people-from-campania

"At the express wish of the pope, he became cardinal bishop of Palestrina, to the government of which he applied himself with untiring energy."

"We renew our commitment to serve the Church and the country which means operating, in fidelity to Christian values, concrete solidarity for the poor and the needy; working to promote peace and to defend the fundamental rights of every human person."

"The Vatican is a sovereign state, anything can be done, but the question is will it be authorized."

"Paulo hoc melius quam mediocre, hoc minus malum quam ut pessumum."

"Hunc laborem sumas laudem qui tibi ac fructum ferat."

"Ut Romanus populus victus vei, superatus proeliis saepe est multis, bello vero numquam, in quo sunt omnia."

"Homini amico et familiari non est mentiri meum."

"Publicanus vero ut Asiae fiam, ut scripturarius pro Lucilio, id ego nolo et uno hoc non muto omnia."

"Aurum vis hominemne? Habeas. "Hominem? quid ad aurum?""

"Ut pueri infantes credunt signa omnia aena vivere et esse homines, sic isti somnia ficta vera putant, credunt signis cor inesse in aenis. Pergula pictorum, veri nil, omnia ficta."

"Vivite lurcones, comedones, vivite ventris!"

"O curas hominum! O quantum est in rebus inane!"

"Nunc vero a mani ad noctem festo atque profesto totus item pariterque die populusque patresque iactare indu foro se omnes, decedere nusquam; uni se atque eidem studio omnes dedere et arti— verba dare ut caute possint, pugnare dolose, blanditia certare, bonum simulare virum se, insidias facere ut si hostes sint omnibus omnes."

"Accipiunt leges, populus quibus legibus exlex."

"Cupiditas ex homine cupido ex stulto numquam tollitur."

"Secuit Lucilius urbem, te Lupe, te Muci, et genuinum fregit in illis; omne vafer vitium ridenti Flaccus amico tangit et admissus circum praecordia ludit, callidus excusso populum suspendere naso."

"Ense velut stricto quotiens Lucilius ardens infremuit, rubet auditor cui frigida mens est criminibus, tacita sudant praecordia culpa."

"Quo fit ut omnis Votiva pateat veluti descripta tabella Vita senis."

"The missionary zeal that consumed the Blessed Paolo Manna, and from which sprang the Pontifical Missionary Union, still continues today to inflame, excite, renew, rethink and reform the service that this work is called to offer to the whole Church."

"Missionaries, also from the human viewpoint, have been excellent people... but neither brilliance nor prudence, nor courage have made them great in our eyes and the eyes of God. They have been great, they have saved many souls, they have founded Churches, mainly because they were holy men, that is, spiritual men. This is the secret, the soul of their zeal, their perseverance and their success; this is the solemn teaching they have handed down to us and which I love to remind you of."

"Being mutally open to one another allows us to understand and appreciate one another, because authentic love, inspired by God, cannot fail to generate in the hearts of all of us the desire for mutual help, despite the differences that can characterize 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."

"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."

"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."

"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."

"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."

"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."

"Santità, a Maronna t'accumpagni."

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

"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."

"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!"

"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."

"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."

"[...] 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."

"I do not see anything bad here. It is legitimate in terms of doctrine to turn to the pope and express an opinion – and it is also just that he would respond."

"These saints (of Fathi Hassan) look at nothing, as if facing the ideality of a timeless space and therefore without the sound of worldly looks. They condense, within their peoples, the condition of absolute suffering of a culture, the African, profound and highly symbolic, open to the fluidity of a sentiment suited to the absolute and not to the precariousness of everyday life."

"We, therefore, should heed and be concerned about the sins not only of the inhabitants of that land but also of our own and those of the whole Christian people so that what is left of that land may not be lost and their power rage in other regions. ... For this reason, everyone must understand and act accordingly, so that by atoning for our sins, we may be converted to the Lord by penance and works of piety and we may first alter in our lives the evil that we do. Then we can deal with the savagery and malice of our enemies. And, what they do not fear to try against God, we will not hesitate to do for God."

"When we heard of the severity of the awesome judgment that the hand of God visited on the land of Jerusalem, we and our brothers were disturbed and scarcely knew what to do or what we should do. ... because of the conflict which the malice of [Christian] men has recently brought on the land by the inspiration of the devil, Saladin approached those parts with a host of armed troops. ... after the battle was joined, our side was defeated and the Lord's cross was captured. The bishops were slaughtered, the king captured, and almost all our men were either put to the sword or taken prisoner. ... Neither can tongue speak nor the sense understand what that land has now suffered, how much it has suffered for us and for all Christians."

"Work for the recovery of that land in which for our salvation Truth has arisen from the land and did not disdain to carry the forked wood of the cross for us. Pay attention not to earthly profit and glory, but to the will of God who himself taught us to lay down our souls for our brothers. ... You should act without trepidation and do not fear to give away earthly possessions, which will last for such a short time. ... We promise full remission of their sins and eternal life to those who take up the labor of this journey with a contrite heart and a humble spirit and depart in penitence of their sins and with true faith."

"One of these Abstinences, rigorously and universally observed in Egypt, was that from Beans"

"True and constant vigour of body is the effect of health, which is much better preserved with watery, herbaceous, frugal, and tender food, than with vinous, abundant, hard, and gross flesh. And in a sound body, a clear intelligence, and desire to suppress the mischievous inclinations, and to conquer the irrational passions, produces true worth."

"The vulgar opinion, then, which, on health reasons, condemns vegetable food and so much praises animal food, being so ill-founded, I have always thought it well to oppose myself to it, moved both by experience and by that refined knowledge of natural things which some study and conversation with great men have given me. And perceiving now that such my constancy has been honoured by some learned and wise physicians with their authoritative adhesion, I have thought it my duty publicly to diffuse the reasons of the Pythagorean diet, regarded as useful in medicine, and, at the same time, as full of innocence, of temperance, and of health. And it is none the less accompanied with a certain delicate pleasure, and also with a refined and splendid luxury, if care and skill be applied in selection and proper supply of the best vegetable food, to which the fertility and the natural character of our beautiful country seem to invite us."

"I wished to show that Pythagoras, the first founder of the vegetable regimen, was at once a very great physicist and a very great physician; that there has been no one of a more cultured and discriminating humanity; that he was a man of wisdom and of experience; that his motive in commending and introducing the new mode of living was derived not from any extravagant superstition, but from the desire to improve the health and the manners of men."

"The following Discourse having been received in Italy with a great deal of Approbation... The Author was some years ago in England, is now Keeper of the Great Luke of Tufcany'j Museaum, a Fellow of our Royal Society, as well as of the College of Physicians in Florence, and will be found to speak of the English Nation in the highest Terms of Regard. [Preface]"

"Pythagoras was certainly one of the greatest geniuses that ever Human Nature produc'd."

"We see that their most worthy Physicians and Philosophers were also of the same Opinion. Antonins Musa, who merited a public Statue in Rome ( i) for the perfect and happy Cure perform'd by him upon Augustus, made of Lettice (2) principally therein: and by his Advice it was that this great Prince came into that sparing and simple Pythagorean Diet, which Suetonius (3) minutely describes, confiding principally of Bread topp'd in cold Water, and of some Sorts of Apples of an agreeable and vinous Acidity. Horace also made great Use of the Pythagorean Diet, as he tells us in may Places of his judicious and most excellent Poems, therein following, as we suppose, the Advice of the fame Musa, who was his Physician."

"We find the same Preference given to vegetable Food by all the other ancient Latin Writers, who had any Understanding of the Nature of Things, and by Galen, and Plutarch, who has shown more particularly, perhaps than any one, the Danger of animal Diet, in his Precepts of Health, and in his Discourses on eating Flesh."

"Nor has our Age been destitute of Examples of Men, brave from the Vigour both of their Bodies and Minds, who at the same time have been Drinkers of Water, and Eaters of Fruits and Herbs. In certain Mountains of Europe, there are People, even at this Time, who live on Herbs only and Milk; yet are very invincible and stout; and the Japanese (who are very resolute in dispelling Dangers, and even Death itself) abstain from all animal Food; and there are besides a thousand Examples known to every one, of Nations and Persons of great Temperance, joined with all other consummate Virtues."

"I have thought it my Duty thus publicly to set forth the Reasons for the Pythagorean Diet, considered as fit to be used in Medicine, and at the same time perfectly innocent, well adapted to Temperance, and greatly beneficial and conducive to Health."

"Pythagoras.. was both a very great Philosopher and an able Physician.. whole Motive for the so much commending and introducing his Way of Life, was not any Superstition or Extravagance; but a Desire to be assisting to the Health and good Behaviour of Mankind..."