Catholics From Italy

"If military spending were used for other purposes, a fund could be set up to help millions of people who are dying for peace."

"It is not only its location on the edge of Europe that makes Eastern Europe important, but also its historical role in civilisation, culture and the Christian faith. Some point out that when St John Paul II imagined a Europe stretching from the Atlantic to the Urals, he was not thinking of ‘Western expansionism’, but of a more united whole encompassing the entire continent."

"+As quoted in Festival delle religioni: card. Parolin, «Fondamentalismo è sconfitta di fede e ragione», toscanaoggi.it (April 27, 2019)"

"Fundamentalism is always a sign of the desperation of reason and the defeat of faith."

"During the past decades, the Holy See has been making all possible efforts to establish, strengthen or restore dialogue on the cultural and religious levels and in the social and humanitarian sphere. I'm absolutely convinced that life under the guidance of the Gospel would in itself make an important contribution into forming the society and culture, which simultaneously assists personal development and encourages an intense and constructive dialogue with other authentic cultures and religions."

"What is required of the Church is a strong exercise of solidarity, each for what he can, but that is a sensitive and effective solidarity. Often we do not realize how much goodness, but also how much evil there is between us."

"We are close to the Holy Father. We love him and pray for him always. The Pope is our only hope, he is the one who makes his voice heard to defend the rights of Christians in every part of the world. We are close to him at this time of suffering and pray the Lord to accompany him at this time of trial."

"The deserved, necessary and respectful welcome of people who practice other faiths and religions does not mean offering them space for prayers inside churches designed for liturgy and the gathering of Christian communities. They can very well find other spaces and places."

"If the tsunami damaged communications, roads and bridges, the twenty year old conflict has broken human communication digging divides and gulfs between individuals, communities and ethnic groups. This is the greatest tragedy and Christians are called to build bridges of peace and reconciliation to be builders of bridges, or pontifex, following the example of Christ. He is the bridge between heaven and earth, between God and humanity; and with his message of service and love he is also a bridge between people of different origin, culture, language and customs."

"Augustine is a very African saint. He was a Berber, it seems - "Afer sum" he said of himself – as much as a Roman, and better yet, a European. Saint Augustine is a figure who brings us together: truly a catholic."

"I recognise a mistake that has been made in recent years, and which continues today: political, economic, social, housing and employment decisions, if made on the basis of profit and personal gain, end up hurting the most vulnerable. You cannot pay people less and less and then be surprised that they have become impoverished."

"Q: What should be the priorities of the next pope? A: It will be important to continue along the two paths traced by Pope Benedict XVI and Pope Francis. The first concerns the presence of God in society. The relationship between man and God must once again become central. Imbalances arise when one of the two terms of the relationship is eliminated. It is no coincidence that John Paul II observed that a world without God would be against man. The second path concerns man in contemporary society: we need to understand who man is and work in such a way that the body, psyche and spirit – three essential dimensions – are not neglected."

"Our prayer today is a sign of vitality and communion in the Church. In a change of epoch, full of hardships and historical facts that have shocked us, we want to testify, as Benedict repeated several times at the beginning of his pontificate, that the Church is alive, she is alive because Christ is alive, he is truly risen."

"Building peace for tomorrow requires doing justice today."

"The libertas Ecclesiae, the freedom that is intrinsic to it, is in any case stronger than any possible limitation that gets imposed on it, because it derives from the mandate of Christ and has the deep, immense breath of the Spirit: it is the freedom of that love that inhabits it – so old and always new – for man, who is the living image of God."

"We need these things because our faith runs the risk of being nothing but words. We need events from the Gospel like this in order to make it real, in order to strengthen our faith"

"Rome is a very rich city of resources to be appreciated not only from the human, but also from the Christian point of view. It is a multi-cultural, multi-ethnic city which, however, is in need of a new and stronger proclamation of the Gospel and of open communication with all the realities at the service of the promotion of man, of social life, of ecumenism and of interreligious dialogue."

"The prosecco hills are a resource and need to be defended, but they also need to be respected. Monoculture damages the environment everywhere and it will eventually boomerang on the region. We need to be more responsible."

"I told the young people that this experience must first light our path: knowing that our path is lit and there are many people who have gone before us, who gave us the light of faith. Not only that, but also we are accompanied by the presence of the Risen Christ who is in our midst, and the Church continues the mission of Jesus, which is to give the children of God the possibility of a way that leads to the goal, to salvation."

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

"Leaders of nations must do everything to stop the conflict: they are destroying a whole country, and anyone who will prevail in the end will be faced only a pile of human and material rubble."

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

"The Catholic Church in Turkey will know how to react to this loss. We are certain that the death of Mgr. Padovese will bear fruit for a new flourishing of the Gospel and for Turkey's Christian community in general."

"To accuse a Salesian of being a bit weak in his Marian piety is frankly a bit ridiculous. From when I was little I was brought up always to turn trustingly towards Our Lady of Help. And over the years, thanks be to God, that trust has never faded. That, however, doesn’t mean that one mustn't always respect the official position, as it is, of the Church on delicate questions such as those regarding real or alleged Marian apparitions."

"Prayer can change the course of events, enlighten souls and sustain us in our sorrow. Every Christian of this diocese should know that with faith nothing is lost."

"Walk with Mary on the paths of life with joy in one’s heart, at a time when it seems, in fact, that joy is the great absence in our world."

"The people need to feel loved first of all, and then to have some material aid."

"In the confessor I asked for a friend, the soul that loved my soul, that shared I would almost say the nature of my feelings, that participated in my vocation. I was asking conformity to feel ; this seemed to me to be an essential sharing so that he could direct the actions of my spirit, he shouldn't have taken me outside my natural center. It's true, I asked to be able in a certain way to influence the soul of the confessor, to sincerely give him my impressions of my conduct. It seemed to me that our action must in some way be reciprocal. Certainly St. Francis and St. Francesca had this communion of feelings over them."

"Serve . Our century does not want us to be servants and truly the concept of fraternity and equality does not admit the servant. […] Serving God consists in doing the will of the “Father who is in heaven”. Doing God's will is following his law, which has a fundamentally unique voice for all individuals"

"The first condition, however, is this, to find the director who is a faithful friend. DC [Don Carlo Grugni] I would have obeyed, obeyed with all my soul. Because? Before I spoke, I felt heard by him, the expression of his soul in what lived most generously, they were the desires of my [sic]. We felt united in spirit, in thought of action. What was obedience in me then? If not my greatest and most intimate joy!"

"But approaching the thought, not feeling that every initial act should always have come from the authority of the Church, impersonating the authority of the Pope, was a sin . Who knows how much energy I wasted in this intimate fight! [...] I rebelled: I broke away violently, not without deep pain, great anguish. Yet then I obeyed . What is, my God, obedience to the Director?"

"I wanted to obey my Director, I subjected myself to all the trials; I wanted to help the spirit with mortification of the body, I led an intense life of thought, but I wasn't well; I was always in anguish, after an act of true submission, always the period of rebellion. [...] I was pining, his word weighed on me like the sword of Damocles, for how many years I fought between the idea of ​​submitting or looking for another confessor!"

"But why does St. Francis de Sales want obedience to the guide who is a faithful friend? Isn't it enough that I alone try to place myself in the eternal law? Alone?… My nature seeks help, it seeks it every day in brothers with whom it believes it feels in communion of ideas and affections. And I would be happy – how many times, my God, have I wished to find myself with such a spirit – if I could find in one of the priests I approach, the guiding friend."

"There is a long story in the soul that I can summarize in these words, friendship had also become love for me. Our souls understood each other, but we perhaps wanted more. DC [Don Carlo] I write before you, you know that you were my great, my friend; God has taken you away and now you remain for me only in Spirit. But I still feel you so close and all permeating my being. You remain for me eternally for what was most priestly in you. You wrote to me that we were too equal I would say for that union that characterizes the relationship between a woman and a man to exist, I wanted to feel strong, generous like you."

"Today also, Christians must resort to this method: take the new paths to progress and preserve the treasures of the past. "Nova et Vetera" are the words that can harmonize modernity and tradition. For example, the principle of the distinction between the political and the religious spheres has become clearer in the minds of believers today. That is now a value acquired and recognized by the Church. It belongs therefore to the heritage of civilization that has been achieved today. This principle of secularity entails respect for every religion by the State, but it certainly doesn’t absolve the State from heeding the religious needs of its citizens."

"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."

"The Oriental churches are an integral part of the European identity: A Europe without the contribution of the Oriental Christian is an incomplete Europe. The first thing that's necessary is to recognize the importance of this presence, as a historical patrimony and as a present reality. Without the contributions of the spiritual and cultural traditions of the East, Europe would not be Europe any more."

"The Divine Will contains the creative strenght. From within God's one single "Fiat" came out billions and billions of stars. From the Fiat Mihi" of the Mother of God, from which Redemption had its origin, came out billions and billions of acts of grace, which communicate themselves to souls. These acts of grace are more beautiful, more resplendent and more varied than billions of stars! The Divine Fiat is full of life, and in fact It is life itself, and alla lives and things come out from within the Fiat. From the Fiat of God, Creation came out, and in each created thing can be seen the imprint of that Fiat. From the "Fiat Mihi" of the Blessed Virgin, pronounced in the Divine Will with the same power of the Fiat of Creation, Redemption came forth. Therefore everything that concerns the Redemption bears the imprint of her "Fiat Mihi".Even the very Humanity of her Son, His steps, works and words, were sealed with Mary's "Fiat Mihi". (p. 107)"

"Creatures had a Celestial Father, but the Divine love was not content. In its delirium of love it wanted them to have a Celestial Mother as well as a terrestrial Mother. In that way, even if the loving care and tenderness of the Celestial Paternity would not be enough to make creatures to love Him, the caring and tenderness of a Celestial and human Mother would lead them to abandon themselves in her arms. By letting themselves be conquered by her love, a link of connection would form to banish any distance, fear or apprehension, in order to love the One Who had formed her love of them, and in order to be loved Himself. For this, the most astonishing portents were needed, along with a love that never says "enough" and only a God can do."

"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."

"No matter how well-founded the claim, and the work seriously and carefully done, it could still be subject to possible error. We can always make a mistake, we can always deceive ourselves, whereas God alone performs miracles, and God does not deceive."

"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."

"I have dedicated 38 years of my life to the service of institutions, first in Italy, and then for 20 years in the Vatican, to the Roman Pontiff. In these years I have spent all my energy to ensure the service that had been entrusted to me. I tried to carry it out with self-denial and professionalism but feeling serenely like a "useless servant" who has done his little part to the end"

"I believe that our hopes, but perhaps also those of the Pope, are based above all on one aspect, namely that the other is never an enemy: he is "other", "other than us", different and probably also has different existential positions, but he remains a child of God, a man, a created being, with whom it is always worth seeking dialogue to solve problems."

"Our contribution has been to preach forgiveness and never to close the door to dialogue and encounter with the other, because as long as we meet and talk, we can always seek and, God willing, find solutions."

"These days extend shadows of death over our common life and our families and, at the same time, we cannot help but recognize the signs of spring. The resurrection is the flower that blooms and anticipates the joy of being able to taste its fruit one day. It is the bud that is blooming. To die like Christ and with Christ, in the events of our life, is to make the power of love dwell in our dead. We do not have the strength of the love of Christ but he confers it on us."

"I believe that the obligation of each of us must be to offer our neighbor a perspective that is not political. Here in Karaganda there are people of 130 different nationalities: if each of us judged the other on the basis of our own nationality, there would be no peaceful coexistence. As Christians we need to understand what unites us: certainly not nationality, because we are different, but Jesus Christ who is among us unites us. Of course there are divisions and differences, but if we start from these, we will no longer be able to look each other in the eye."

"There is still a long way but the model of conjugation between synodality and primacy certainly opens a fruitful way."

"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."