Roman Catholic Bishops

"Closeness to God, first in prayer. Be faithful to that. Closeness to our priests, being close to them. Not being a brother, but being a father, and accompany them in their ministry. Being close to the people of God, whom we serve. It's something that since becoming a bishop, as a priest I was doing."

"I feel blessed and grateful to serve in a double calling as a priest and Navy chaplain. Not everyone is called to my life, but according to my way of thinking, had I not been there, these sailors and Marines would not have been able to receive the sacraments that we Catholics believe are so important. That is why I encourage our priests and seminarians with an interest to consider a life as a military chaplain. Some will find they really enjoy it."

"I was a cradle Anglican. The Anglican Church taught me the Christian faith and nurtured and sustained me through many joyful and difficult periods in my life. I firmly believed that the priests of the Anglican Church were Catholic priests, but when “developments” began to occur, such as the ordination of women, I realized that once this had occurred, the priesthood to which women aspired to belong, no longer existed. This “development” opened the way for the liberalization of the Church’s worship, doctrinal belief and the acceptance of a more secularist set of moral and ethical principles. I felt abandoned because it was as if my “mother” had died, but this grieving has been alleviated by the warmth of the welcome and the support I have encountered from members of the Catholic Church."

"We should keep in mind that in this country there is a general discrimination against minorities and the poorest workers. It is a widespread mentality which can also affect this tragedy. The fact that the rich are better off than the poor, having saved their own land, is a serious matter which the government must address."

"The way I see it, people should get around their differences and spend more time understanding their religion. In that way we will become a better person and be more accommodative of others. Among other things we will not become possessive, which is one of the root causes of friction in relationships."

"We also represent this pilgrim Church, which is made up of different people and which brings us all together. Along the way, we have the most diverse experiences: joy, suffering, beauty, hospitality and poverty. All this pushes us towards the most important quest of all: that of our mission as individuals and in our communities. Here, the Lord brings us closer to different communities in Kazakhstan, which are a tangible sign of his presence."

"There are always differences that can be brought to the fore and provide reasons for disagreement. But it seems to me there's nothing insurmountable now – no sharp conflicts and confrontations, thank God."

"The celebration of a bishop’s ministry should not principally focus on the person of the bishop. The proper focus is God’s gift of episcopacy to the diocese; the particular bishop is always secondary to that."

"All of us are responsible for the communication we make, for the information we share, for the control that we can exert over fake news by exposing it. All of us are to be witnesses of the truth: to go, to see and to share."

"My hope is that the spiritual life of both priests and religious in Taiwan be deepened. At present, I think it is too superficial. Really, in spiritual life we, whether diocesan or religious, are not up to the mark. There is no clear and deep desire to grow day by day in the spiritual life. We are just jogging along with our mediocre routine. Today’s digital culture with all its fascinations may be a reason for this general defect. As a young man in Europe, I witnessed how the faithful in general liked religious clergy more than diocesan clergy. The reason was that religious clergy appeared to them as more fervent than diocesan clergy. Now, I think that, unfortunately, also religious clergy has come down to our level of lukewarm diocesan clergy."

"I had spent almost 10 years in South America in Cali, Colombia, and I knew Spanish. I had organizational and administrative skills to work on those three areas. I don’t take credit, everyone said those were the needs, and we worked together to solve those needs."

"Our work is pastoral work and that is the most important. Only God who can evaluate our work and I leave it to the Good Lord to judge what I have done. What I felt as a great need was to have training for adults because many had forgotten what they had learned during their childhood. The Great Vatican Council II told us that everyone is baptized and through their baptism we should be able to understand and live our faith. Not only priests, men and women religious, lay people must live their faith. This is why we started formation for the Christian life. The family is the basis of humanity and more must be done for the family."

"God speaks, we listen, and that's the whole process of discernment. Everybody has discernment all their life, what have I been blind to, and what do I need to do to recognize the presence of God in my life?"

"Throughout this ordeal, Jesus is with us and He will not leave us. We pray and hope to soon see the light at the end of this dark tunnel."

"Unleash The Gospel is not a numbers game. It's about falling in love with the one who loves us, and that's a person-by-person change."

"Our devotees must rediscover that being Christians in the Holy Land is a call. So we must not fall into the temptation, induced by our being few, to live segregated into a religious and cultural ghetto. Let’s get out of the ghetto."

"They are so active, they are so alive. The joy is really important. Many times I encourage the migrant, "Remember you are the missionary, the Holy Spirit sends you to Taiwan, for a lay mission, maybe with your testimony the local people will be contacted with Jesus. influence"

"In order to make ourselves receptive to a newness of grace and a newness of life in the Church, what is needed is not simply deliberations and countless conversations, or majority votes, but also a rediscovery of the profound sacramental mystery of the Church,"

"Life for the most part is full of surprises. It can be difficult, but it is also an opportunity. Every crisis brings with it an opportunity. It makes things clearer, removes what is not essential."

"The Lord exercises immense courtesy. He never imposes himself, never forces himself upon anyone. If I don't let him in, he's not going to force his way in. But that is not to say that someone who does good blindly, but who’s open to that imperative of goodness, isn't vulnerable to a sort of propaedeutic of the spirit – an inward preparation of the heart that, whether in this world or the next, will bear fruit. Good is always good."

"Sometimes in our activist and production-oriented American society and culture we succumb to pragmatism looking at the Christian life and our sharing in the apostolic mission of the Church as a matter being able to “do” things for Christ, the Church or others. In fact, the Christian life is a gift and a call to truth and love given to us by God. It is first a matter of "being," of simply existing as a person created by God and redeemed by him in Christ. We live out this truth and love in specific ways according to our age, talents, and unique vocation. At no point are the sacraments about what we have done or promise to do for God. They are God's free gift of grace to us. At the same time, these gifts of love entail an obligation to bear witness to God's love in word and deed by our collaboration in freedom with the grace given."

"There is a romance with the people of God. To know that you're building up the Kingdom of God, you who have been called and been given that grace, Jesus Christ is working through you in a very special way. I can’t save anybody personally, but I can through the Church through that I serve."

"The Gospel is, first of all, confirmed by the witness of life, the testimony of those who let themselves daily convert by the Lord. More than technics, it is the announcement of the infinite love of God’s mercy by concrete people. It is God, present in the person who announces and in the heart of the one who listens to the announcement, and that is where the Gospel draws its effectiveness."

"We live in a world of instant communication and the amount of information that comes our way can be overwhelming. The questions of what’s important in life, what is life-giving etc. can often be missed. So my message is simple, and it sometimes comes up at Mass: "Judge wisely the things of earth and measure them against the values of heaven.""

"“I’m attempting to learn a little Welsh. Its very important to learn about culture of the people. In a sense it feels like I have turned full circle as I was born in a Celtic country."

"If everyone assumes their responsibilities, and we live Christian values coherently day by day."

"Now Sundays are good days to go shopping, to go out, to play sports."

"We deplore many irregularities with regard to the freedom and transparency of the electoral process as well as fairness in the treatment of certain candidates and voters."

"In Burundi, the dual contrasting experience of a deadly civil war and the arduous task of restoring peace through reconciliation in justice has convinced us of the need to work together on a regional and inter-regional level. Even if different from one country to the other, the history of socio-political conflicts in our region presents common constants that require the conjugation and the coordination of efforts in the search for reconciliation and peace."

"Holiness isn’t something that just happens. It’s something that is nurtured, something that grows, something that is benefited by things like rhythm, stability — if you're always rushing and never quite can fit in your nightly prayers, well, then you wind up not praying a lot of times."

"What in our lives could be more important than receiving the Body and Blood of Christ each week? Recall how, for many of us who participated in team sports or band, we had to practice before the next game or concert. Well, by going to Mass every week, we become better Christians and most certainly have a better understanding of Jesus’ “game plan” for each and every one of us, as well as for the human family. As in sports, if you continue to miss practice, you become less and less an effective member of the team. While Mass is much more than practice, I hope you get the point."

"Our purpose in the Church is to share the light of Christ. We cannot allow scandals to impede our sharing of the Good News."

"To say that a person's sexual orientation solely depends on self-identification denies biological facts as well as Biblical teaching. In ordinary day-to-day experience, biology cannot be separated from culture and the separation of biological and social gender is a basic error and weakness of "gender theory". But for the Bible, and therefore for Catholicism and many others, femininity and masculinity are not exchangeable roles, but rather they are gifts and callings from the Creator."

"The support of the communities implies concrete assistance to young couples because it can offer them knowledge and an important wealth of experience, while encouraging them, above all, to open themselves to the presence of God in their lives, a presence that will help them to support their love in a long, faithful, and fruitful marriage. When the parish communities take this responsibility seriously the ministry of marriage preparation has the potential to be a life-giving joy for communities and families. Their love is contagious and does everyone good."

"If you were to ask me, in my 18 years of priesthood, I have never been so happy. The ministry gives me joy, and please know that this joy comes from not having materials things, it comes from God."

"Many would want stronger words, a more clear condemnation, but we can all understand that the relationship of the Holy See with Nicaragua cannot be closed in an imprudent way, it’s necessary to maintain possible channels of dialogue that lead to a solution to this crisis"

"Jesus invites us and challenges us to become prophets of God's Mercy and speak up for and speak out for those who suffer and are exploited. This means reminding our fellow Christians and our fellow citizens of the reality of exploitation in our country and our world today. This means reminding the leaders of business that the dignity of all workers (no matter how menial their work is) must be respected. This means reminding and working with Government to ensure that everything is done that can be done (through legislation and action) to eradicate such exploitation and prevent it happening in the future. This means doing all we can to bring to justice the perpetrators of such injustice."

"I am acutely: conscious of my unworthiness and of my limitations; conscious too of the weight of the historical significance of this wonderful diocese and its contribution to the life of the Church in Ireland up to the present day, but; I am confident in God’s grace and in the prayers and the support of the people with whom I will work."

"Regarding the moral obligation to oppose laws that go against the right of parents to educate their children according to their faith, and against religious freedom, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith said it both ways: Catholics cannot positively approve these laws, and they also have a moral obligation to oppose them."

"The laity are called to make Jesus present in the world, in everyday life, going out without fear to bring our faith to the streets, to the shopping center, to school, to parks, to sport, at work, in hospital, in culture, to transform temporal realities according to the values of the Kingdom."

"I was thinking about what I wanted to do with my life. I wanted to make a difference in the world. I wanted to work with people. I knew I was not cut out for farming."

"We must all work together to spread the Gospel for the salvation of the world."

"I think you approach everything from the viewpoint of the parish priest and when the bishop asks you to do something else, you do it the best you can."

"The role of a bishop is to be a teacher, one who teaches primarily by example."

"My life as a priest in Savannah has been very fulfilling, if initially challenging, I was totally embraced here in the ministry and as a priest. I was totally accepted."

"In the past, some media has tried to portray this effort as inimical to the ecumenical effort, and that cannot be further from the truth. For one thing, Anglicanorum coetibus was a generous, pastoral response by Pope Benedict XVI to groups of people who were making a direct request of the Holy See. It is also ecumenically significant in that it demonstrates, perhaps for the first time, that corporate, Eucharistic unity is possible in a way that does not simply assimilate. The ecumenical principle that informs Anglicanorum coetibus is that unity in the profession of Catholic faith allows for a vibrant diversity in the expression of that same faith. That is, to my mind, exactly what ecumenical dialogues have been building towards."

"Being part of the lives of parish families has been my greatest joy. When you don’t have your own personal family or wife, sharing the highs, lows and joys of the life of families is the kernel of a parish priest’s life, and I think that’s where you find God."

"Easter has relevance for us today, not only because it offers the world a true way of life with the assurance of the resurrection of the body after we are dead, but also because it offers to all believers the hope of new life here and now, a life filled with light, love and joy. The Risen Christ has come to dispel the darkness of sin and evil and to be the light to show us the way to true peace and joy – a peace and joy the world cannot give."

"In this time of confusion and difficulty, it's great to look back at the accomplishments by so many in the Diocese. When I look back, I realize that I did a lot but now I'm ready to step back."

"I’m very introverted, I would prefer solitude to being in the middle of a crowded place. But the draw to service is definitely a draw to community."