Crescenzio Sepe

"There is no doubt missionary work is not easy and it faces no few problems and challenges, old and new. But one this is certain: if the Lord calls us to such a demanding task it is because He will not fail to supply us with the means to achieve it."

"Interview with His Eminence Cardinal Crescenzio Sepe: “My heart will always beat for mission” (2 June 2006)"

"Santità, a Maronna t'accumpagni."

"Time passes and the world changes, but true love never changes. So wrote Salvatore Di Giacomo in one of his famous songs, which my mother used to hum when I was a child. It was May, the month when the sun warms the air and the scent of spring is at its most intense, when I, a boy from the provinces, came to Naples, attracted, like all young people, by the grandeur of the metropolis and, above all, by a city that is unique, I would say exaggerated in its beauty and its manifestations, for better or for worse."

"True love never fails... True love, Christian love, love for one's brothers and sisters, for one's roots, never changes, never strays from its path. And it is with this love that I have returned, as a father and pastor, to this land of blood and hope, to commit myself to restoring dignity to our big-hearted people who, repeatedly deprived of freedom throughout their tormented history, have always been able to combine pain with hope."

"I know that the religious sentiment of our people is often, and wrongly, labelled as colourful folklore, in which legend and magic, the sacred and the profane, merge in our millennial history which, in the eyes of cold secularism, appears incapable of distinguishing superstition from faith. It is true that much superstition still creeps into the authentic Christian message, but I believe that superstition should not be confused with popular piety. This people, who, since the first liquefaction of the blood, have taken St. Januarius as the protector of their city, know how to grasp, in the manifestation of the miracle, the profound meaning of faith: the hope of resurrection. It is an inexpressible mystery which, in order to be conceived, requires symbols capable of representing the link between pain and redemption. The blood that has miraculously come back to life is a sign that refers to the immortality of the soul, to life beyond death, to the resurrection of the flesh."

"[...] it is characteristic of Neapolitans to rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep (cf. Romans 12:15), establishing those deep and sincere relationships of friendship and respect that are capable of transforming the world. If it is true, as Augustine of Hippo said, that "nothing is dear to man without a friend", then the fact that friendship is sacred in Naples is already a sign of hope, a glimpse of the real possibility of making all things new."

"Yet a martyr is not only someone who performs extraordinary deeds, but in a certain sense, it is also someone who, for the love of his faith, knows how to make the ordinary extraordinary."

"Determined to confront the structures of injustice in order to assert their children's rights, Neapolitan mothers not only know how to protect their children, like all mothers, but they also know how to defend the freedom of this land, passing on from generation to generation those universal and immutable ethical values that make every man a true man. Always present, they know how to dry their children's tears, but they also know how to be objective and strict when a child betrays the family spirit. When we say “mum”, we mean a safe haven, but also the law. When the rulers of our city changed, when the state was absent, those who truly reigned and jealously guarded the traditions, customs and practices that have come down to us were, then as now, mothers."

"The seed of hope may be the smallest, but it can give life to a lush tree and bear much fruit if we have the courage to face the fears that threaten our city, if we have the strength to break the code of silence and, in solidarity with one another, are able to organise new structures and new forms of charity to lift up those who are alone, those in material and spiritual need. Without indulging in lamentation or victimhood, without waiting for others to take the fate of the south to heart, without clinging to pure welfare, the time has come for the Neapolitans to reclaim their land, relaunching politics as a service to the city, as a school of legality, as a centre for observing the most thorny social issues. We have the energy to do it!"