Roman Catholic Bishops

"Not only is it important for us to daily read the Scriptures, but we need to prayerfully reflect on its passages and see how those passages touch our hearts. If we are really lucky and faithful, we will come across passages that really pinch us —they hurt because they make us aware of how we are offending God. The more the word of God pinches us, the more we hunger for relief. This is one of God’s greatest desires for us. Prayer for the grace of repentance is a prayer Jesus jumps at. He longs to give us more of His mercy. He longs to give us more of His wisdom."

"I did not want to become bishop. But when I considered the fact that my people have been praying for a bishop for a very long time, and also remembering that I would not be looked at well at home if I rejected the appointment, I then surrendered to God and said let God’s will be done."

"The work of the liturgy transcends us because it is Christ’s work, and it is our privilege to participate. This work is an art, sanctioned by the Church, which is Christ’s Body. In the liturgy we present what He has intended to make lasting for the salvation of mankind until all is consummated."

"God has a great sense of humor about timing. I trust the Lord's timing more than I trust my own."

"We as a society have become very independent, and we have become proficient in so many things, I think some of us feel we don't have that reliance on God as much as it was once felt. But the fact is we need (God) more than ever."

"I do not yet know God's plan, but I hope that his grace will accompany me to carry out the project for which God has chosen and called me."

"I am your new bishop but I cannot do it alone. I implore you to work and support my leadership in promoting the faith and evangelisation, so we can make a big difference in the Diocese of Bereina. I believe in collective ideas and collaborative efforts when working because that is what the church is all about"

"We will not lose hope because we have the certainty that our destiny is not in the hands of a man or a superpower. Our destiny is in the hands of God, a Provident Father. It is in Him, and only in Him, that our salvation lies."

"I feel that if one plants a seed, it will bear fruit. After seven years as Bishop, I was already ordaining the first brothers. The most wonderful moment for me was when I managed to get a major Seminary functioning, where young people could start to prepare themselves for the priesthood. I started it from nothing. It was of great satisfaction for me that when I left that diocese, it had become financially viable."

"Man is the most important element of the environment whose involvement in the environmental conservation both in mind and body is important."

"Overall, the Canadian experience of ecumenism has been a positive one, marked by openness, cooperation and honesty. We rejoice in what has been accomplished and look to the future with hope."

"You lifted me but I must lift you, the Christian communities. Living and sharing our faith through different experiences is a shared responsibility and I enjoyed my share of experiences with faith. Thank God for all that happened."

"Be prophetic in a deteriorating social political situation. Christians are looking for direction and leadership."

"The time of the virus is both a gift and a provocation for Christians – not only for our personal faith, but for what we have to offer others."

"We keep appealing to the authorities to do what is needed, and we pray to God because He is the optimal security that we have. We can’t depend on human security!"

"It is not enough to proclaim the word of God without putting it into practice in every Christian's daily life. The word of God has to be lived in every person's daily activities and in communion with other people."

"Africa has been through deep wounds which have marked her history heavily. However, there is a need for a healing of the memory. Therefore one must commit oneself firmly in a dynamic of hope and resurrection."

"The Church must cast a clear eye on all situations where human dignity is disparaged, analyze the causes, reveal the mechanisms and call upon those responsible tirelessly. The danger is when faced with so many injustices and exploitation the Church stops being moved by this, becoming used to it, and no longer speaking about it, thus becoming an accomplice in people's unhappiness, when her mission is to be "the voice of those without voice"."

"What emerges is the urgent need to help and stimulate the faithful of Christ in the Congo to read the Word of God, to meditate on it, to pray it inasmuch as it can "recreate" African man who still carries within the consequences of the past. This requires easier access to the Biblical text by means of translations. This is one of the pastoral emergencies of our Church."

"We need to educate future cadres who will be in decision making positions. Besides this we are also determined to support the family, the first place of education. We must build a family capable of helping children to grow humanly, spiritually and morally."

"I'm just a simple kid from south St. louis. I remember looking out the veranda of where the holy father lives and thinking how in the world did I get here? By the grace of God."

"The first time I was told that I will be the bishop of Kundiawa diocese, I couldn’t sleep for three nights, I thought a lot, but I prayed and meditated a lot as well. This is not going to be an easy task as I am a newly-elected bishop, but I hope that we can all work together to carry the church of God forward."

"The church has taught us, the body is one. When one member is suffering, the whole body suffers, and we should never become complacent into the situations of others, but always be aware and do what we can. We can only do what is possible with a generous heart and an open mind, with arms that are ready to embrace."

"Remembering that every person has an innate God-given dignity is a key step on the path to effective criminal justice."

"We talk about Christmas traditionally as the season of good cheer, but I don't think that sort of Dickensian jollity really cuts the mustard in prison. I tend to take a slightly different slant; I describe it as the season of hope."

"In these last fifty years since the foundation of the Diocese, so much has been done to build up the Church and in the proclamation of the Gospel and, with God's help, I look to guide and serve the Diocese to that same end."

"Little public signs of faith are no harm. It's a sign that faith is not just a personal thing, but in a very simple way they are opportunities for us to proclaim the Gospel, to proclaim faith and all those things can only be good!"

"There's been no way of projecting what is happening. There's no way for the world to know, for example, what Africa really believes, what the Catholic Church in Africa believes and has achieved in the area of strengthening the family, for example, or even having a voice in the changes that have come with the concept of the family in the whole world."

"Church communications must seek all and every opportunity to promote media education and awareness to equip the public. The more critical the general public is in consuming media messages and products the more the sanity of society is protected from the real interests behind the glamor and glitter of the media."

"By worrying a lot, we become a nation of worries."

"In the Catholic Church, it is not like politics. When we accept a task, our main duty is to continue what our predecessors did."

"We can be held fast by goodness knows what, awaiting rescue goodness knows when. Even when it happens it can benefit others rather than ourselves. But the Lord will provide. The outcome is His. My plans must give way to His, and I’m content to go with that because I believe He has my best interests at heart."

"There are many temptations facing bishops as well, but they don't fall into the traps that have been set as they encounter them. Everyone should thank God for his protection and for his blessing."

"God doesn’t give up on anyone. He has not given up on you. Neither should we lose heart in our efforts to convince people, by reason and by practical love, that choosing life is always the right option."

"Granting the Anglophone Regions a special status, which would guarantee their autonomy is a welcome opening to Federalism which is the lesser evil to separation."

"They wanted to show the media that everything was OK, but they had just whitewashed the walls. They renovated three churches. The Prime Minister came and saw this. Still, I could smell the smoke. It is not safe to pray under these roofs. It is now more than seven months since the attack. We want justice. The culprits must be brought to justice and then it will be a lesson to others. We have had lip service from the government but not enough has been done in reality."

"There is a dire need of the formation of our community. Besides academic education, practical education is also important. Human values can wash away the stigma of corruption."

"Discriminating against people according to caste is not only un-Christian; it is also inhuman. I am happy to be a priest and consider my priesthood to be the greatest gift God has given me for the good of His people. The episcopacy is an added responsibility and I try "to be a happy servant," which is the motto of my episcopate. Being a dalit, it may be easier for me than for others to understand the concept of a being servant; and as a first generation Christian in my family, my faith in Christ brings me great happiness—as it is still new and still uncontaminated."

"Practise fasting so that we can train ourselves to always be able to choose and favour the will of Jesus and not be slaves to our own will alone. Spiritual fasting is not limited to eating and drinking but we should also fast from desires, appetites and irregular use of the senses. We should practise fasting from selfishness and lack of enthusiasm for sacrifice, to choose and serve what is right and true for God, our neighbours and God’s creation."

"People love the radio, which is a familiar and very popular means of communication. A new radio station on the Internet is a new instrument that the Church will use to spread the Word of the Gospel."

"Respect doesn’t mean that you don’t have a sense of humor! On the contrary, the fact that you can share a joke means you respect them, you’re disarming yourself and letting them know that you are not all that different to them."

"The legacy of the emeritus Archbishop Paul Bakyenga is very difficult to emulate but I will do my best to feet in his shoes He was a very strong man in leadership. I cherish his vision and particularly nurturing and mentoring me as young bishop."

"Our forefathers were backsliding for instance Simon Peter felt overburdened by Jesus issues and decided to go back and fish, such temptations still exist. There is danger in our African Church. Paul was teaching that what we are teaching cannot be seen but it has value. If we stop praising and reading the Bible to explain it, even if you give out posho and beans, it is not what God asked us to do."

"No matter what, light is stronger than darkness, love is stronger than hate, and life is stronger than death. To be clear, it does not mean that there is no more darkness, no more hatred, no more death. It means that they do not have the last word! The birth of this child – and the saving message He offers us – announces that darkness, hatred and death are overcome by acts of kindness, generosity and sacrifice."

"I equally charge all users and abusers of guns and deadly weapons to stop the killings, to renounce violence, and denounce any show of pride in killing fellow human beings."

"I am not privy to the reasons I was appointed bishop and to this day it is still a mystery to me! However, I was active in the promotion of vocations to the priesthood and religious life as well as the area of communications, proclaiming the good news of the Gospel. They are two areas that I am passionate about and do all I can to support in whatever way I can."

"Christmas tells us of God’s passion for us, God is reaching out to us with our tattered lives, our tattered hurts, our tattered relationships and our tattered sins – he is reaching out to us with open arms breaking into our lives. He makes no distinctions, He embraces the least likely – Christmas is not sentimentality, it is not soft, it is God’s fulfilled desire to be with us and that is why we celebrate. If God is not with us and if God has not embraced our tattered lives we are missing the whole point of Christmas – there is no hope and there is no light only darkness and despair; our lives will be empty. If we celebrate Christmas because of love then we have caught the message of Christmas and the meaning of Christmas; Emmanuel, the passionate God has had His way and has hugged us fiercely."

"You are here for the love of your family and friends. You need to keep speaking. Don't stop. Don’t give up. Don't give up on the love. Don't give up on your loved ones."

"Despite everything else that's facing us, and despite all the bleak news about people not believing and everything, it's obvious that people do believe. The people of the archdiocese are people of wonderful faith."

"The Japanese by nature struggle to express their feelings, even with the idea of not loading their problems on others. So, in this cultural context, a verbal message and effective closeness and solidarity on behalf of those who do not criticize, but only encourage and pray, has a great value."