony or some other illegal method."

"With regard to the abuse of authority, this also may come about in two ways. First, when what is ordered by an authority is opposed to the object for which that authority was constituted (if, for example, some sinful action is commanded or one which is contrary to virtue, when it is precisely for the protection and fostering of virtue that authority is instituted). In such a case, not only is there no obligation to obey the authority, but one is obliged to disobey it, as did the holy martyrs who suffered death rather than obey the impious commands of tyrants. Secondly, when those who bear such authority command things which exceed the competence of such authority; as, for example, when a master demands payment from a servant which the latter is not bound to make, and other similar cases. In this instance the subject is free to obey or disobey."

"One who liberates his country by killing a tyrant is to be praised and rewarded."

"The greatness of the human being consists in this: that it is capable of the universe."

"Nothing is in the intellect that was not first in the senses."

"We can open our hearts to God, but only with Divine help."

"Truth is the ultimate end of the whole universe."

"Muhammad seduced the people by promises of carnal pleasure to which the concupiscence of the flesh goads us. His teaching also contained precepts that were in conformity with his promises, and he gave free rein to carnal pleasure. In all this, as is not unexpected, he was obeyed by carnal men. As for proofs of the truth of his doctrine, he brought forward only such as could be grasped by the natural ability of anyone with a very modest wisdom. Indeed, the truths that he taught he mingled with many fables and with doctrines of the greatest falsity. He did not bring forth any signs produced in a supernatural way, which alone fittingly gives witness to divine inspiration; for a visible action that can be only divine reveals an invisibly inspired teacher of truth. On the contrary, Muhammad said that he was sent in the power of his arms—which are signs not lacking even to robbers and tyrants. What is more, no wise men, men trained in things divine and human, believed in him from the beginning, Those who believed in him were brutal men and desert wanderers, utterly ignorant of all divine teaching, through whose numbers Muhammad forced others to become his followers by the violence of his arms. Nor do divine pronouncements on the part of preceding prophets offer him any witness. On the contrary, he perverts almost all the testimonies of the Old and New Testaments by making them into fabrications of his own, as can be seen by anyone who examines his law. It was, therefore, a shrewd decision on his part to forbid his followers to read the Old and New Testaments, lest these books convict him of falsity. It is thus clear that those who place any faith in his words believe foolishly."

"For creation is not a change, but that dependence of the created existence on the principle from which it is instituted, and thus is of the genus of relation; whence nothing prohibits it being in the created as in the subject. Creation is thus said to be a kind of change, according to the way of understanding, insofar as our intellect accepts one and the same thing as not existing before and afterwards existing."

"The perfection of the effect demonstrates the perfection of the cause, for a greater power brings about a more perfect effect. But God is the most perfect agent. Therefore, things created by Him obtain perfection from Him. So, to detract from the perfection of creatures is to detract from the perfection of divine power."

"Natural inclinations are present in things from God, who moves all things. So it is impossible for the natural inclinations of a species to be toward evil in itself. But there is in all perfect animals a natural inclination toward carnal union. Therefore it is impossible for carnal union to be evil in itself."

"The highest perfection of human life consists in the mind of man being detached from care, for the sake of God."

"To become like God is the ultimate end of all."

"Since the Jews may not licitly keep those things which they have extorted from others through usury, the consequence is also that if you [rulers] receive these things from them, neither may you licitly keep them.[…] You should restore them to those to whom the Jews themselves are morally bound to make restitution."

"It would be better if they [rulers] compelled the Jews to work for their living, as they do in parts of Italy, than that, living without occupation, they can grow rich only by usury (solis usuris ditentur)."

"Now what has been said about the Jews is also to be understood about Cahorsins, and anyone else depending upon the depravity of usury."

"It is on account neither of God's weakness nor ignorance that evil comes into the world, but rather it is due to the order of his wisdom and the greatness of his goodness that diverse grades of goodness occur in things, many of which would be lacking if no evil were permitted. Indeed, the good of patience would not exist without the evil of persecution; nor the good of preservation of life in a lion if not for the evil of the destruction of the animals on which it lives."

"Man reaches the highest point of his knowledge about God when he knows that he knows him not, inasmuch as he knows that that which is God transcends whatsoever he conceives of him."

"There is no order between created being and non-being, but there is between created and uncreated being."

"Vita enim in hoc maxime manifestatur quod aliquid movet se ipsum; quod autem non potest moveri nisi ab alio, quasi mortuum esse videtur."

"Tria sunt homini necessaria ad salutem: scilicit scientia credendorum, scientia desiderandorum, et scientia operandorum."

"Lex naturae […] nihil aliud est nisi lumen intellectis insitum nobis a Deo, per quod cognoscimus quid agendum et quid vitandum. Hoc lumen et hanc legem dedit Deus homini in creatione."

"Nullum malum bona intentione factum excusatur."

"If man of himself could in a perfect manner know all things visible and invisible, it would indeed be foolish to believe what he does not see. But our manner of knowing is so weak that no philosopher could perfectly investigate the nature of even one little fly."

"Suppose a person entering a house were to feel heat on the porch, and going further, were to feel the heat increasing, the more they penetrated within. Doubtless, such a person would believe there was a fire in the house, even though they did not see the fire that must be causing all this heat. A similar thing will happen to anyone who considers this world in detail: one will observe that all things are arranged according to their degrees of beauty and excellence, and that the nearer they are to God, the more beautiful and better they are."

"Now, as the Word of God is the Son of God, so the love of God is the Holy Spirit."

"Hominem unius libri timeo"

"Prostitution in towns is like the sewer in a palace; take away the sewers and the palace becomes an impure and stinking place."

"This dumb ox will fill the world with his bellowing."

"Pope John XXII about the Summa Theologiae: As many articles as miracles."

"O excellent Thomas would that you had not been born in the West such that you would have need to advocate the differences of that [Roman] Church! You were influenced by it with regard to both the procession of the Holy Spirit as well as by the difference with respect to the divine essence and energy. For surely, then, you would have been infallible in your theological doctrines, just as you are so too inerrant in these matters of ethics!"

"We have, among innumerable other works, the Summa theologica, surely one of the most amazing and stupendous products of the human mind. ...never before or since has the wide world been so neatly boxed and compassed, so completely and confidently understood, every detail of it fitted, with such subtle and loving precision, into a consistent and convincing whole."

"The difficulty of dealing with St. Thomas Aquinas in this brief article is the difficulty of selecting that aspect of a many-sided mind which will best suggest its size or scale. Because of the massive body which carried his massive brain, he was called "The Ox"; but any attempt to boil down such a brain into tabloid literature passes all possible jokes about an ox in a teacup. He was one of the two or three giants; one of the two or three greatest men who ever lived; and I should never be surprised if he turned out, quite apart from sanctity, to be the greatest of all. Another way of putting the problem is to say that proportion alters according to what other men we are at the moment classing him with or pitting him against. We do not get the scale until we come to the few men in history who can be his rivals."

"St. Thomas confronts other creeds of good and evil, without at all denying evil, with a theory of two levels of good. The supernatural order is the supreme good, as for any Eastern mystic; but the natural order is good; as solidly good as it is for any man in the street."

"As a highly Pagan poet said to me: "The Reformation happened because people hadn't the brains to understand Aquinas." The Church is more immortally important than the State; but the State has its rights, for all that. This Christian duality had always been implicit, as in Christ's distinction between God and Caesar, or the dogmatic distinction between the natures of Christ. But St. Thomas has the glory of having seized this double thread as the clue to a thousand things; and thereby created the only creed in which the saints can be sane. It presents itself chiefly, perhaps, to the modern world as the only creed in which the poets can be sane. For there is nobody now to settle the Manichees; and all culture is infected with a faint unclean sense that Nature and all things behind us and below us are bad; that there is only praise to the highbrow in the height. St. Thomas exalted God without lowering Man; he exalted Man without lowering Nature. Therefore, he made a cosmos of common sense; terra viventium; a land of the living. His philosophy, like his theology, is that of common sense. He does not torture the brain with desperate attempts to explain existence by explaining it away. The first steps of his mind are the first steps of any honest mind; just as the first virtues of his creed could be those of any honest peasant."

"The philosopher can reflect on the ordinary man's awareness of attaining truth, but he has not at his disposal some extraordinary and special means of proving that we can know truth or that 'knowledge' is knowledge. If a philosopher were to comment that in this case we can never prove that we can attain proof and that if we cannot prove it we can never know it, Aquinas might reply that the sort of proof which the philosopher is looking for is inherently useless and indeed impossible, but that it does not follow that we cannot both attain truth and also know that we can attain it. We do not need any further guarantee of our ability to attain truth than our awareness or recognition of the fact that we do in fact attain it."

"Thomas Aquinas, who has likewise been brought under the imputation of magic, was one of the profoundest scholars and subtlest logicians of his day. He also furnishes a remarkable instance of the ascent which the friars at that time obtained over the minds of ingenious young men smitten with the thirst of knowledge."

"It was to be expected that a man who thus immersed himself in the depths of thought should be an inexorable enemy to noise and interruption. We have seen that he dashed to pieces the artificial man of brass that Albertus Magnus, who was his tutor, had spent thirty years in bringing to perfection, being impelled to this violence by its perpetual and unceasing garrulity. It is further said, that his study being place in a great thoroughfare, where the grooms were all day long excersing their horses, he found it necessary to apply a remedy to this nuisance. He made, by the laws of magic, a small horse of brass,which he buried two or three feet under ground in the midst of the highway, and, having done so, no horse would any longer pass along the road."

"Aristotle had not been popular in the ancient world, but his ideas were picked up by the materialistically-minded Arabs as they were developing their culture, and from there his works were introduced into Western Europe. They became the rage, stimulating a whole intellectual revival. It soon became necessary for the church to deal with this point of view, and through the genius of Thomas Aquinas all of the church ideas were rewritten within the framework of Aristotle's ideas with their mythological character reduced to a bare minimum."

"Against the false claim of that good-willed but misled pastor, Saint Thomas Aquinas can be easy, simple, and accessible to any Catholic who is able to read. I am so convinced of this that I earned my Ph.D on the Philosophy of Thomas Aquinas, and I have made it is my life goal to make the world “a more Thomistic place.""

"[According to St. Thomas] the soul is not transmitted with the semen, but is created afresh with each man. There is, it is true, a difficulty: when a man is born out of wedlock, this seems to make God an accomplice in adultery. This objection, however, is only specious. (There is a grave objection, which troubled Saint Augustine, and that is as to the transmission of original sin. It is the soul that sins, and if the soul is not transmitted, but created afresh, how can it inherit the sin of Adam? This is not discussed.)"

"There is little of the true philosophic spirit in Aquinas. He does not, like the Platonic Socrates, set out to follow wherever the argument may lead. He is not engaged in an inquiry, the result of which it is impossible to know in advance. Before he begins to philosophize, he already knows the truth; it is declared in the Catholic faith. If he can find apparently rational arguments for some parts of the faith, so much the better; if he cannot, he need only fall back on revelation. The finding of arguments for a conclusion given in advance is not philosophy, but special pleading. I cannot, therefore, feel that he deserves to be put on a level with the best philosophers either of Greece or of modern times."

"In speaking of Thomas Aquinas, who, it is true, had not attained at the time when Roger Bacon wrote to the commanding position of authority which was afterwards accorded to him in the schools, he couples him with Albertus Magnus, and says that they both became teachers before they had been adequately taught, and lectured on a philosophy and a theology which they had imperfectly learned."

"The medieval theologians would not be surprised at a prerequisite of a degree in physics for a degree in theology. In their time, the highest degree in philosophy—which included the most advanced knowledge of physics of the day—was a prerequisite before a student was permitted to begin study for a degree in theology ...Kenny has shown the Aquinas' Five Ways—his five proofs of God's existence—are absolutely dependent on Aristotelian physics... Aquinas... was one of the leading scholars of Aristotelian physics... and... was primarily responsible for... [its] general acceptance throughout Europe. We could call Aquinas a great physicist as well as a great theologian, for, although Aristotelian physics was wrong, it was an essential precursor of modern physics."

"St. Thomas Aquinas ...in the Summa, which remains the greatest work of medieval thought, accepts the idea that certain animals, spring from the decaying bodies of plants and animals, and declares that they are produced by the creative word of God either actually or virtually. He develops this view by saying, "Nothing was made by God, after the six days of creation, absolutely new, but it was in some sense included in the work of the six days"; and that "even new species, if any appear, have existed before in certain native properties, just as animals are produced from putrefaction.""

"The life and teaching of St Thomas Aquinas could be summed up in an episode passed down by his ancient biographers. While, as was his wont, the Saint was praying before the Crucifix in the early morning in the chapel of St Nicholas in Naples, Domenico da Caserta, the church sacristan, overheard a conversation. Thomas was anxiously asking whether what he had written on the mysteries of the Christian faith was correct. And the Crucified One answered him: "You have spoken well of me, Thomas. What is your reward to be?". And the answer Thomas gave him was what we too, friends and disciples of Jesus, always want to tell him: "Nothing but Yourself, Lord!""

"I have no doubt about the fact that the demon tempts the authorities of the Church especially, just as he tempts every authority, those of politics and industry."

"Prayer at distance rarely has a liberating effect. In itself, it is possible to attempt prayers at distance, but whether they take root is another matter. One of the requirements for doing exorcisms is in fact that the person is present, and that he or she is consenting. Doing exorcisms on someone who is neither present nor consenting nor Catholic presents difficulties. I have no doubt, however, that Hitler was a Satanist. From this point of view, I am not surprised that Pius XII might have attempted an exorcism at distance. [The Führer's possession emerges from his] humanly inexplicable perfidy: one cannot explain such wickedness without a higher force and outside human nature."

"Once I asked Satan: ‘But why are you more afraid when I invoke the Madonna than when I invoke Jesus Christ?’ He replied: ‘Because it humbles me more to be defeated by a human creature than to be defeated by Him.’"

"I speak with the Devil every day. I talk to him in Latin. He answers in Italian. I have been wrestling with him, day in day out, for 14 years."

"When I hear people say, “You Catholics honour Mary too much,” I reply, 'We are never able to honour her enough."

"Demons are wary of talking and must be forced to speak. When demons are voluntarily chatty it's a trick to distract the exorcist. We must never ask useless questions out of curiosity. We but must interrogate with care. We always begin by asking for the demon's name."

"During the exorcism the evil may emerge in slow stages or with sudden explosions. He does not want show himself. He will be angry and he is strong. During one exorcism I saw a child of 11 held down by four strong men. The child threw the men aside with ease. I was there when a boy of 10 lifted a huge, heavy table. Afterwards I felt the muscles in the boy's arms. He could not have done it on his own. He had the strength of the Devil inside him."

"No two cases are the same. Some patients have to be tied down on a bed. They spit. They vomit. At first the demon will try to demoralise the exorcist, then he will try to terrify him, saying, 'Tonight I'm going to put a serpent between your sheets. Tomorrow I'm going to eat your heart'."

"We are living in an age when faith is diminishing. If you abandon God, the Devil will take his place."

"Remember, when we jeer at the Devil and tell ourselves that he does not exist, that is when he is happiest."

"People come from all over the world to visit the famous excavations of Pompei, people of different faiths, people of no faith. And this is an opportunity for interreligious dialogue and missionary work. Precisely for this reason the Basilica's facade is a monument to universal peace and it is here that the Holy Father will pray for the salvation of the world."

"When we speak of stripping, we speak of our God. It is a biblical perspective, spelled out in the letter to the Philippians which says God stripped himself. When we speak of this, we speak of the core of our faith which St. Francis wanted to express and imitate."

"In Japan, there is in reality a great need for religious values, there are some faithful who practice two different religions. But the Church is not able to satisfy this thirst for religion because its strategy is mistaken: the Church must not limit itself to teaching Catholic doctrine, faith, and traditions, but must find a way to connect these with the culture and everyday problems of the Japanese, avoiding the fracture between the teaching of doctrine and everyday life in Japan. Obviously, this is an extremely difficult task."

"The Japanese by nature struggle to express their feelings, even with the idea of not loading their problems on others. So, in this cultural context, a verbal message and effective closeness and solidarity on behalf of those who do not criticize, but only encourage and pray, has a great value."

"Even today God may continue to call people to Himself, so that others may discover the mercy and the forgiveness of God, so that others may know that they have a Father who is in heaven. Without our testimony, the Gospel could not continue to manifest that God loves man. In fact, this is our message, the message of which we are heralds: God loves man."

"As Church, we are called to discern God's voice and read history not just with human criteria but especially in the light of God's word and there we can discover where the Lord wants to lead us, as a Church, as a society, as a single faithful."

"This small, but great church has given the world church countless martyrs. These were people who had a great loyalty to Christ and the church. Catholicism continued on in Albania. This is thanks to the martyr church."

"Catechesis must be experiential, a true accompaniment in the experience of God, not a schooled catechesis where only an indoctrination or a teaching of knowledge is received."

"We should work towards an "education of hope," so that the Church in Rome may continue to proclaim the Gospel of the Risen Lord with renewed energy, as it is the ‘first fruit’ of new life that has no end. We should work towards a perseverant prayer that purifies the heart, opens itself to God and to others and sparks a testimony of love, especially towards the poor, and to a positive cooperation that knows how to find the good wherever it is."

"We will be humble and trusting pilgrims in a place that is of highest importance in the faith, bringing our hopes and anxieties, and in the celebration of the Eucharist, in our encounter with the Risen Lord, we will pray for ourselves and our Church, that we may receive the gift of a joyful and courageous faith, so as to produce hope and dialogue with those who will ask us about the meaning of life. We owe it to Rome, to offer this city a renewed proclamation of the Gospel, capable of transforming the daily lives of families, youth, the sick, and the poor."

"While moral rectitude cannot be substituted by professional competencies, it does promote and cultivate them."

"We are all disciples of Jesus, we are urged not to consider ourselves the owners, dominators of the faith of others. We are servants for the sake of Jesus."

"Ours is an apostolate of life: we present Christ simply trying to live according to his teachings."

"Without being a prophet, I am optimistic, in spite of everything. I trust the Tunisian people who want to live in peace and build their own Country."

"The "easiest" and most effective in helping the Holy Land is by going there on pilgrimage. A pilgrimage is good for both the pilgrim and the local Christian and is not an added burden for anyone."

"Here the Church was born and then went out to others, with the wounds of the passion still in one hand and a piece of bread in the other."

"The unity of the Church and the unity of Christians in Nigeria should be a sign for the whole of society and an example for our Muslim brothers."

"The Christian life really starts from an inner renewal, from a conversion: the return to God. I believe it is a good opportunity to rediscover the foundations of the fundamental choice of Christian life: live it every day in relationship with others and in a dimension of solidarity and openness to the world."

"World Youth Day in Sydney was a moment of great grace. And now, it is very important that the WYD spirit remains alive through creative initiatives, designed to promote and renew youth ministry in Australia."

"I say that coming to the Holy Land is also a nice gesture of solidarity. It helps to know that other Christians - despite everything - come here."

"The Holy See gives voice to those who have no voice. This is perhaps a poetic way to phrase it. But I would like to point out that this is the most challenging, interesting, sometimes difficult, but always gratifying side of my daily activity. I am referring to dioceses, associations, religious congregations, and individuals who turn to us, confident that we can help them to meet with and present to the right offices and persons their views and requests, which are usually humanitarian in nature."

"The missions are recorded in the DNA of the Church in Poland, which was born, grew up and was formed in society through the Missionary activities of its patron."

"I'm afraid that because I'm a cardinal people will think of me as a success. I'm immensely afraid of that, since I'm here to bear witness instead. The Lord has given me a great grace, but if I'm a bishop it is not that I've succeeded more than others. I have more responsibility, that's for sure. Even if, as things are, because of the increasing importance of the mass media, there's no point in being a cardinal if you only come out with banalities."

"The societies are a providential gift to the Church. Let us pray to the Lord of the Mission to help you come out with a clear understanding and plan of our great task of evangelization,"

"Priests must take into consideration the main message of Pope Francis, in which he asks to give life to a Church with a priestly path of holiness and not of perfection."

"Peace is a challenge and a necessity for everyone, but especially in the regions where we suffer more."

"Mercy without truth is not Christian, because that doesn't take into account the dignity of the human person."

"People for whom it has become a habit — and, unfortunately, they are increasingly numerous in the context of our consumerist pseudo-civilization — to spend Sunday afternoon in these shopping centers, now find the opportune possibility of being able to enjoy the wealth of spiritual values. Our task is to go beyond the boundaries of ordinary pastoral care."

"Our service does not have, or should not have, any other aim if not that of a humble service of the Gospel in favor of humanity . In this period, in which being a Christian is equivalent in many countries to being discriminated and persecuted, the presence of all the Churches in this Assembly is an event of intense communion and revival of love for evangelization. The Word of God runs through the continents and cannot be stopped by man. But for this to happen, it needs arms, hearts, messengers to proclaim it."

"We want to propose a Christianity, a Christian life, which is not closed in on itself or self-referential but is open to society, to the Kingdom of God."

"There are particularly large dioceses and archdioceses that require, among other things, particular gifts for pastoral government. I don't think it unreasonable or inadvisable to appoint to such Sees a churchman who has already given fair proof of himself in a less complex diocese. That then there may be people who maneuver to "make a career", that lies in the nature of things, it's a matter of human temptation. Even we churchmen are not immune from original sin..."

""Stop" is the cry expressed by the Church in the name of abused humanity. The United States must also stop and I think it has the strength to do so. It must re-establish respect for human beings and return to the family of nations, overcoming the temptation to act on its own. If it does not stop, the whirlwind of horror will involve other peoples and will lead us ever more to the abyss."

"I have been able to listen to different people in difficulty; they have always said that they have been very impressed by the dedication of the priests and religious, by their concern and awareness of the suffering. It has been thanks to this that they have begun to believe in God."

"Patience is needed to travel this path at a pace dictated by the Heart of the disciples, by the Heart of the Church. It is patience that the Vicars of Christ, the Bishops, are called to cultivate and here we see how difficult the episcopal mission is."

"There are two ways to approach Jesus: with the approach of "the wise" who doubt his words, or with that of simple people, who give witness to the miracles of Christ and have eyes to see the Awaited."

"I bring the Pope's greetings, his Apostolic Blessing and his fervent wish that your nation continues to move forward in peace and stability, on a path of development that may become a model of unity and progress with respect for human rights and the environment whereby all its people can prosper and even the most vulnerable will not suffer marginalization or neglect. And all by remaining faithful in spite of great hardships - to its humane ideals."

"As a bishop, the things I would like to emulate about him are his ability to dialogue."

"We make every effort to indicate true devotion to Mary, that which leads to Christ. And I think this teaching is amply received. As for the rest, I think these things need time to settle, a period of waiting, and great patience. The supernatural, especially in a world that doesn't believe in God and that has lost values, cannot be demonstrated if it doesn't bear fruits."

"Blessed is the Bishop who for the sake of the Gospel is not afraid to go against the current, who makes his face hard like that of Christ heading to Jerusalem without letting himself be held by misunderstandings and obstacles because he knows that the kingdom of God advances in the contradiction of the world."

"The most important thing is not what we do in the Eucharist, but what we are through the Eucharist."

"Faced especially with the Chinese, I judged it appropriate in no way to accredit the suspicion that the Catholic religion seemed to be placed under the protection and, even worse, as a political instrument at the service of European nations. I wanted, from my first acts, to claim my freedom of action in the field of religious interests, by refusing to be accompanied before the local civil authorities by representatives of foreign nations."

"The problem of our cultural identity, which for us clearly has religious and Christian roots, is certainly a very important question today. And we are seeing so increasingly."

"God surpasses our measurement unit and surprises it, not in an abstract way, but in the Child laid in a manger."

"It is clear that the state itself needs a people, but the people are not such by virtue of the state; they precede it in that they are not a sum of individuals but a community of persons, and a true and reliable community is always spiritual and ethical in nature; it has a soul. This is its backbone. But if the soul becomes corrupt, then the unity of the people becomes fragile, and the state weakens and loses its shape. When can this happen? When the awareness of common values and cultural identity is obscured. Talking about cultural identity does not mean withdrawing or closing oneself off, but rather not disfiguring one's own face: without a face, it is impossible to meet, to get to know each other, to respect each other, to correct each other, to walk together, to work towards the same goals, to be a “people”. The state cannot create this unity, which is pre-institutional and pre-political, but at the same time it must be careful to preserve it and not damage it. It would be short-sighted and irresponsible to attack what unites us in the name of any perspective."

"Work is a special part of those indispensable conditions that a truly human society must guarantee so that everyone can not only survive and live, but even more so, fulfil themselves according to God's plan."

"Immigration is a reality. We need to combine the principle of welcoming others, which has always been at the heart of our country, with another principle that is just as important: legality, which everyone knows is needed for society to work."

"(About Italy) The unity of the country remains an indispensable achievement and anchor. Any desirable reform, starting with federalism, must take into account the historical roots of unity and consistently evolve it for the good of all in order to be beneficial."

"The Church does not promote itself, but serves humanity with God's love."

"The full happiness of the Church, which comes from Christ, does not fail even in the face of our betrayals."

"Italy is heading towards a slow demographic suicide because "over fifty per cent of families today are childless, and among those that do have children, almost half have only one, the rest have two, and only 5.1 per cent of families have three or more children. There is an urgent need for a child-oriented policy that immediately takes responsibility for a balanced generational change."

"There are no dogmas of faith and there are no dogmas of any kind when it comes to social practices. This issue must also be addressed with a single intention, a single objective: we must evaluate this question in a proactive manner because any decision, any way of dealing with Article 18, must aim to create jobs, otherwise it is useless."

"Modernity has identified the theme of conscience as one of its most emblematic frontiers. [...] Too often, in culture as in life, the concept of conscience, that is, the ability of a person to recognise the truth and the decision to follow it, is confused with the ultimate peremptory nature of subjective opinion."

"Too often, in culture as in life, the concept of consciousness, that is, a person's ability to recognise the truth and decide to follow it, is confused with the ultimate peremptory nature of subjective demands. [...] It is the confusion surrounding the false concept of autonomy that causes such profound confusion in today's culture, according to which a person is considered happier the closer they feel to doing what they want. [...] There is a reason for being that is stronger and more resistant than any human construct. Recognising this reality in itself and bowing gratefully to it is the most moral act we can perform."

"The silence of conscience, through neglect and abandonment, can cause instinctiveness to be mistaken for spontaneity, wishful thinking for relevance, injustice for justice, death for life, selfishness for love. [...] However, at the very moment when the Magisterium is eradicated from conscience, without realising it, it is already being replaced by a substitute."

"The Church is not a political republic. It is a spiritual reality incarnated in time, and does not respond to purely human criteria. The important thing is always to find someone capable of guiding God's people at a given moment in history. I have known Pope Leo XIV for a short time, through a few personal encounters. He is always kind, attentive to issues, and thoughtful. My overall and immediate impression is of a serene man, that is, reconciled with himself because he is centred on Christ. I believe this is the best prerequisite for living such a great responsibility."

"Only by following Christ and accepting his teaching can we find adequate ways and criteria for building a future of unity and justice, the civilisation of love and peace."

"The lack of ideals is what leads to emptiness and boredom. That is why, dear young people, I encourage you not to postpone life's fundamental decisions. When the Lord calls us, He also gives us the strength and the grace necessary for responding to the responsibilities that will be placed on our path."

"(Regarding the resignation of Benedict XVI) We must agree that the gesture made by the Holy Father is to be appreciated without but and without if. I say this by reminding everyone of the courage, the serenity shown towards such an important choice. A choice certainly matured in all conscience in silence and meditation. Only in this way, in a continuous and intense dialogue with God in prayer, did the Pope choose. And it must be appreciated for the high sense of responsibility shown, even in a circumstance such as this, which is undoubtedly extraordinary."

"Deprived for some time of the outward and, so to speak, "commercial" aspects, it is a time of special grace. Indeed, sins need God's forgiveness above all, but then also a purification, to be carried out here below, or, after death, in purgatory. Sacramental absolution in confession removes guilt and restores friendship with God, but there remains the duty of purification of the negative imprint left by the evil done and of reparation. This is the indulgence, through which we draw from the treasure of the Church, that is, from the merits acquired from Christ, Our Lady and the Saints. The indulgence can only be obtained once a day and can also be applied to our deceased loved ones by helping them in their purification process."

"Cardinal Re: I had been in the Secretariat of State for eight years. With us was a Polish priest, Monsignor Jozef Kowalczyk. Four days after he was elected, he brought me the first homily written in Polish by John Paul II and translated into Italian by Poles, asking me to review it. I read and reread that text'."

"I was on the terrace of the Secretariat of State, with colleagues and Archbishop Agostino Casaroli. His first line was: "Never would I have thought that the conclave would choose a cardinal from a diocese beyond the Iron Curtain!" We all asked him many questions, and Casaroli explained that he was a "man of vision". He concluded: he will bring novelty, but he will be a good Pope."

"Interviewer: What was Wojtyla's role in the defeat of communism?"

"I hope for white smoke this evening. (May 8, 2025 at 11:01 a.m.)"

"(Visitng the Shrine of the Virgin of the Rosary of Pompei) The world expects much from the new pope, both in terms of a religious revival and because the world is troubled by a very serious problem, that of war in many countries. The war between Ukraine and the Russian Federation is having consequences throughout Europe. And then there is Gaza, the land where Christ was born and where the land itself cries out for peace, but peace is not there. We are going through a difficult time for humanity. And we hope that there will now be a recovery."

"(From the homily during the Missa Pro eligendo Romano Pontifice) The liturgical texts of this Eucharistic celebration, then, invite us to fraternal love, to mutual help and to commitment to ecclesial communion and universal human fraternity."

"I hope that when I return to Rome this evening, I will find white smoke. I am particularly pleased to be here at the beginning of the Conclave so that the Holy Spirit may blow strongly and the Pope that today's Church and today's world need may be elected. [The new pope] must first of all seek to strengthen faith in God in our world characterised by technological progress but, spiritually speaking, we have noticed a certain ‘forgetting of God’. There is a need for a reawakening."

"The missionary mandate to evangelise brings with it profound social implications of the charity of proclamation and solidarity. The soul of this ecclesial charity is the Eucharistic Body of the Lord which makes the Church and unites the earthly people with the heavenly Church of the saints. In the liturgy, her action among peoples, the Church has always exercised a special mission, that of accessibility of liturgical forms for disciples of the innumerable human cultures."

"When we are healthy we are under the illusion that sickness, and death even more so, touch the life of others, but never our own."

"To his great love of study he added a prodigious memory."

"Worship, pastoral, charity, ecclesiastic personnel: are the four constitutive ends of the possession and use of ecclesial resources as such. The Church may possess resources only for these reasons. She may not legitimately possess resources for any other ends which do not stem from these four fundamental fields."

"For Catholics it would be superfluous to ask whether Ultramontanism and Catholicism are the same thing: assuredly, those who combat Ultramontanis are in fact combating Catholicism, even when they disclaim the desire to oppose it."

"I want to be a good religious so I can be a good missionary tomorrow."

"I saw the diocese grow thanks to the tireless efforts of Bishop Alessandro Assolari. It was difficult at the beginning."

"During my teenage years I felt the passion for the mission, which has never stopped over the years. When I was still in good health and no longer Bishop in Padua, I felt the inspiration to go on a mission in the Apostolic Prefecture of Robe, where there were few people to help the very poor population. As Bishop I am the successor of the Apostles, and here I compare myself and I am inspired by the ministry of the first Apostles and St. Paul. I consider it God's grace. Here I am a "simple missionary", without any other titles."

"The announcement of the Gospel always goes together with charity and human promotion."

"A country that does not love, does not pay attention to its children most in need, is like a family where both the father and mother are not interested in their children."

"I well understand how Wikipedia represents an Enlightenment dream of describing the world, which, however, clashes with the difficulties of accrediting itself as a credible compendium of knowledge, while maintaining anonymity, flexibility and continuous openness to new contributors. At the same time, this 'utopia' overturns the dream of the traditional encyclopaedia, understood as an authoritative, organic and integrated construction of knowledge. In fact, Wikipedia is like a living organism: it grows (at the rate of 7 per cent every month), it 'falls ill', it is subject to internal compositions and decompositions, to continuous growth and reduction. But above all, Wikipedia conceals another, in its own way, ambiguous utopia: the absolute democracy of knowledge and the collaboration of multiple intelligences that gives rise to a kind of collective intelligence. This utopia could hide a new form of 'tower of Babel', which has its Achilles' heel not only in unreliability, but also in relativism. [...] His 'utopias' arise, radicalising them, from the profound needs of human knowledge, which the wíki, in general, help transform into concrete projects: knowledge understood as a dynamic process, open to all, and the fruit not only of individual commitment, but also of profound collaboration and intense confrontation between minds willing to share skills and intelligence."

"It is a common experience to have frequented a library. Entering the reference room is like crossing a threshold between the world of noise and the world of silence. The people one meets appear, in general, concentrated on what they are reading with an attitude of body that seems to express deep attention. The surroundings, the silence, the concentration that one 'breathes' in the air seem to recall, in some respects, entering a church and praying. The man who studies and the man who prays seem to assume similar attitudes. This analogy is very fruitful for reflection and leads one to naturally think of a spirituality of study. The Christian scholar is strongly urged to ask himself how his activity and prayer can coexist in his inner life."

"Christianity is not an encyclopaedia of contents and values, nor a list of battles to be fought, but an openness to the surprise of God. Without the experience of his Real Presence, without the encounter with the person of Christ, Christianity becomes a rigid ideology. But beware! God is to be sought and found everywhere in the world. He is present and active in the world and in history. He is not necessarily where we think He is."

"The model we have before our eyes, that of Francis de Sales, is therefore that of a journalism that communicates passion and has an intent of involvement, participation, education. The same attention to 'truth' is not a simple and cold focus on 'objectivity' or 'neutrality', but on understanding the value of things."

"I believe that in Internet there is a highly spiritual dimension. I would like to mention at least one person, a great Jesuit, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, who with his books, with his insights, his idea of the noosphere anticipated the idea of the Internet... We are talking about a Jesuit who lived in times when the Internet was not even conceivable, but he largely anticipated this phenomenon. I would also say that, in my opinion, the Internet is a reality that has strong spiritual potential."

"Digital technologies allow people, today more than ever, to stay connected and communicate, overcoming many distances. And with a technological system for communicating and thinking, a kind of intelligence distributed everywhere and growing all the time is being formed at the same time. The Internet, in fact, involves the sharing of resources, time, content, ideas. The now classic example is Wikipedia, which beyond any evaluation is the fruit of the convergence of many people, connected together across the planet, who think and write. Intelligence is distributed wherever there is humanity, and today it can be easily interconnected. The network of this knowledge gives rise to a form of 'collective intelligence' or common consciousness. [...] The Net is called from being a place of 'connection' to becoming a place of 'communion'. The risk these days is to confuse the two terms. Connection in itself is not enough to make the Net a place of fully human sharing. Working towards this goal is the specific task of the Christian."

"Interviewer: Well Salvini out of government? Antonio Spadaro: It is not clear how this will end. In any case, Salvini's role in the League's sovereignist mutation, after twenty years in which the party has expressed real capacity for government rooted in the territory will have to be investigated. From green it has turned black. For me the question, after the bathing coup, is the relationship between Salvini, a charismatic personality who has absorbed the party into himself, and the League itself. The question is what the right in Italy can be. A question that has never been resolved."

"[...] we live in times in which we run the risk of losing the meaning of study and seeing it only as functional to a job. Certainly study 'serves' man and also helps him to find his place in the world as a worker. The risk, however, is that of living study in an occasional and functional manner, and no longer as a strong and valuable life experience. The Christian presence in a study environment such as the university must therefore first and foremost aim not to add activity to other activities, but to help the young student live his main activity: study, in a Christian manner. Much less can Christian formation and academic study be considered in competition with each other."

"There is always a vulnerable point in Pavese's life, a point that exposes him to the beauty and intuition of the taste for life, but this seems to find no possibility of development."

"The Internet is no longer an agglomeration of isolated and independent websites, albeit connected and networked, but is to be considered as the whole of the technological capabilities achieved by mankind in the field of disseminating and sharing information and knowledge."

"Ultimately, Satan is interested in snatching souls away from God, and he does not want to take possession of the body just to lead it to spiritual death, which is far worse than physical death."

"The true exorcist knows that he must pay a very high price for his ministry."

"Man no longer has a spiritual plan for his life when he uses God for his own needs, to fill the void of his existence."

"When we fight with the devil, we must remain ‘seated’ in Christ. To perform exorcisms, absolute chastity is required."

"Satan can attack tirelessly, but he cannot triumph."

"One can lead a seemingly normal life without knowing that one is possessed by the Devil."

"Where there is genuine demonic possession, exorcisms instil confidence, strength and serenity in the soul of the person undergoing them, ensuring and sustaining their ability to fight and overcome evil spirits."

"Angels and demons are beings completely devoid of any form of matter."

"Exorcisms, on the other hand, have nothing to do with witchcraft: indeed, they are its antithesis."

"The Devil was condemned for pride, and those who are proud become like the Devil, consequently falling into his own condemnation."

"The theme of the fall of the rebellious angels is fundamental to understanding the mystery of evil."

"Man is undeniably responsible for the evil he voluntarily commits, but in the history of creation, the initiative, in an absolute sense, to do evil does not belong to man but to Satan."

"Lucifer (in Italian Lucifero), rather than being the actual name of the Devil, is a highly expressive image used to indicate what was initially the most beautiful angel created by God."

"Just as an illness does not affect a person's eternal salvation, so possession does not affect goodness, will, or love for God."

"Demons are found where they act."

"Demons cannot know the future."

"Demons cannot know our souls or our thoughts."

"The Devil cannot inhabit the soul; there can be no "demonic possession of the soul" [but solely of the flesh]."

"The Devil and demons, being created, [...] are necessarily limited in their being and acting."

"The Devil seeks to know our evil inclinations and obtains this knowledge, in the ordinary way, through temptation."

"The Devil is not able to give his devotees everything he promises."

"The demonic world is not a subjective persuasion of some, but is a reality, an objective fact, which God has revealed to us."

"The soul of those who are habitually in mortal sin is enslaved to the Devil, but the majority of those who are in mortal sin are not possessed by the devil."

"Exorcism has no effect on the will of a person who freely chooses to sin."

"Our reaction against the Devil's actions thus becomes a means of spiritual progress. In this way, demons become servants of the Lord in spite of themselves."

"Magical and superstitious beliefs and practices are a way that allows these forces of evil to enslave us more and more."

"Magical practices, in their many forms, are a trap that our invisible enemies set in our path to lead us away from goodness and truth and make us their prisoners."

"Not every sin is necessarily due to the action of the Devil."

"In their work of deception towards man, demons behave like skilled trasformisti, like skilled magicians, producing spectacular events and surprising things that are actually tricks."

"The saving work of Jesus Christ cannot be understood if the existence of Satan is denied."

"By "demonic possession" we mean the devil taking possession of the body, considering it his own and using it as he pleases."

"Satan is not the God of evil. [...] There have never been two opposing deities."

"Satan has no friends, only slaves who naively believe they have made him their friend."

"I am addressing those concerned directly: there is no right to recognition of same-sex unions. Homosexuality can be corrected and the psychological deviation that is inherent in it can be removed. I am appealing to you to save the identity of natural and Christian marriage. Only you can save it by rejecting what is not your own."

"Acquired homosexuals are the effeminate men mentioned in Scripture who are not allowed to enter the kingdom of heaven. Acquired homosexuality can be overcome and, being a vice, must be removed at all costs."

"The collapse of the parameters for accepting oneself as male in today's society completes the picture of factors that create conditions favourable to homosexuality."

"There are certain negative influences in today's society that lead young people to drugs and keep them there because they take away their sense of responsibility, teaching them to do whatever they want, to have everything immediately and at any cost, instead of encouraging obedience to fundamental values."

"Prostitution comes from the heart, but it is also from the heart that good can begin."

"It is the same logic that leads to abortion: if the child is a nuisance, it is not accepted, it is eliminated; and the citizens pay the costs. But the child is a person, a unique word of God, with its own history. [...] But then what is the difference between the Mafia, the Camorra and the 'Ndrangheta, who kill their opponents because they are a nuisance, and those who argue that it is acceptable to kill someone who is a nuisance in a premeditated murder?"

"Men must understand that if they go to prostitutes, they are contributing to the enslavement of these girls and to the growth of criminal organisations."

"The important thing is to work so that, from childhood, people can nurture the infinite love that is present within each of us."

"The girls forced into prostitution on the streets made me understand the beauty of chastity and the deep need for a relationship with God the Father."

"To stand tall, you need to know how to kneel in prayer."

"(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."

"The first gift that the Pope has given us and it is one that is visible on the faces of Angolans. From there, we can find the strength to continue on our mission of announcing the Gospel with a renewed spirit, in communion with the Holy Father."

"The pope, by virtue of his primacy of jurisdiction, has the right to send legates to provide for the unity of Faith and for ecclesiastical discipline, and to choose them at will. Though self-evident, this authority of the pope has been contested from a very early period."

"The Ireland of to-day feels acutely that the springs of her greatness lie in the past, and that by restoring ancestral traditions, blending them naturally with existing social forms, and by drawing strength and dignity from the memories of pre-Christian and medieval Ireland, before the Anglo-Norman had deformed and strangled her, she may yet discover her true self, and start life afresh."

"Salvatierra's memory needs no panegyric. His deeds speak for themselves; and in the light of these, the bitterest enemies of his religion or of his order cannot deny the beauty of his character and the disinterestedness of his devotion to California."

"Freedom, observes the philosopher, is potential launched into infinity."

"We are always exposed to the permanent risk of our contingency: the contingency of the environment, of society, our own intimate contingency. We ourselves oscillate, we are in oscillation with respect to ourselves."

"A philosophy that consumes itself in thought consumes itself, annihilates itself. Philosophy must open the windows of freedom, the doors of freedom; it must establish freedom. A philosophy that does not establish freedom is a Procrustean bed, a guillotine."

"I understand philosophy as the transition from sense to meaning, through cultural and doctrinal mediation, through the structure of pure thought, and through the mediation of practice."

"Philosophy is the hermeneutics of meaning, especially as historical data, so that it becomes significance, that is, decision, through cultural comparison that goes beyond mere memorization, by virtue of evaluation (theoretical moment) and practical-political impact (practical moment). Critical comparison of practical forms, to bring meaning (the data, we might say) to the value of significance."

"It is not a matter of religious beliefs. It is a natural reality that does not come from ideological or cultural tendencies, but from natural principals that proceed from the very nature of the human person. If we cut ourselves off from the common denominator of human nature...What universal reference would their be in humanity to guarantee our human rights?"

"There is a certain Kemalist secularism which relegates religion to the private sphere, is not very desirable for us. On this point, too, we must break away from certain trivializations. In Europe, the total secularism of the state is considered a value, but there are controversial situations and questionable aspects. A government that takes into account the religious sentiments of the people is in any case desirable for us. We cannot accept a religion simply relegated to consciences."

"Indians have excellent eyes and ears; and our band, if weak in numbers, was certainly strong in lungs; for such as had wind instruments spared neither contortions of the face, nor exertions of their organs of respiration to give volume to the music."

"O! how beautiful is Christian charity! How truly is it called Catholic! It makes no distinction of nation, language, or person; but takes all men into one family! And, not without motive, does it teach us to address all by the tender name of brother!"

"How can we talk about Christ? We must try to present the figure of Christ as someone we love, in the hope that people will listen to us."

"It is very difficult to die for a friend, but dying for enemies is even more difficult. Christ, however, died for us when we were still his enemies. God always remains close to us; it is the constancy of love to the extreme limit, indeed without limits. This is the reason for our joy. (homily of 14 September 1993)"

"It is important to talk about the mafia, especially in schools, in order to combat the mafia mentality, which is any ideology willing to sell out human dignity for money."

"Be a witness, especially for those who harbor anger toward a society they see as hostile. The witness must instill hope in them by helping them understand that life is valuable when it is given freely."

"The first duty in Brancaccio is to roll up our sleeves. And the first targets are children and adolescents: with them, we still have time, educational measures can be effective... But even at that age it is not easy, because many children are forced to work or steal. And many girls are forced to do worse, because there are also cases of child prostitution in the neighborhood."

"The Church has already excommunicated those who have committed atrocious crimes, such as the so-called men of honor. I can only add that murderers, those who live and feed on violence, have lost their human dignity. They are less than men; they degrade themselves, through their choices, to the rank of animals. (homily of 25 July 1993)"

"(Last words) I was expecting that."

"In the parish, all pastoral care should be guided by the vocational line together with the missionary line: “all called, all sent.”"

"Holocaust means burning one's entire existence on the altar of the cross."

"Twenty, sixty, a hundred years... life. What good is it if we go in the wrong direction? What matters is encountering Christ, living like him, proclaiming his saving Love. Bringing hope and not forgetting that all of us, each in our own place, even at personal cost, are builders of a new world."

"You have a family. I have no one. I have no wife or children, and even if they kill me, I don't care."

"When a person's heart surrenders to God, when they say yes to Him, then the Kingdom comes, then God reigns."

"God loves us, but always through someone else."

"Those who think too much before taking a step will spend their whole life standing on one foot."

"We must give and ask our brother for whatever is necessary to help him."

"Each of us feels within ourselves a particular inclination, a charisma, a vocation, a project that makes each person unique and unrepeatable: journalist, teacher, priest, student, father, volunteer... This calling is the sign of the Holy Spirit within us. Only listening to this voice can give meaning to our lives. (p. 294)"

"Love for God purifies and liberates. This does not mean that we become depersonalized, but rather that our personality is exalted and enhanced, that is, our natural faculties and our intelligence are given new potential. Our will is given new light. (p. 512)"

"Don Puglisi was proclaimed blessed on May 25, 2013. He who did not like celebrations, solemnities, or official rites, is consigned to history as the first martyr of the Church killed by the mafia in odium fidei."

"On September 15, Don Pino Puglisi, parish priest of the church of San Gaetano in Brancaccio, was killed with a single gunshot to the back of the head. With his tireless pastoral, educational, and social work, the priest had become a thorn in the side of the local mafia."

"A man, Don Pino [Puglisi], fighting against non-men, mafiosi, and hitmen in the neighborhood to save children and young people from a fate of violence, illegality, poverty, ignorance, and incivility."

"The reputation for solid virtue, patience, and courage, which he had acquired in the different grades of his order, was by no means dimmed in the long years of his generalate. During Tamburini's superiorship, the apostolic activity of the Society was at its best."

"I could have had that pleasure, but then the sacrifice would not have been complete."

"Fifty years a Jesuit and forty years a missionary, one of the noblest men that ever laboured in the ranks of the Church in Montana, his fame stands very high in Montana."

"We should be apostles of good with at least the same zeal and interest with which the wicked propagate evil. For every effort, for every sacrifice, which we make for the Children of Christ as yet outside the Church of Christ, we shall receive a hundred-fold return."

"Knowing the author personally and admiring his qualities of mind and heart; his sound learning, his rare powers of exposition as a teacher, his priestly zeal and earnestness, I feel confident that his book will be helpful to many souls in this country."

"Muratori really proved himself to be a universal genius of rare calibre, at home in all fields of human knowledge. He showed extraordinary qualities as priest and man; he was zealous in the ministry, charitable to the poor, and diligent in visiting the abandoned and imprisoned."

"A few Precepts that are ready and at Hand, are much more profitable to us, than whole Volumes hat over-charge the Memory, and leave us at a Loss where to find them, when we have Occasion to use them. He that knows what belongs to his Salvation, has learned what is sufficient."

"Absolute certainty of our vocation has never been granted through ordinary means, although we may be allowed to believe its existence, when time and results have, so to speak, proved the reality of one's election."

"Whereas no civil society can subsist without a supreme principle regulating the morality of its acts and laws, the Church has received from God this lofty mission, which tends to the happiness of the people, while she in no way embarrasses, by the exercise of this her ministry, the free and prompt action of Governments."

"Eletto was a young men who found life's meaning in Jesus, a life given up like Jesus. I would like to see not only the monument on the banks of Lake Bracciano but also a monument in our hearts so that in our different vocations we are able to imitate him in his total trust in Christ without reserve. Here and here only lies the future of the Church in Italy, in Europe and in the rest of the world."

"We are here to tell the Ukrainians that we are here, that we are here with them to share their pain, that we are on their side, but at the same time we want to dare to promote peace. We have heard many Ukrainian brothers speak of armed resistance and it is an attitude that can also be understood, but we must not give in to what apparently seems to be the only possible reaction. We must work and reflect on paths of peace that start from active and passive non-violence. Can war be counteracted with non-violence? Can war be countered with non-violence? It is a reflection that must engage us in the coming weeks, in the coming months and also in the coming years. We must return to non-violent conscientious objection against everything that is injustice, corruption, whatever goes against the development of man. Jesus still tells us today: Blessed are the builders of peace."

"Far from modernising ourselves in order to keep up with the times, as they say, we must return to the faith and piety of the Fathers (Tradition and the Deposit of Faith) in every way, because modernisation is already a more or less concealed apostasy and leads infallibly to perdition."

"The Magi, the first pagans called to faith and our forerunners, show us the way that leads to the Redeemer and how we must reach him. They were enlightened by a star, understood that it was a heavenly call, and without delay hurried on their way to Jerusalem, leaded by the same star. So we must walk toward the heavenly Jerusalem: obeying the Lord who invites us to himself, and walking with our eyes fixed on Heaven, in the supernatural light of faith. We do not go to Jesus Christ with human light; we cannot go there by calculating material or political opportunities. The light that leads us to him rises in the sky, and from Heaven leads us to the eternal homeland. (pp. 55-56)"

"True temporal and eternal happiness lies in the possession of God. (p. 127)"

"The Christian life is not and cannot be entertainment, because its goal is not to pass more or less joyfully the time that has been assigned to us by God, but to strive for the conquest of the eternal treasure, of God, infinite greatness and infinite beauty. (p. 318)"

"Contemplation, whereby the soul is lifted up into divine magnificence, is exultation of the spirit in divine light, joy in tasting the fruits of Redemption, and an outpouring of love for God for His infinite beauty and goodness. The soul grows in the ways of love when it humbles itself and recognises its own lowliness; it is then that God lowers himself to it and takes pleasure in it, working wonders of grace. To look at God and be looked at by Him, this is the synthesis of the greatest elevations of love: Respixit. Faith looks at Him, hope and charity look at Him, and He turns to us, enlightening us, elevating us and embracing us; the troubled heart, exiled and groaning in this valley of tears, looks at Him, and He pours out His mercy. (pp. 982-983)"

"Night came. It was cold but clear, and the stars shone in the sky. A great silence surrounded that place, and an even greater solemnity reigned there, because the invisible heavenly court had already come down to earth to court the divine King, and it shone in its placid spiritual light, made entirely of knowledge and love. Men and things slept, and far away only a few glimmers of the fires of the shepherds watching over their flocks could be seen. The stars revolved in the sky, following the laws of order assigned to them by God, and in Mary's immaculate body the laws of procreation were fulfilled with the same precision. The stars shone and the divine Sun shone towards the horizon of earthly life, about to rise like a ray through the immaculate breast of the Mother. (pp. 1004-1005)"

"It was a solemn moment: the angelic host, invisible, became visible; it was a choir of light shining in the night to the ends of the horizon. They were figures as bright as lightning and as placid as the dawn; their eyes were turned towards heaven and their bodies were cloaked in glory. They moved like a starry sky, in perfect order, and they sang. Oh, who can imagine what that song was? (p. 1012)"

"The night, which seemed to have disappeared for a moment, returned with its cloak of shadows. The firmament shone, but the stars did not look like stars; they were like placid eyes of peace gazing ecstatically at the earth. They passed glistening over the blessed cave as if in a dance of love; it was as if they recognised from afar the powerful voice that created them, and sang a hymn of order to the eternal Incarnate wisdom that had harmonised them. (p. 1014)"

"Never has there been so much talk of peace as today, and never has the world been such a theatre of war as today. If glory is not given to God, how can there be peace? (p. 1019)"

"The bread of the body, without that of the soul, reduces man to a beast, and concerns him only with the life that passes, while he wanders the world to attain immortal life. It is an immense sorrow to see that men speak only of material affairs, to see them anxious for gain, and completely or almost completely forgetful of the soul! (p. 1068)"

"Here is Jesus in prayer, alone, prostrate before the Father, with his arms outstretched and his gaze turned to heaven. It was a marvellous sight worthy of God, as the eternal Word, knowledge of the Father, light from infinite light. He was like an eternal lamp before Him. (p. 1102)"

"That little light brings out the beauty of the altar and speaks of the ineffable love that silently burns in the holy Ciborium; it expresses in a delicate symbol the infinite reality of the eternal Word, the light of the Father, and the reality of the Incarnate Word, the victim who perpetually burns and consumes himself. It gathers our soul in faith, which is knowledge of God, and enkindles it with tender love; it is not a simple light, but a complex of hearts enkindled before the love that gives itself. Every vibration of that light expresses the vibration of a soul, every effusion of oil towards the flame expresses the return of life towards God, enkindled with love and consumed with charity; every quiet crackle of the placid light expresses the trepidation of inner charity. The lamp, placed by the Church, is not mute, but is the representation of the Church, generated by the Redeemer and his perennial glorification. (p. 1102)"

"The Church is a solid wall that no bomb has been able to bring down, because the words of Jesus have formed his children into a phalanx of heroes. (p. 1318)"

"Jesus Christ proclaims himself the conqueror of love through his bloody sacrifice and places love, heroic sacrifice and charity at the foundation of the Christian character. He came to bring “fire” to earth, not that of destruction but that of charity, and he desires only that it be kindled; he came to bring it by submitting himself to complete sacrifice and to the pains that were to flood him like a baptism, and his love makes him desire them with the most vivid anxiety, which keeps him in anguish until he has suffered them all. He leaves this love and sacrifice as a beautiful legacy to his followers, for the conversion of the world will mean that they will suffer persecution and pain even from their dearest family members. (p. 1328)"

"Jesus sat at the centre of the table, looking transcendent, divine. His beautiful face was suffused with majesty, love, goodness, peace and a gentle, profound sadness, which was like the shadow of that marvellous picture and made it even more beautiful. His divinity, hidden by his most holy humanity, emerged from those mysteriously sculpted and beautiful features; his eyes shone and reflected the sky, his cheeks were white and ruddy, and his blond beard gave them a golden hue in the splendour of his goodness. His whole Heart, all his love, emerged from that face, and in his composed modesty there was something maternal, immensely maternal. He was the Bridegroom of the Song of Songs who was giving himself at that moment; he opened the door of his charity and exuded the fragrance of love; he embraced the souls of all the centuries; he embraced his Church and gave her his life. (p. 1498)"

"He was already transfigured, but he was transfigured even more... His face was mysterious, very sweet, thoughtful, profound... it was like the face of God: power, wisdom and love. He had the confidence of one who can do anything, the brightness of one who knows everything and does everything with wisdom, and the gentleness of one who gives himself out of pure love. The angels almost held their breath, and the heavens almost stopped their harmony. He took the bread, raised his eyes to heaven, “gave thanks”, that is, he prayed fervently and thanked the Father for the great gift he was giving to [[mankind]; he broke the bread and distributed it to his apostles, and exclaimed calmly with a voice of placid love, before which the laws of creation stopped, adoring and obeying, almost disappearing from his presence: ' This is my body, which is given for you; do this in memory of me'. (p. 1500)"

"O eternal light, I come to You, and in Your words I see truths that transcend all others; I see them, I accept them, I adore them, I absorb them into my life, I make them my norm, my character, the reason and guide for all my actions, the pasture of my mind, the flame of my heart, bliss in exile, happiness revealed in the eternal homeland. (p. 1606)"

"The sky with all its creation is like a telescope that allows us to glimpse God: it does not magnify Him, it cannot magnify Him to our eyes, because He is infinite, but it can give us a glimpse of His greatness, it can allow us to contemplate a ray of His power, a glimmer of His wisdom, a warm reflection of the infinite flame of His love. (p. 1615)"

"And even if I ascend into the sidereal sky, what is this before You, my God? And even if my mind reaches high and, like a cherub with outstretched wings, stretches towards the boundaries of the sky, what has it seen of creation, and what has it been able to intuit about You, my God? If I were to open my arms to the east and west, as Michelangelo's image in the Sistine Chapel has opened and stretched out, and if I were to carry on the tips of my fingers, so to speak, the power of the mind that sees and the love that shapes, as that image seems to carry it, what would I have seen of You, my God, and of Your works? (p. 1616)"

"The ecstatic angels admired the work of the Word of God and sang praises of love; they saw far away, on those seas of splendour, what He would be when He became incarnate, they saw in the prophetic light His human nature, shining with the divine nature in the unity of the very Person of the Word, through whom everything was made at that moment, and they felt invited to worship. (p. 1620)"

"My soul gathers itself and adores you, O Word of God, for all these wonders sing your praises and glorify the Father through you. You are the ideal heaven of the soul, you are the perennial source of living water that quenches its thirst, you are the flower that sprouted from the rod of the root of Jesse. You are the sun that illuminates our life, and the light that dispels its darkness, You are the Lamb sacrificed for the salvation of all, You are the new Adam, who forms the generation of the righteous, reforms man as God desires, and leads him to eternal bliss. You are my Redeemer, and how could I render your work in me vain? (p. 1621)"

"The ways of divine Love cannot be travelled without Mary; the contrary is absurd, for without her effective mediation there is no vigour of faith to nourish and sustain it. The soul does not marry God without Mary, and does not have the purest wine of love without her. (p. 1656)"

"Jesus was alone and praying. What a sight! His soul prayed, and in praying he was like a flame rising from a holocaust, for his body was wholly a sacrifice of love. He prayed and was enveloped in the divine splendour of the divine Person of the Word, almost like a torch in the midday rays. He shone with divine light, and drew his body close to him as if it were a cloud of thymian drawn up by the flame. His centre of gravity was no longer the earth but the eternal splendour of the Word, and he tended upwards, made light as a feather. (p. 1768)"

"[Don Dolindo] is a saint. The whole of Paradise [is in his soul]. [...] Why do you come here, you have Don Dolindo in Naples?, Go to him. He is a saint."

"Quattro Vangeli commentati dal sac. Dolindo Ruotolo, Casa Mariana Editrice, Napoli, 2005, 4 volumes."

"Against the current eclipse of moral values and the resulting oppression of the human person in a world dominated by moral relativism, St. Thomas points to conscience as the norm of action, the path to man's redemption from the powers of the age and victory over technocracy, materialism, and idolatry of the State, which, by denying conscience, have suffocated or enslaved the human person. (p. 572)"

"[...] he [Thomas Aquinas] was neither traditionalist nor rationalist; he did not allow himself to be fascinated by intuitionist subjectivism, nor did he reduce intellectual life to cerebralism; he defended reason against those who, emphasizing its weakness, wanted to deduce the impossibility or danger of a relatively autonomous philosophy, but he was equally decisive and strong in affirming the transcendence of faith and the infinite height of revealed mysteries; he had a marked preference for Aristotle, precisely because of his fidelity to the most obvious data of reason and common sense, but he did not become an idolater to the point of confusing a divine religion with a philosophical system. (p. 575)"

"Those who know St. Thomas and are accustomed to savoring the substance of his truth, the clarity of his reasoning, the precision of his method, and even his “discreet Latin” (as Dante said), who are familiar with the magnificent intellectual architecture represented above all by the Summa [...], cannot help but consider with melancholy the fact that St. Thomas has been rejected by Italian thinkers and their consequent aberrations from the golden thread of the Hellenic-Latin philosophical tradition [...]. (p. 577)"

"There has been no shortage of great Italian thinkers. We remember above all Vico and, in his field, Galilei. But when we consider that, even more than these, Giordano Bruno, Nicolò Machiavelli, Ardigò and many others, even recent and living ones, whose most valid claim to fame is that they made history in the era of intellectual confusion, one wonders what we Italians have gained we Italians, in thought and in life, by stubbornly abandoning and banishing a thinker [Thomas Aquinas] who was authentically ours [...]; and what ignorance led us to deny a sublime genius who, together with Dante (who drew inspiration from him), gave us an unsurpassed primacy and an irrepressible influence in the world of thought. (p. 579)"

"[...] if healthy realism, spiritual harmony, and Thomist balance—which became a spiritual attitude and lifestyle through the deepening of thought—flourishing among Italians, had been the backbone of social and political life, perhaps we would have acted more wisely and experienced fewer disasters. (p. 579)"

"Cardinal Capecelatro, particularly in recent years, was overwhelmed by the course of events and by that Modernist crisis which had long been preparing and so violently burst out in the Church. He remained immured in his old ideal of "God and Liberty", in the old dream of "the pope arm-in-arm with the King of Italy". He did not understand the new movement and the hard lessons which it brought with it."

"Science owes to him many important discoveries."

"If a spark of God's love has already been kindled in you, do not boast about it. Do not expose it to the wind. Close the door of your heart so that it does not grow cold."

"Remember that at home and everywhere else, you should accept other people's shortcomings in the same way that you want others to accept you."

"(About the Milan plague) It was, my children [...] God's great mercy. He wounded and healed; he scourged and consoled; he laid his hand on the rod of discipline and also offered us the stick of support and sustenance."

"Federigo Borromeo, born in 1564, was one of those rare men who, in any era, have employed their exceptional genius, all the means of great wealth, all the advantages of a privileged position, and a continuous intent in the pursuit and exercise of excellence."

"Convinced that life is not destined to be a burden for many and a celebration for some, but rather a task for everyone, for which each person will be held accountable, he began as a child to think about how he could make his life useful and holy."

"Because of his prudence and his business-like methods, he was a favourite with the popes."

"A spiritual man, who, by the practice of virtue, prayer, penance and mortification, has already laid up a certain treasure of merit in heaven, knowing full well that he has in his house, nay, even within himself, a traitor sense which, assaulting his will, and alluring it by the bait of its delectations, is able to strip it of all its spiritual wealth; with what jealousy ought he to keep guard over it; how sternly ought he to check its motions; how rigorously to keep it in subjection and restraint."

"Spedalieri was wrongly claimed by the Liberals as one of theirs, and if some of them accuse him of a want of loyalty when he wishes to conciliate democracy and a Divine sanction of the social order, it is because they do not understand the true nature of democracy or of the saying that all authority comes from God."

"There are in these parts many reputed defenders of the Catholic faith who think that our religion consists in nothing but hatred of the Lutherans... and they are so wedded to this point of view that, without ever looking into the matter itself, they take in bad part not only all negotiations with the Lutherans, but every single word spoken about them which is not abusive."

"His career is that of a good man, struggling for the welfare of his Church against corruptions not essential to the system to which he was devoted."

"Few ecclesiastics in that century were so successful in retaining the esteem of men of all parties and all creeds as this large-minded and eminently able and honest churchman."

"He was a man passionately devoted to letters, and somewhat vehement in character. At the conclave of 1758, he was on the point of being elected Pope: he had obtained eighteen votes; but the fears inspired by the inequality of his temper caused him to be set aside."

"His character was impetuous and haughty, especially towards the Romans."

"The Church established by Christ is one: holy, catholic, apostolic, one, founded on Peter. Like Jesus, the Church founded by Him, which forms His mystical body, is truth, life and way."

"My soul is pierced at seeing my Church prostrated under the weight of a most painful agony. Errors leading to the loss of faith are spreading more and more within her; sin seduces the minds and hearts of so many of my children. (15 September 1994)"

"Fight with Me, little children, against the beast that looks like a lamb, Freemasonry, which has infiltrated ecclesial life in order to destroy Christ and His Church. To achieve this goal, it wants to build a new idol, that is, a false Christ and a false Church. (17 June 1989)"

"The task of the Masonic Lodges today is to work with great cunning to lead humanity everywhere to despise the holy Law of God, to work in open opposition to the Ten Commandments, to take away the worship due to God alone and give it to false idols, which are exalted and adored by an ever-increasing number of people. (3 June 1989)"

"Jesus is the way that leads to the Father through the Gospel. Ecclesiastical Freemasonry favours exegesis that gives interpretations of it that are rationalistic and natural, through the application of various literary genres, so that it is torn apart in every part. In the end, it leads to the denial of the historical reality of the miracles and of his Resurrection, and the very divinity of Jesus and his saving mission are called into question."

"Do not waste time in front of the television, which is the most powerful tool in the hands of my Adversary, used to spread the darkness of sin and impurity everywhere. Television is the idol mentioned in the Book of Revelation, created to be worshipped by all the nations of the earth, and to which the Evil gives form and movement, so that it may become, in his hands, a terrible means of seduction and perversion."

"These are ten decisive years. I ask you to spend them with me, because you are entering the final period of the Second Advent, which will lead you to the triumph of my Immaculate Heart in the glorious coming of my son Jesus. In this period of ten years, the fullness of time, which I have indicated to you, will be fulfilled, beginning with La Salette and continuing until my last and current apparitions. In this period of ten years, the purification that you have been experiencing for years will reach its climax, and therefore the sufferings will become greater for everyone. In this period of ten years, the mystery of iniquity, prepared by the ever-increasing spread of apostasy, will be manifested. During this ten-year period, all the secrets that I have revealed to some of my daughters will be fulfilled, and all the events that I have foretold will come to pass. Therefore, I ask you today to consecrate this entire period of time to me, as if it were a longer and continuous Marian year. (Message from Mary to Don Gobbi, Lourdes, 18 September 1989)"

"Divine Scripture has warned you that those who sin through the flesh will find their just punishment in the same flesh. Thus, the time has come when the angel of the first plague passes over the world, so that it may be punished according to God's will."

"I chose you, my son, for this simple reason: because you are the poorest, the smallest, the most limited. Humanly speaking, you are the most unprepared. / I chose you because in your life my Adversary had already managed to claim victory. In your existence, I made you experience in advance what I myself will do at the moment of my greatest triumph. / My Adversary will one day believe he has achieved complete victory: over the world, over the Church, over souls. / Only then will I intervene – terrible and victorious – so that his defeat will be all the greater, the more certain he was of having won forever. (18 October 1975)"

"It will not be weapons that give us the future, and much less justice and peace, instead, it will be internally unarmed people who will stop violence in all its forms and its false or presumed reasons. Justice is not in the unstable balance of forces involved, but in the testimony of a truly new life in love without measure."

"Only by successful war can we obtain peace."

"His wise and unwearying efforts to reform his diocese, whose clergy were in a deplorable state, were crowned with unhoped-for success."

"Though he was a good philosopher and theologian, he was a better religious. Those well acquainted with him are convinced that he never lost his baptismal innocence. Neither his holiness nor his learning made him a disagreeable companion or an undesirable friend. It would be hard to say whether he was more admired or loved by those who came into contact with him."

"Every historical epoch has its special conflict, and from the sixteenth century down to our own time the conflict has been between liberty and authority. It is the office of religious and social truth to establish harmony between these two terms. The excess of social authority leads to oppression, and the excess of liberty leads to license and the disorganization of the social fabric. The equilibrium of the two constitutes and maintains the life of all society. Proofs are not needed to show that it has ever been the highest glory of the Catholic Church, I do not say to have invented either social authority or social freedom, but to have maintained the equilibrium and established the harmony of the one with the other."

"May the young learn from Savio how to sanctify themselves, even in the midst of dangers, how to join holiness with cheerfulness, frankness with reserve, dignity with modesty, the interior life and intimate union with Our Lord with the diligent exercise of external duties; let them learn of him to be beloved by God and men, and thus to leave a holy memory to succeeding generations."

"To render the Science of Algebra intelligible to pupils whose minds are yet unaccustomed to such studies, is not an easy task. For should the instructor subject every principle, as it is announced, to a rigorous demonstration, he will very probably not be comprehended; while, on the other hand, inconclusive reasoning is worse than none at all."

"It was pleasantly said of him that he had two passions---one for pure mathematics, and the other for the pure Catholic religion."

"There is nothing perhaps harder to defend and easier to attack than a system not clearly defined, at least in its principal parts. Its defenders waste their time in showing what is either beside the question or only touches the surface, and its adversaries, when they have pointed out the weak points in that which, true or false, has nothing to do with the truth of the system, settle the controversy in their own favour."

"Scholars have long noted that Angelico’s vision of Hell did not emerge from a vacuum. …His Hell is not the feverish grotesquerie of later Northern painters, nor the architectural labyrinth of Dante’s nine circles. Instead, it is a carefully staged moral drama, Dominican in its clarity, theological in its logic, and yet unmistakably shaped by the imaginative vocabulary of both Dante and ."

"When all shall see me, by fair Fortune's love Pass through the days which Fate unsparing spins On her eternal distaff for my destiny, Joyful, contented with myself; for then Far other shall I be than now I am."

"The amount of vigor, health, and power meted out to the secretary was in just proportion to his need of them. He retained them as long as they were required by him for whose comfort and glory they had been intrusted to him."

"Influence exercised by the Jesuits, in their golden age, was largely due to the far-seeing policy of Aquaviva, who is undoubtedly the greatest general that has governed the Society."

"Acquaviva was chosen by a strong majority. His subsequent career justified the wisdom of the choice."

"Comprehensive books are very useful in the hands of those whose minds are already formed ; but experience has taught us that a judicious parsimony proves more successful in encouraging the mental efforts of young beginners, amid the many difficulties arising from the giddiness natural to their age, as well as from the number of their scholastic duties."

"Only the young men who sat under him could know his fascination as a teacher."

"We believe that it has been brought about by a special dispensation of Divine Providence, that the Frankish Princes should profess the orthodox faith; like the Roman Emperors, in order that they may help this city, whence it took its rise. Persuade them with all earnestness to keep from any friendship and alliance with our most unspeakable enemies, the Lombards."

"At the express wish of the pope, he became cardinal bishop of Palestrina, to the government of which he applied himself with untiring energy."

"God forgive you! What have you done?"

"A man of a spirit most pure and blameless. It was however remarked, half jestingly, that as he had come into the world too early — at seven months — and had pot been reared without difficulty, so there was upon the whole too little of the earthly element in his composition. Of the practices and intrigues of the Curia, he had never been able to comprehend anything."

"All the lands of the West have their eyes directed toward our humility; by them we are considered as a God upon earth."

"His own sanctity of life, severity of morals, and aversion to luxury made more resplendent his virtues and talents."

"The Christian faith does not seem to have any prejudicial arguments against the presence of life and intelligent life in the cosmos (how could it, since these are events that belong to the factual order?), but neither can it be considered anti-scientific to consider reasonable, in the absence of compelling data, the “classical solution” that envisages the uniqueness of the human being... Even the Incarnation of the Word has a revelatory value that is universal, not just local. Its primacy over angelic creatures may ultimately be an expression of its primacy over all possible creatures, a Christocentric primacy, not geocentric or anthropocentric, even if we do not know how it is exercised. The final word on the subject of life in the cosmos does not belong to theology, but to science. Theology, like the rest of humanity, can only wait."

"Most media outlets present us with the image of scientists as atheists or, at the very least, people who are not inclined to see nature as the work of a creator God. However, this image only partially corresponds to reality and is not representative of scientists as a whole."

"Contemporary philosophy has considered the subject of God and the meaning of life too “strong” to be addressed, thus settling on positions of weak thought. Science, on the contrary, has not been afraid to address these questions, as can be easily seen in the popular works of many scientists. The fact that the scientific method cannot provide a comprehensive answer to these questions does not prevent them from arising and continuing to attract those who study nature."

"The physical and mathematical sciences now have a mature epistemology, which protects them from ideological drifts because it has made them touch in a formally rigorous way on the foundations, and also the limits, of knowledge. The biological sciences, on the other hand, are younger and have not yet encountered the problems of formal and ontological incompleteness that the physical and mathematical sciences are well aware of. This can lead biology to want to offer its own exhaustive and sometimes self-referential “worldview,” considering any discussion of the foundations of being, and therefore of the origin of things, to be superfluous. In reality, when the problem of foundations is closely examined, and biology is beginning to do so as it strives to delve deeply into the origin of DNA, the problem of Logos, rationality, and the meaning of things reemerges, and with it the question of God. The career of a researcher such as Francis Collins is sufficient proof of this."

"When Christians no longer live according to their faith, history will not fail to show the consequences, reserving for them a necessary purification."

"I believe that fundamental theology should promote unity in the intellectual life of believers by helping them to reflect on the reasons for their faith—certainly with the help of pastoral care and catechesis. Secularism and secularization have an easy time of it when there is weakness of thought, even among believers. The fact that the Christian faith has its foundation in Jesus Christ does not exempt us from looking to philosophy, history or sciences to show our interlocutors that the Christian message does not contradict the knowledge of these other fields of knowledge, but rather reveals their ultimate meaning. A believer who works as an intellectual must be able to explain what Jesus Christ has to do with philosophy, history, medicine, economics, law, and even mathematics, as Monsignor Luigi Giussani loved to repeat."

"Interviewer: What is meant by “theology of credibility”? Tanzella-Nitti: By this expression we mean a theology that reflects on the reasonableness of believing in Revelation, first and foremost in the Revealer par excellence, Jesus of Nazareth. Classical apologetics, which accompanied us until the dawn of the Second Vatican Council, did not have a fully theological status, but developed its arguments mainly on the logical and philosophical side. The first theology of credibility is given to us by the Gospels, when they declare, with St. Luke, that they were written so that we might realize the solidity of the teachings received, or with St. John, that those things were transmitted to us so that we might believe in Jesus Christ and so that, by believing, we might have life in him."

"Every step forward in our certain knowledge of nature is always a step toward the truth of things and, ultimately, toward Truth with a capital T."

"The standard model that organizes the properties of elementary particles is highly symmetrical and elegant, but it is not the only example. Just think of Mendeleev's Periodic Table of Elements, or Maxwell's equations describing electromagnetism. Good science seems to have a privileged relationship with order and symmetry: it is not a relationship that we only read about in our intellect, it must also have sufficient objective confirmation in things. The news that the Higgs boson seems to have finally been revealed confirms us in the same idea. We now know that the 24 fundamental particles and the four forces of nature can be brought together in a single grand theoretical framework. Some may wonder where this rationality and elegance come from and, more boldly, whether they have any connection with the idea that the physical universe is the reflection of a creative intelligence... Put this way, the question goes beyond what the scientific method can tell us, which is based on measurable quantities and does not question the ultimate causes of reality. It is nevertheless significant that scientists, as human beings, are surprised by this and seek an explanation. The question then becomes philosophical or perhaps even theological: we cannot answer it by asking for new measurements from the Large Hadron Collider, but it is interesting that, as a question, it is now also being raised by scientific research and is arising in our laboratories."

"The horizon of our knowledge, even scientific knowledge, is open to being, to totality. And this is simply because knowledge is a dimension of our spirit, unlimited because it transcends matter. The material world may one day end, but our knowledge of it, insofar as it participates in the knowledge of God, never ends."

"In my opinion, those who believe that a weak science, aware of its own limitations and its own continuous provisional nature, dialogues better with faith because it is incapable of “challenging it” are mistaken. Quite the contrary is true: a science that recognizes itself as a quest for truth is more open to the questions that matter, the truly important ones, which point to the origin and meaning of things, thus making itself ready to listen with interest to the answers that theology and faith offer to these questions. The worst enemy of the Christian faith continues to be ignorance and superficiality, certainly not science."

"It is often believed that defending the dignity of the human person and his transcendent dimension requires revenge against the reasons for scientific progress, which should therefore be scaled back, slowed down, or even rejected. Little thought is given to the fact that the true subject of technical and scientific endeavour is the human person, and that this endeavour, in addition to expressing a vocation to seek the truth, has a value of promotion for man and for the whole society in which he lives."

"From the point of view of scientific analysis, the term “finalism” should not be too surprising, if it does not refer to an intentional purpose, but only to an interpretative strategy. The action of finalistic principles, in fact, is not new to other fields of science. Mathematical physics knows the principle of least action, which indicates how a physical system always takes the most advantageous path. The principles of classical thermodynamics are essentially finalistic principles, and chemistry also uses them when explaining chemical bonds, starting from the principle that each atom tends to complete its eight fundamental electron orbitals."

"To do science, you need commitment and passion. You need to have at least an implicit belief that nature will not behave capriciously towards us, but will remain faithful to its laws. Above all, you need to believe that there is a truth out there, and that it is worth seeking. Every scientist has his or her own “worldview” and within that worldview employs the categories he or she finds most congenial. It is this personalistic aspect of scientific research, now highlighted by many authors, that deserves to be explored. The reasons why a scientist “embraces” one worldview rather than another also deserve to be explored."

"The Christian faith is a friend of reason, and a God without Logos cannot be the Christian God. The world responds to a creative plan, and this plan is in a certain way glimpsed by the man of science, who is capable of perceiving this Logos because his intelligence is the image of God. Theology must take an interest in scientific knowledge in order to be a better theology."

"The story of Galileo Galilei, on closer inspection, was not an exegetical dispute but a great philosophical and cultural confrontation, which had a positive influence on the Catholic Church, spurring it to distance itself more and more from an instrumental and unenlightened use of the Scriptures.... If they are true knowledge of the world, Catholic theology has nothing to fear from scientific knowledge: it may be rightly challenged by it, but, for the sake of the one truth, it must accept the challenge with intellectual honesty and epistemological rigor."

"I believe that Darwin was good at helping us understand the past, but I wouldn't invoke him too much as a prophet of future scenarios. The biological evolution of human beings seems to have stopped precisely with the emergence of freedom and culture."

"Saying that Christian theology provided the cultural and philosophical ‘humus’ for the birth of science is of little interest to anyone, while saying, impertinently, that science and theology are eternally at war, or that Christianity is irrational, sells books."

"Evolution, after all, is the way God creates."

"The idea of evolution is at home in Christian theology. For the cosmos and life to evolve, a positive amount of information is necessary. I do not believe that biological evolution is possible in a materialistic world, without information, without direction, without a plan."

"Andreotti did everything and the opposite of everything; Forlani did nothing and the opposite of nothing."

"Craxi's politics have the present, they have the future, they have eternity."

"[When asked if he had ever experienced homosexual feelings] Certainly. And more than once. I experience friendship in a very strong way, even in these terms. After all, I believe that homosexuality can be a Christian fact [...] The Church can admit that two people of the same sex exchange affection and use purely erotic terminology [...] Pope Paul VI in the document Persona humana defines homosexuality as a ‘disordered condition’, not a sinful one. What does ‘disordered condition’ mean? This needs to be discussed."

"I have always noticed that the only figure defined as "unjust" in the Gospel is that of a judge: and it seemed to me an apt definition. Fascism was less hateful than this robed bureaucracy that used violence in the name of justice. In the history of Italy, if freedom had prevailed, as I now believe to be certain, the names of the magistrates of Milan, Antonio Di Pietro, Borrelli, Davigo, and Boccassini would have been forever signati nigro lapillo as figures to be remembered with horror, those of the unjust judge."

"The Islamic God has nothing in common with man: he is a Presence without measure, blending personality and impersonality in himself. [...] For the Christian, it is clear here what the Trinity means to him, namely that God is a relationship between persons, that is, intrinsically human. [...] The Christian God is a person and can only be understood as a relationship between persons."

"In the 20th century, Christian Democracy performed the function that the States of the Church had performed for fourteen hundred years"

"(About the cultural roots of Umberto Bossi) A little bit of right-wing Fascism, a little bit of Marxism in slang."

"On the front of anti-clericalism and aversion to the Church, we are witnessing a real drift, parallel to certain political battles. There is an anti-Christian tide rising in Europe, an anti-Catholic sentiment. It is difficult to predict exactly what will happen. Violence no longer affects only politics but also the symbolic part of society. Therefore, it also affects the Church. :*Quoted in Roberto Zuccolini, Baget Bozzo: è il segno dell' anticlericalismo dilagante (Baget Bozzo: it is a sign of rampant anticlericalism), Corriere della sera”', 30 April 2007, p. 3."

"I don't like Costanzo. We argued in 1994 when he presented Berlusconi with an audience of hostile people. Vespa, on the other hand, created Porta a Porta, a masterpiece. He has been more useful than Costanzo. “'Porta a Porta”' is the most useful thing there is for the centre-right."

"(About the possible successor to Silvio Berlusconi) The issue has not yet arisen, for the moment. However, the two most likely candidates are currently Gianfranco Fini and Giulio Tremonti. They are neck and neck. [...] I do not see any women as future leaders; no one in Forza Italia is ready, nor indeed in the entire centre-right."

"The transformation of the electorate into a television audience has raised the quality of democracy and brought direct democracy closer to parliamentary democracy, thus bringing Western democracy closer to its model, Athenian democracy, the original form of direct democracy."

"Between us and the left lies the blood of Craxi, which cries out for vengeance before God."

"The West has lost its faith but not the wisdom and hope of faith [...], the Christian roots of the West appear precisely when they are no longer recognised."

"The primacy of personal freedom – writes Don Gianni, referring to the social order – indicates the transcendence of the person over society... this idea is a Christian legacy: it is divine life communicated to the person by the Incarnate Word, Jesus Christ: every person has become an end in relation to society because of the primacy of Jesus Christ as a person who lives in other people. (p. 136)"

"Europe has received from the United States the imprint of Christianity in freedom. (p. 137)"

"The West, the concept born in the struggle against Nazism and Communism [...] is the secular and liberal version of Christianity, thanks above all to the United States [...] by opposing the United States at all levels, the Church is fighting against the Christianity of which the West is the fruit."

"We are pleased to publish this article by Gianni Baget Bozzo, a member of the Christian Democracy party in the 1950s, now a priest and historian of the Catholic party."

"Antonio Possevinus represented the literary, scientific, and diplomatic type of Jesuit, performing important political missions, establishing schools of science and letters, and applying himself to diplomatic protocols and classical authors with equal assiduity. Had he not met with insurmountable difficulties in Sweden and Russia, and in negotiating the treaties between Poland and the empire, he would have left a still deeper trace on the political history of the Church and of Europe."

"Seripando displayed burning zeal, working especially to bring about a thorough reform of his order and to purge it of the Lutheran elements which had penetrated into it. During the first period of the Council of Trent, Seripando had played a most distinguished part."

"The best elements of humanism and Christianity were united in him."

"He distinguished himself by his zeal for the purity of the text of Holy Writ, and also by his peculiar views concerning original sin and justification."

"However great this addition to the number of facts serving to elucidate the natural history of these most interesting organisms may have been, the same cannot, unfortunately, be said regarding our knowledge of their organic development and general economy. This lamentable condition of things must be attributed to the too natural desire which observers entertain to associate their name with the discovery of a new form, to which end, consequently, the majority devote themselves. And an additional reason may be found in the difficulties which are met with in the investigation of the mode of development of organisms of such astonishing minuteness, which renders it almost a matter of chance when we are able to observe the various phases of the organic life of the Diatomacae. Whence arises the necessity of examining with the utmost attention everything that is presented in the field of the microscope, and especially in the case of living diatoms, which should be daily observed at all seasons to enable us to watch all the epochs of their development."

"The apparent function of the Diatomacae in the economy nature, viz. to vivify, as it were, the immensity of the ocean, as well as all fresh and brackish waters, decomposing, as they do, carbonic acid under the influence of light, and consequently giving off oxygen, is sufficient to show that organisms of such excessive minuteness must be endowed with an extraordinary reproductive capacity in order to supply, by their number, the vast scope of the office they are destined to fulfil."

"Castracane was a devout priest as well as an enthusiastic investigator."