Cardinals

"The message of the Gospel continues to be a novelty in our times and has the ability to respond to all the problems of today's society, since it can adapt to the circumstances of time and place as long as people do not allow themselves to be suffocated by material goods."

"Wojtyla made his own this principle whereby, with the incarnation, Christ in some way unites himself to every man, and reveals to man the meaning of himself. Humanism is entirely founded on Christology, so that man is the obligatory path for the Church, which cannot but dedicate itself to serving the good of man. From these principles derive the rights of the human person, which is the value on which the legitimacy or illegitimacy of all political and social systems is measured."

"All the archives are equivalent in themselves, because they all belong to an unicum that binds and holds together the dossiers; to evaluate or devalue any of them would inevitably be to ordain its salvation or its being set aside. This would never be implemented in the archives. All writings are important and all have their own reason, which binds them to each other. This does not mean that some famous acts in history don’t strike the fantasy or mind of the historian more than others."

"The renewed consecration of Spain to the Sacred Heart will not bring forth abundant fruit of life and of witness of Christian love without holy priests.” Spain, the Spain of today, needs many holy priests according to the heart of Christ!"

"It's not about doing new things but about being genuinely faithful to what the essence of the Christian faithful is. Some think that the renewal will bring about new things or something like that. Instead, the renewal will help us to cleanse ourselves a bit, so that the face of Jesus Christ will shine in our face, because this is what it means to be a Christian."

"When there is hostility towards the family, then not only it is misunderstood, but it is mistreated; so the need to affirm its faith and its content of natural and supernatural reality, becomes a primary and fundamental postulate in the evangelizing mission of the Church."

"The fact that some priests have experienced relationships and have brought children into the world does not affect the theme of priestly celibacy, which represents a precious gift for the Latin Church, the ever-present value of which has been expressed by the recent Popes, from St Paul VI to Pope Francis. Similarly, cases of abandonment of the matrimonial union and from the children do not take away from the ever-present value of Christian marriage."

"It will be a pontificate in continuity with the magisterium of Pope Francis. I am very happy about that. This is what the majority of the cardinals wanted ... but with a style of their own. [...] Pope Leo XIV, in his first message, spoke of a “synodal Church.” Having participated in the work of the Synod, we have a Pope who knows synodality, who understands it, who dares to be synodal. There will not be a revolution, but an evolution."

"War is the fruit of sin, and perhaps, we have forgotten sin too much in our prosperous Europe. But sin is present."

"In those moments of war, there were no distinctions. They were all lives that needed to be saved. We as the Church had to help them."

"To state today that the Pope did not have the courage to speak, means not recognizing Pope Pacelli even in a photograph, because he was not a man of half measures, he was not a man of arrangements."

"Open the door of the domestic Church and of the big family of the Church, so that nobody in the world is without a family and the Church is the family for everyone. You must take charge of the service of deacons so that the Church becomes the home of people who suffer."

"Hong Kong now, rather than a Bridge-Church, can be considered a sister-Church to China. We do not know what harvest all of this sowing will yield, but hopefully it will be an abundant one."

"The Congregation has the task of deepening, developing and promoting the fundamental principles of Catholic education, as proposed by the Magisterium of the Church, both regarding the People of God, as well as society at large. In this sense, it is committed to ensuring that the faithful can fulfill their obligations in this area, and that society at large might also recognize and protect their rights."

"As long as we keep our eyes closed and our ears closed and continue to pretend that human trafficking is something that barbarians do on the other side of the world, it's going to continue, and it's going to get worse."

"Today, we feel the urgency to do something for authentic peace. We as citizens and as religious communities in India and Pakistan can and will promote a culture of peace to defuse hatred, disarm hearts, and educate people to forgiveness."

"We are able to have a voice, thanks be to God. Although we are a very small minority, we are not a hidden minority."

"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."

"Our lagoon, our land, our sea, cried out when there was that oil spill that damaged much of the territory. We realized, on a small scale and in a very difficult way, the damage that failure to respect creation can bring. We, therefore, make a great appeal, so that wherever we are, we change not only our way of acting, but also our way of thinking and of being attentive to this great gift of God that is our common home."

"We are invited to open our hearts to others and to pray for them. Let us pray for the elderly and the sick who are the most vulnerable; let us pray for doctors and healthcare workers who are put to the test; we pray for those whose economic situation is already affected by the epidemic; let us pray for those who live in difficult conditions of misery or loneliness."

"I am very touched by the trust he puts in me which is far from being deserved. I am at his disposal for whatever service he will ask of me."

"We have to at least be able to show our solidarity, to let them see that they have a pastor who suffers with their suffering, who gets angry and frustrated at their situation, who is indignant because of it."

"I had never thought for a moment that I might one day be a cardinal. As I was taught since my initial formation for the priesthood, in the Church no one should consider a personal career path."

"Formally the mass of Saint Pius V has never been abolished. It is odd however that those who vaunt themselves as authentic interpreters of Vatican II give an interpretation of it, in the liturgical sphere, so restrictive and so little respectful of the freedom of faithful, making that Council seem even more coercive than the Council of Trent."

"Faith is not only, or above all, information; faith is self-giving; it is communion with Jesus who gives himself. Let us ask the Lord for the grace to cure our blindness. Let us ask him to give us the truth, the only one that makes us truly free, and, at the same time, let us ask for the strength to make it concrete in our lives, following him on the path that leads to Jerusalem, certain that glory is already in the cross."

"I try to solve problems, always remembering that the world has already been saved by the Lord, we must only participate in this salvation. It is a fact that I often repeat to myself."

"The Bible, the practice of the Church from its birth, the Social Teachings of the Church, the witness of martyrs and saints, and the constant mission of the Church towards the poor and neglected through the centuries form a chorus and a symphony which we are invited to hear and to join with our voices and the "instruments" that we have, namely our persons, time, talents, treasure."

"Francis does not teach anything new; what he says is already written in the Gospel: Jesus' love for the poor, the call to conversion, and everything else. He told me that he greatly admires Paul VI, especially Evangelii nuntiandi, which for me is perhaps the most important document of the post-conciliar period. However, Francis emphasised joy, gaudium, because there is a tendency in today's world, not only in the Church, to feel tired and sad. Family life, study, work: these are experienced as a burden. But we have the real reason to be joyful: Jesus, who died and rose again, is alive and is our hope."

"I was not totally surprised that the Holy Father would release an encyclical on Jesus’ love for us, symbolized in His Sacred Heart. For me, it was the Holy Father’s way of making the Christological foundation of the social encyclicals Laudato si and Fratelli tutti” more explicit."

"Father Kroeger mentioned you both loved music. Could you tell us a little story about what happened during those years you were studying together? Cardinal Tagle: Father Jim – or “Jim” at that time — was the choir director of the seminary choir. Especially during big events in the seminary, the philosophy seminarians and the theology seminarians would come together to form one big choir. Jim would teach us and conduct the choir. He was a joy to watch because we didn’t know whether he was conducting or dancing. He made music practice quite enjoyable. Of course we did not tell him that at the time. It was fun because some choir directors that followed Jim were quite stern. He made it fun."

"God who comes to us. We will never be alone. Emmanuel: God with us. And other things that are with us will disappear: the investments, the achievements, the gifts, our money… will all disappear. All these things that we have associated with Christmas may disappear. But Jesus who comes as one of us, God with us, will remain with us forever. So that is our hope."

"Me, the future Pope? That's a joke by journalists."

"It is prophesied that the Antichrist will present himself to the whole of humanity like a pacifist, animalist, ecologist, vegetarian, ecumenist, biblical exegete, philanthropist, as a person who has faith in the progress of science and in universal forgiveness."

"God is the Creator of everything and everyone, so we are members of a single family and we must recognize ourselves as such. This is the fundamental criterion that faith offers us to move from mere tolerance to fraternal coexistence, to interpret the differences that exist among us, to defuse violence and to live as brothers and sisters."

"The concept seemed ambiguous to me, and the emphasis with which "pastorality" was attributed to the current Council was somewhat suspect: was it not meant to implicitly say that the previous Councils did not intend to be "pastoral" or had not been pastoral enough? Had it not had pastoral relevance to make it clear that Jesus of Nazareth was God and consubstantial with the Father, as defined at Nicaea? Had it not had pastoral relevance to clarify the realism of the Eucharistic presence and the sacrificial nature of the Mass, as had been done at Trent?. There was a danger of no longer remembering that the first and irreplaceable mercy for lost humanity is, according to the clear teaching of Revelation, the mercy of truth, a mercy that cannot be exercised without the explicit, firm, constant condemnation of every misrepresentation and every alteration of the deposit of faith, which must be preserved. St Thomas Aquinas noted this in the 'Summa contra Gentiles' (I, 2): the task of theology is to "manifest the truth professed by the Catholic faith, eliminating errors contrary to it"."

"Christianity has an admirable example of the natural union between faith and freedom in Dante Alighieri. Precisely his undoubted adherence to Catholic truth allows and illuminates his perfect autonomy of judgement, free from any fear or human conditioning. Dante is not afraid to criticize the work of the popes and their operational choices, to the point of placing several of them in the depths of hell. But in him "the reverence of the supreme keys" never diminishes and never diminishes in the slightest (Inf. XIX, 101). When it comes to expressing reservations or criticisms that he considers due, there are no discounts neither for lay people, nor for ecclesiastics, nor for monarchs, nor for ordinary citizens... all of whom are required, without exception, to abide by the law evangelical."

"Christmas is not only the telling of what has been; it is perception of what is. It is not only perception of a circumscribed and datable episode; it is savoring of a perennial and universally effective actuality; it is exultation over a richness that is given to us. The annotation that Christmas is after all a birthday would be enough to convince us of this. Now birthdays are for living men. For the dead-even if they are great and very famous-at most, centenarians are remembered. So to celebrate Christmas every year is to express the certainty that Jesus of Nazareth-that child born two thousand years ago in a stable-is a living person: he is really, truly, physically alive; he is still the principle of salvation for us; he is still the center of our every existence and of the whole of history."

"The believer knows that chastity is not the ridiculous mania of complex people, but it is the ability to lord it over our bodies with the help of grace so that we can meekly enter, each according to his or her condition, into God's loving plan."

"We cannot privatise all that is religious. When we have a religious conviction, we are at the same time citizens. We cannot separate the two. It is true for Catholics and for other religions and convictions. Of course, there is a separation of Church and State, but we are still part of civil society. There is no separation between religious conviction and citizenship."

"The challenge is not just to accept immigrants, but to help them integrate. And this is something which the world of politics is afraid to say, whereas the economic world admits it. For the west it is not only a matter of generosity, it is a question of survival."

"[Solov'ëv was] Passionate defender of man and allergic to all philanthropy; tireless apostle of peace and opponent of pacifism; proponent of unity among Christians and critic of all irenicism; in love with nature and far removed from today's ecological infatuations: in a word, friend of truth and enemy of ideology. It is precisely guides like him that we sorely need today."

"Every Christian community is legitimated the moment it feels the weight, responsibility and apostolic impulse which throb and pulse in the heart of the one Bride of the Lord; every Christian community - within its possibilities - must strive to respond to this ineluctable prompting. This is particularly true with regard to the command to evangelise, in the most intense acceptation of the term."

"In our national context, Holy Mary of Guadalupe is a fundamental force for national unity, and devotion to her is now totally independent of the Mexican state. She has contributed to cementing a national Catholic identity, because all Mexicans are in some way Guadalupans."

"There is no doubt missionary work is not easy and it faces no few problems and challenges, old and new. But one this is certain: if the Lord calls us to such a demanding task it is because He will not fail to supply us with the means to achieve it."

"Interview with His Eminence Cardinal Crescenzio Sepe: “My heart will always beat for mission” (2 June 2006)"

"Santità, a Maronna t'accumpagni."

"Time passes and the world changes, but true love never changes. So wrote Salvatore Di Giacomo in one of his famous songs, which my mother used to hum when I was a child. It was May, the month when the sun warms the air and the scent of spring is at its most intense, when I, a boy from the provinces, came to Naples, attracted, like all young people, by the grandeur of the metropolis and, above all, by a city that is unique, I would say exaggerated in its beauty and its manifestations, for better or for worse."

"True love never fails... True love, Christian love, love for one's brothers and sisters, for one's roots, never changes, never strays from its path. And it is with this love that I have returned, as a father and pastor, to this land of blood and hope, to commit myself to restoring dignity to our big-hearted people who, repeatedly deprived of freedom throughout their tormented history, have always been able to combine pain with hope."

"I know that the religious sentiment of our people is often, and wrongly, labelled as colourful folklore, in which legend and magic, the sacred and the profane, merge in our millennial history which, in the eyes of cold secularism, appears incapable of distinguishing superstition from faith. It is true that much superstition still creeps into the authentic Christian message, but I believe that superstition should not be confused with popular piety. This people, who, since the first liquefaction of the blood, have taken St. Januarius as the protector of their city, know how to grasp, in the manifestation of the miracle, the profound meaning of faith: the hope of resurrection. It is an inexpressible mystery which, in order to be conceived, requires symbols capable of representing the link between pain and redemption. The blood that has miraculously come back to life is a sign that refers to the immortality of the soul, to life beyond death, to the resurrection of the flesh."

"[...] it is characteristic of Neapolitans to rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep (cf. Romans 12:15), establishing those deep and sincere relationships of friendship and respect that are capable of transforming the world. If it is true, as Augustine of Hippo said, that "nothing is dear to man without a friend", then the fact that friendship is sacred in Naples is already a sign of hope, a glimpse of the real possibility of making all things new."