Roman Catholic Bishops

"For the clergy he was a severe disciplinarian, but was himself foremost with the example of a holy life."

"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."

"I know I cannot do a better work for religion, for the diocese or for my own soul than by establishing here a house of your Society, and this is the reason I have been so very anxious to effect this."

"I don't know whether it is the humblest in the world, but at least certain it is that none poorer is to be found in America."

"We take care not only of the prisoners, but also of the staff in the prisons, starting with the prison guards, because we are all part of the same family."

"The Church is close to the people especially helping them to help each other, creating networks of solidarity. Our action is addressed especially to the family. We make sure that groups of families who support one another are created, both in spiritual and material terms. We live in difficult times but hope has never abandoned us. Moreover, as the Holy Father reminded us, prayer is our strength because God hears the prayers of his people."

"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."

"Bishop Flaget's great experience, absolute self-denial, and holy life gave him great influence in the councils of the Church and at Rome."

"Our first appeal has always been for dialogue and peace. And the appeal to all parties involved—from the government to social and indigenous organizations and civil society as a whole—is understood as a mission at the service of these people."

"Thank God for the wonderful gift of our country. Let us thank him for guiding us with kindness and wisdom through the various events in our national history. He helped to preserve the unity of the nation against attempts to balkanization. We need to move beyond all darkness of personal and social evil, which we have become too accustomed to ...It is a constant battle against all manner of injustice and oppression, especially corruption."

"We are returning home, I hope, with a little more discomfort than when we arrived. It's a good sign. This discomfort is an open door for the Lord to work through us."

"Our appeal is always a call for peace: we call for de-escalation, because war is always a defeat and serves no one. All problems, even those between states, can be resolved without violence. We bishops are united when we say and exhort our communities: Let us pray for peace."

"Our priority is therefore the formation of catechists, who are the backbone of our ministry. The formation of new priests is also important because we have a good number of vocations, but future priests have to be formed with care. We try to integrate the pastoral care of families and youth, with that of the formation of the laity and priests, because we see the Church as a large family where all the components work together for the good of all."

"Fear is a natural passion, which, like all the others, is in itself neither bad nor good, but bad when it is excessive and disquieting, good when it is subordinate to reason."

"Many Nigerians are traveling to the developed world to enjoy the development put in place by their governments, but we have refused to develop our own country. Let us start to develop ours to make it attractive and conducive for living, so that foreign nationals will want to come."

"Here the situation is completely different: the culture, the people, the distances, communities which are far away from each other, the geography, climate, etc.. Everything is striking and surprising: in the forest there are no seasons, it is always summer. The culture revolves completely around nature and the way of dealing with life is completely different. People face everything calmly and with great patience, unlike us Europeans, always anxious, apprehensive of how to cope with things... So they manage to live life in a more essential, more human manner, without creating obstacles."

"The country is being ruined by the iniquity of its rulers!"

"The bishop was one quick to discern evils which he was powerless to remove; apt at the formation of plans he lacked the perseverance to execute; and assumed the attitude of a partisan, where it especially behooved a prelate to be unbiassed. Thus he was incessantly interfering in political matters, and personal relations between him and the president were soon exceedingly unpleasant."

"An architect of development and a hero for the people of eastern Equatoria and the whole of Southern Sudan."

"Despite the difficulties, under the protection of our Heavenly Mother and the guidance of the Lord, I often find consolation in my life as a pastor."

"Sudan will never fall back into war today or after the referendum to determine the future of the people of Southern Sudan."

"We are all guilty of this unfortunate situation and we have to start to rebuild the youngest Country in the world, and ensure that the population dies of old age and not for war."

"Priests and religious are servants of the Church. We must constantly learn and grow. The diocese will help everyone to better respond to the pastoral needs of the baptized and to promote the path to a rich life of faith and spirituality. The people of God need priests and sisters who are always ready to serve the Church with enthusiasm and competence."

"After the insurrection of 1898, and the Spanish-American War that followed, the people suffered greatly, not only from the evils of war, but also from the loss of their cattle and horses by epidemics. Many of their churches were destroyed, not only by the insurrectos, but also by United States troops. The chief evil, however, was the lack of priests."

"The political context further increases the difficulties of the Congolese population: the occupation of Congo by neighboring countries, mainly Rwanda and Uganda, does not help the country to organize itself politically. "The international community continues to turn a blind eye to the situation in Congo, we risk witnessing an implosion of all of Central Africa. The Congolese fear being abandoned by everyone and want to defend themselves, thus developing an aversion against foreigners."

"Gentle as I am now towards every one, it is part of my character never to give way to fear, or to do anything under compulsion."

"It is true that Kinshasa is my diocese of incardination, but I had to readjust after my curial past in Rome, for 18 good years. It was still not easy, but overall I got quickly readjusted. My move to the diocese of Kisantu is a surprise for me and it fills me with joy. I always try to consider the will of God and not my own. I am grateful to the Lord for his presence in my life. I am also grateful to the Holy Father, Pope Francis, for his interest in the particular church of Kisantu and his confidence in me. I am confident that the new mission, albeit with many challenges, will go well with the help of the Lord and the commitment of the faithful of Kisantu."

"There are Muslim extremists who want to eliminate Christians from society because they think that the only religion in Tanzania should be Islam. Of course these are extreme positions, which do not reflect the opinion of the majority of local Muslims. Among these, indeed, there are important representatives with whom it is possible to enter into a dialogue of peace."

"I call for intense prayers to be held across the country. This is so that God, who protected the sons of Israel in their 40-year journey to the promised land, may look upon us with mercy and kindness."

"If I were to remain silent I would fail in the mission entrusted to me by grace. Catholics who live their faith can never be in favour of euthanasia or vote for its legalisation in our country. Catholics will always stand for the culture of life."

"If it is, at all times, our duty to have recourse to prayer, to obtain from God that He would bless our labors, and grant ns the graces of which we stand in need, what urgent motives have we not, at the present moment, to raise our voices in prayer in order that, ever mindful of the promises made to His Church, God would enlighten and direct the Bishops who are about to assemble in His name to consult on the present wants of the Church in this Province and to make those regulations which may appear to them conducive to the spiritual welfare of those committed to their charge."

"How should we behave as Catholics, in facing a problem that influences our poor brethren, who day after day find it harder to bring a bare minimum of food home? The hunger problem has always existed and it is evident how it has threatened entire nations of the earth over the course of history. The problem does not come from the insufficiency of the earth's food production, but the lack of equal distribution and the fierce attitude of those who take advantage of circumstances in order to hoard basic food supplies and increase their cost."

"The Catholic faith, generally seen as a "foreign religion", became better known and attitudes towards us have improved. Today we have conversions although we cannot speak too openly of officially it. But the seeds of the faith are gradually taking root."

"Even under our liberal form of government the State cannot afford to allow unbridled religious liberty. The utmost that is consistent with the very existence of the civil government is a limited religious liberty. Nor can we agree with those who seem to hold that a multiplicity of warring religious beliefs is the ideal of social perfection. The conditions that necessitate even a limited toleration of all beliefs will ever prove more or less dangerous to the welfare of the people according as religious convictions are more or less strong, or according as they are maintained by men more or less ignorant and narrow. When it is needlessly proclaimed it is an invitation to sectarianism, with its inevitable disunions and discussions; it is perilous to the peace of a community. The closer the union between the civil and religious authority, as long as each aids the other, and neither encroaches upon the domain of the other, the better will it be for both and the more secure will be the peace of the people."

"The reign of this ecclesiastic was remarkable for nothing except its extraordinarily brief duration."

"The activity displayed by the bishop-viceroy was astonishing, and seemed to be transmitted to all departments of the government."

"The faithful bishop prepared to surrender a life which he had spent in the service of religion and his fellow-men, and was attended by several of the city clergy. He died calmly about seven o'clock in the evening of October 10, 1878, greatly lamented by his fellow-religious and by the diocese of Hartford, which had just begun to appreciate his worth."

"From something bad something good can be born and God can grow faith even in the desert of atheism, repression and persecution."

"In our political sloganeering, we have wished our political opponents dead. Literally, it would also mean wishing God dead since everybody was created in his image."

"Countries that once welcomed missionaries have now become countries from which missionaries leave. The Gospel is always the same, the way of evangelization changes, but the Church is missionary by nature and always will be."

"We are three Bishops in Liberia who, despite poverty and difficulties, work closely and in harmony. We Bishops are now an example of unity, reconciliation and peace, in a Country still wounded by the long civil war."

"His rule was short but severe; he encouraged education and religion, but signalized his advent by destroying a great number of idols and objects of antiquity that had been preserved as souvenirs of the conquest. In a word, he was a bigot, and as determined a foe to aboriginal culture, and strove as hard to eradicate all vestiges of it, as the infamous Zumárraga of the century previous. After the arrival of the succeeding viceroy, he was continued in his office of visitador, and made a great deal of trouble, especially in Puebla, by his domineering spirit."

"He gave unquestionable proof of ability and disinterestedness."

"Kidnappings, abductions, murders and bribes have increased, to the point that entire families have been forced to emigrate due to the fear and insecurity in which we are living. We walked down the street to rekindle the hope of the entire population. We want peace!"

"People expect more effective action by the State. The recent events in this new year, 2014, have outraged our people, as they confirm that neither the politicians nor the government show signs of wanting to solve the problem in Tierra Caliente."

"The spirit of religion and the love of neighbor impelled our forefathers to erect magnificent churches, schools, orphan asylums, hospitals, universities, and other like institutions, to give learned men and saints to the land. Within these institutions men were trained for the object of their existence, and while the Te Deum resounds within those time-honored walls, it is re-echoed by the saints above, who erected those buildings."

"I have somewhere read that more men rust out than wear out; a piece of mechanism is more apt to get out of repair when not employed than when performing its accustomed labor."

"During my missionary life extending over a period of forty years, I have received many, very many, converts into the Church, and in numberless instances I was told that many of their friends were restrained from entering the Church by ignorance of its doctrines, early prejudices and, in too many cases, by the religious indifference and carelessness of many of their Catholic acquaintances."

"Bishop Gilmour had an eventful episcopate, lasting nineteen years. He left his strong, aggressive personality indelibly stamped, upon the diocese he had ruled."

"The people of Chile have repeatedly proven to be up to the challenges it has to face. We have the opportunity to make bold and decisive steps towards building a more equal and inclusive society for everyone, especially for those who have historically been left on the sidelines. Let’s not miss this wonderful opportunity that the Lord is giving us."