Catholics From Italy

"I choose to change things from within. That is probably more difficult, it is longer and more complicated but it is a more concrete solution. To work from within to change monetary, financial, agricultural, commercial, industrial policies. We are growing, and we are allying with other European countries to change the E.U. from within. If we leave, it would be the end of hope."

"Do grant, O my Lord Jesus, that when my lips approach Thine to kiss Thee, I may taste the gall that was given Thee. And when my shoulders lean against Thine, make me feel Thy scourgings. And when my flesh is united with Thine in the Holy Eucharist, make me feel Thy Passion. And when my head comes near to Thine, make me feel Thy thorns. And when my heart is close to Thine, make me feel Thine embrace."

"Our debate has themes of great significance: the fight against poverty, quality education as a source of personal and social opportunity, and action for the protection of the environment. These themes are held together by the common thread of inclusion, with a human individual at the center of the political action of this organization and of every member state. An “inclusive humanism”, expression I love to refer to, which recognized the equal dignity of each individual, which is a real achievement of modernity. Italy openly invokes an effective multilateralism, because only collective and coordinated action can help us face the multiple challenges before us. We need a multilateral concept based on cooperation, transparency and the principle of equality between states, aimed at correcting the dysfunctional aspects of globalization. But the inspiring source, the polar star that must guide this multilateralism, is respect for the human person, starting with the recognition of his or her dignity, personal and social. Without this foundation, multilateralism becomes a mere technique, which can be useful but cannot expect to guide solid choice and values."

"Prayer is also an art, an exercise of beauty, of song, of inner liberation. It is ascesis and ascent, it is a rigorous effort, but also a gentle and free flight of the soul toward God."

"It is evident that freemasonry has acquired some Christian even liturgical models. We must not forget, in fact, that in the seventeenth century, many English lodges recruited some members and masters among the Anglican clergy, so much so that one of the first and fundamental masonic “constitution” was compiled by the Presbyterian pastor James Anderson, who died in 1739. It stated, among other, that an adept “will not be a stupid atheist nor an unreligious libertine”, also if the proposed credo, in the end, was the most undefined, “the one of a religion all men agree with”."

"With respect to clothing, in addition to the material aspect, there is a moral aspect, since clothes have the purpose of defending, concealing and protecting the mystery of sexuality and life. And there is a metaphorical aspect, which I myself witness by wearing the cardinal's red, since the garment refers to the investiture, that is, to the social function of who wears it and to the symbolic representation that follows. [...] Even the simplest vestments can testify to an excess of luxury, to the futility and uselessness of luxury. But just as the sacredness of the liturgical function appears in the ecclesiastical vestments, so in luxury haute couture a symbolic function appears that transcends the mere function of covering oneself."

"If the purpose is not carried out, Jesus is conceived but not born."

"Maria is the only one who believed "in the contemporary situation", that is, while it was happening, before any confirmation or validation by events and history."

"From the investigation into Jesus, one gets the impression that it sometimes turns into gossip about Jesus. However, there is an explanation for this phenomenon. There has always been a tendency to dress Christ in the clothes of one's own era or ideology. In the past, however questionable, these were serious and far-reaching causes: the idealistic, socialist, revolutionary Christ... Our age, obsessed with sex, cannot conceive of him as anything other than grappling with emotional problems. I believe that combining an avowedly alternative journalistic vision with a historical vision that is also radical and minimalist has led to an overall result that is unacceptable, not only for people of faith, but also for historians. Upon finishing the book, one asks oneself: how did Jesus, who brought absolutely nothing new to Judaism, who did not want to found any religion, who performed no miracles and did not rise from the dead except in the altered minds of his followers, how did he, I repeat, become "the man who changed the world"?"

"There is a “diaspora,” a dispersion, even within ourselves. If Jesus were to ask me, as He did that poor demoniac in the Gospel: “What is your name?” I too would have to reply: “My name is legion, for there are many of us” (Mk 5:9). There are as many of us as there are desires, plans and regrets which we harbor, each one different from and contrary to others which pull us in opposite directions. They literally distract us, drag us apart. Virginity is a powerful aid to progress toward interior unity, in virtue of the fact that it enables us to live united to the Lord, and able to devote ourselves to Him “without distractions.”"

"“Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends,” Jesus said at the Last Supper (John 15:13). […] The word “friends” in the active sense indicates those who love you, but in the passive sense it indicates those whom you love. Jesus calls Judas “friend” (Matthew 26:50), not because Judas loved him, but because he loved Judas! There is no greater love than giving one's life for one's enemies while considering them friends; this is what Jesus meant by his statement. People can be—or act as though they are—enemies of God, but God will never be the enemy of any human being. That is the terrible advantage children have over their fathers and mothers."

"Faith, like love, does not take up only a few hours of existence, but is its soul, its constant breathing."

"The soul that reduces prayer to the minimum remains asphyxiated; if it excludes all invocation, it is slowly strangled."

"In fact, I knew Princess Caroline by eye for two years [before March 1984.] We had mutual friends and I met her at various times during evening parties. Nothing more. At the end of the month of June, we both understood that we wanted to see each other every day, [and] we were invited by mutual friends for a cruise in Corsica, and at the end of this cruise we spent ten days together in Sardinia alone and we returned to Monte Carlo where we never left each other."

"He had confessed that he was a little superstitious, but it was to calm down with the number 3, and "the multiple numbers of 3, 6, 9, 12." He died on October 3, after six years of marriage, the year of his thirty years! He had three children, and the ring he had offered to Caroline had three sapphires, one yellow, a green and a blue!"

"Stefano was a humble guy. He would always step back when the rest of them were having their picture taken. He never forced himself into that world."

"I am what they call a throttle man. You must not be scared of going too fast."

"He sails on the GC32s, the fastest boats in the world that are the same boats used in the America’s Cup. Now he’s opened a medieval combat club so he does medieval combat. In the end, we look at each other and say, ‘We’re just going to have to accept who we are and pray.'"

"I remember that when on Anno Zero, [Michele] Santoro chose Beatrice Borromeo, beautiful and blonde, they all criticized her. She was not human that could be [beautiful and] intelligent too. Today, after graduating in Italy and in two months at Columbia University, if they do not to say congratulations, a dignified silence, at the very least."

"Worst case scenario — they slap you and break your camera. It’s not really a life-threatening type of situation. It’s not as though all of a sudden it’s super-dangerous. You know what you’re doing and then you decide to take the risk or not. Last year I didn’t want to take too many because I was pregnant."

"My film is called Never Children [in Italian, Bambini Mai] because they have no chance of living as children. If they go outdoors, there are shootings, drug-related crimes of every kind, and a network of pedophiles operating in that neighborhood. There were 12 cases in the last two years, and two children died because of that. It’s just a nightmare of a place for someone to be a child."

"This is where the Mafia stockpiles heroin for basically the whole of Europe. It is the place drug dealers go to buy drugs, not normal people. The life of children there is insane. They get recruited very early on, when they are 12 or 13. They turn into lookouts, hide drugs, transport drugs and there is absolutely nothing that saves them."

"It is clear that in my life there are contradictions. There is a contrast between my work life and my family life and that of my partner. Whoever criticizes me has his reasons. I cannot have credibility in the eyes of everyone, but in the end, I am more normal than I look.... The altered reality, the yacht, is much photographed, as well as formal situations in which I accompany Pierre because I’m his partner and should be at his side. But then there is another reality that no one tells. I never go out, I’m always at home in the evening. I have dinner, watch a movie, and go to sleep. If Pierre is not there, it is mostly my friends who keep me company. And I live in Milan, not Monte Carlo."

"There is no limit to evil, but Bossi is the limit of what can be ugly in the world."

"Mussolini insists on keeping the memory of her grandfather high. Impossible business. She would do better to distance herself, both politically and humanly."

"Politics is something you choose. And you also choose your lifestyle. But you don't choose your belonging to a class."

"He is not a Pope, he is a theologian. I do not like him. He has no humanity. It has pissed off the whole Islamic world."

"The Church no, I do not like it. [The Pope] intervenes in politics, in things that do not concern him. He did damage that could not be worse than this."

"I want to find a job to be proud of. One of those jobs you're standing up to at four in the morning because you don't feel like quitting."

"But the soul cannot have any virtue if God is not loved with all the heart; for from that love flows the fulness of all grace, and without it no grace can flow into the soul, nor can it abide in it."

"Let us not believe that it is enough to read without unction, to speculate without devotion, to investigate without wonder, to observe without joy, to act without godly zeal, to know without love, to understand without humility, to strive without divine grace, or to reflect as a mirror without divinely inspired wisdom."

"The Journey of the Mind into God (Itinerarium mentis in Deum), Indianapolis: Hackett, 1993."

"The Life of Christ translated and edited by William Henry Hutchings, 1881."

"The world is like a book in which the creative Trinity shines, manifests itself in sensible forms and is read."

"He would confidently affirm that the grace of prayerfulness should be more desired than all others by the religious man, and, believing that without it no good could be wrought in the service of God, he would stir up his Brethren unto zeal therefore by all means that he could. For, whether walking or sitting, within doors or without, in toil or at leisure, he was so absorbed in prayer as that he seemed to have devoted thereunto not only his whole heart and body, but also his whole labor and time."

"Though a superior is rather to be loved, yet by the insolent he ought to be feared."

"Contemplation deepens the more we feel the working of God’s grace within our hearts, and the better we learn to encounter God in creatures outside ourselves."

"Christ’s death on the Cross should live in our thoughts and imagination, for frequent thought on the Passion of Christ keeps aflame and brings to intense heat the fires of earnest piety."

"It will avail a man little to have been a religious, to have been patient and humble, devout and chaste, to have loved God and to have exercised himself in all the virtues, if he continues not to the end. He must persevere to win the crown. In the race of the spiritual life all the virtues run, but only perseverance “receives the prize” (1 Cor. 9:24.) It is not the beginner in virtue but “he that shall persevere unto the end that shall be saved” (Matt 10: 22.) “What is the use of seeds sprouting if afterwards they wither and die?” None whatever!"

"...Though His Passion sufficed for all, yet all would not profit from it, for some would be reprobate, hard-hearted, and impenitent."

"Life of St Francis of Assisi, TAN Books, 2010."

"For the nearer any one approaches to God, the more he is illuminated, and therefore the more clearly does he see the majesty and mercy of God."

"The virtue of gratitude is extremely commendable and pleasing in the sight of God, as its opposite is a detestable vice before him. Of which subject, thus speaks St. Bernard: Learn to be thankful for every grace received. Consider diligently the favors heaped upon you, that no gift of God be defrauded of the due return of gratitude and thanksgiving you ought to make, whether the gift be great, middling, or little."

"Chi non vede che la colpa di questo ritorno all'età ferina non è dei soldati che nel furor della lotta diventano barbari e feroci, ma di quelle potenze e di quei governi che, tenendo schiavi popoli anelanti a libertà, rendono le guerre inevitabili?"

"I decided to go nude because I think that nudity always creates a big reaction. That is what is required to keep people’s attention on such a brutal practice …. These poor animals are electrocuted, skinned alive, drowned, and bludgeoned just for the sake of fashion. … Don’t buy fur. Even a little trim—your gloves or your bag or your jackets …. You must remember that animals don’t have a voice. You must be their voice. Never be afraid to speak up."

"Each fur jacket and piece of fur trim is taken from a terrified living being who was trapped in the wild … or who had a miserable life locked inside a barren wire cage before being drowned, electrocuted, poisoned, or skinned alive. … I, along with many … would love to see … take a step into the compassionate future of fashion by pledging not to feature fur."

"Ever since the French revolution there has developed a vicious, cretinizing tendency to consider a genius (apart from his work) as a human being more or less the same in every sense as other ordinary mortals. This is wrong. And if this is wrong for me, the genius of the greatest spiritual order or our day, a true modern genius, it is even more wrong when applied to those who incarnated the almost divine genius of the Renaissance, such as Raphael."

"Most Holy Father, there are many who, on bringing their feeble judgment to bear on what is written concerning the great achievements of the Romans — the feats of arms, the city of Rome and the wondrous skill shown in the opulence, ornamentation and grandeur of their buildings — have come to the conclusion that these achievements are more likely to be fables than facts. I, however, have always seen — and still do see —things differently. For, bearing in mind the divine quality of the ancients' minds as revealed in the remains still to be seen among the ruins of Rome, I do not find it unreasonable to believe that much of what we consider impossible seemed, to them, exceedingly simple."

"They say I can draw better than Raphael and probably they are right."

"Time is a vindictive bandit to steal the beauty of our former selves."