Cardinals

"I was on the terrace of the Secretariat of State, with colleagues and Archbishop Agostino Casaroli. His first line was: "Never would I have thought that the conclave would choose a cardinal from a diocese beyond the Iron Curtain!" We all asked him many questions, and Casaroli explained that he was a "man of vision". He concluded: he will bring novelty, but he will be a good Pope."

"Cardinal Re: I had been in the Secretariat of State for eight years. With us was a Polish priest, Monsignor Jozef Kowalczyk. Four days after he was elected, he brought me the first homily written in Polish by John Paul II and translated into Italian by Poles, asking me to review it. I read and reread that text'."

"Deprived for some time of the outward and, so to speak, "commercial" aspects, it is a time of special grace. Indeed, sins need God's forgiveness above all, but then also a purification, to be carried out here below, or, after death, in purgatory. Sacramental absolution in confession removes guilt and restores friendship with God, but there remains the duty of purification of the negative imprint left by the evil done and of reparation. This is the indulgence, through which we draw from the treasure of the Church, that is, from the merits acquired from Christ, Our Lady and the Saints. The indulgence can only be obtained once a day and can also be applied to our deceased loved ones by helping them in their purification process."

"Only by following Christ and accepting his teaching can we find adequate ways and criteria for building a future of unity and justice, the civilisation of love and peace."

"The lack of ideals is what leads to emptiness and boredom. That is why, dear young people, I encourage you not to postpone life's fundamental decisions. When the Lord calls us, He also gives us the strength and the grace necessary for responding to the responsibilities that will be placed on our path."

"(Regarding the resignation of Benedict XVI) We must agree that the gesture made by the Holy Father is to be appreciated without but and without if. I say this by reminding everyone of the courage, the serenity shown towards such an important choice. A choice certainly matured in all conscience in silence and meditation. Only in this way, in a continuous and intense dialogue with God in prayer, did the Pope choose. And it must be appreciated for the high sense of responsibility shown, even in a circumstance such as this, which is undoubtedly extraordinary."

"After many years of splendid service González, in Dec., 1889, resigned all his offices and dignities, except that of the cardinalate, and retired from active life. The remaining five years of his life were spent in study and prayer."

"Peruvians want and need peace, work and unity... to seek social peace and help to overcome the difficult conditions of the country."

"Italy is heading towards a slow demographic suicide because "over fifty per cent of families today are childless, and among those that do have children, almost half have only one, the rest have two, and only 5.1 per cent of families have three or more children. There is an urgent need for a child-oriented policy that immediately takes responsibility for a balanced generational change."

"There are no dogmas of faith and there are no dogmas of any kind when it comes to social practices. This issue must also be addressed with a single intention, a single objective: we must evaluate this question in a proactive manner because any decision, any way of dealing with Article 18, must aim to create jobs, otherwise it is useless."

"Too often, in culture as in life, the concept of consciousness, that is, a person's ability to recognise the truth and decide to follow it, is confused with the ultimate peremptory nature of subjective demands. [...] It is the confusion surrounding the false concept of autonomy that causes such profound confusion in today's culture, according to which a person is considered happier the closer they feel to doing what they want. [...] There is a reason for being that is stronger and more resistant than any human construct. Recognising this reality in itself and bowing gratefully to it is the most moral act we can perform."

"The Church does not promote itself, but serves humanity with God's love."

"The silence of conscience, through neglect and abandonment, can cause instinctiveness to be mistaken for spontaneity, wishful thinking for relevance, injustice for justice, death for life, selfishness for love. [...] However, at the very moment when the Magisterium is eradicated from conscience, without realising it, it is already being replaced by a substitute."

"Immigration is a reality. We need to combine the principle of welcoming others, which has always been at the heart of our country, with another principle that is just as important: legality, which everyone knows is needed for society to work."

"The full happiness of the Church, which comes from Christ, does not fail even in the face of our betrayals."

"(About Italy) The unity of the country remains an indispensable achievement and anchor. Any desirable reform, starting with federalism, must take into account the historical roots of unity and consistently evolve it for the good of all in order to be beneficial."

"Modernity has identified the theme of conscience as one of its most emblematic frontiers. [...] Too often, in culture as in life, the concept of conscience, that is, the ability of a person to recognise the truth and the decision to follow it, is confused with the ultimate peremptory nature of subjective opinion."

"Don Bosco organized his first missionary enterprise. The heroic band was composed of ten priests and coadjutor Salesian Brothers and fifteen Sisters of Mary, Help of Christians. Don Cagliero (now a prince of the Church), a favorite disciple of Don Bosco, whom he had never left from the age of thirteen, and who had become one of the most learned and saintly sons of the Society, was appointed the director of the mission."

"Be pillars of stability, peace and unity in your communities and work for the good of your people. You must be an instrument of reconciliation between people of the community, it is your role as priests as messengers of God. We priests must promote reconciliation between communities."

"The problem of our cultural identity, which for us clearly has religious and Christian roots, is certainly a very important question today. And we are seeing so increasingly."

"It is clear that the state itself needs a people, but the people are not such by virtue of the state; they precede it in that they are not a sum of individuals but a community of persons, and a true and reliable community is always spiritual and ethical in nature; it has a soul. This is its backbone. But if the soul becomes corrupt, then the unity of the people becomes fragile, and the state weakens and loses its shape. When can this happen? When the awareness of common values and cultural identity is obscured. Talking about cultural identity does not mean withdrawing or closing oneself off, but rather not disfiguring one's own face: without a face, it is impossible to meet, to get to know each other, to respect each other, to correct each other, to walk together, to work towards the same goals, to be a “people”. The state cannot create this unity, which is pre-institutional and pre-political, but at the same time it must be careful to preserve it and not damage it. It would be short-sighted and irresponsible to attack what unites us in the name of any perspective."

"God surpasses our measurement unit and surprises it, not in an abstract way, but in the Child laid in a manger."

"Work is a special part of those indispensable conditions that a truly human society must guarantee so that everyone can not only survive and live, but even more so, fulfil themselves according to God's plan."

"The Church is not a political republic. It is a spiritual reality incarnated in time, and does not respond to purely human criteria. The important thing is always to find someone capable of guiding God's people at a given moment in history. I have known Pope Leo XIV for a short time, through a few personal encounters. He is always kind, attentive to issues, and thoughtful. My overall and immediate impression is of a serene man, that is, reconciled with himself because he is centred on Christ. I believe this is the best prerequisite for living such a great responsibility."

"I began at once to visit the places where the new establishments were to rise, and I saw what an abundant harvest the Lord prepared for us."

"The main challenges facing the Church in Asia in her pastoral care of migrants are: violation of human rights; language difficulties; social injustice and economic unbalance; interreligious dialogue; consider migrants not as objects of evangelisation but as the subjects of mission."

"We have the obligation to accompany the evolution of communications media with a reasonable optimism. We cannot arrive late because others will occupy the vacant seats."

"Youths, it would seem, (a majority of them) have not let themselves be drawn by the theanthropic values of the Gospel. The most open path is directed towards goodness as welcome, comprehension and empathy. Goodness will be for them (as for many others) an efficacious sign to conquer them for the noble causes of today's society."

"Today, the Church is a minority. Only few know who Christ is and how to find Him. Even the Church is influenced by the dominating mentality at the risk of reducing the Gospel to a repetition of words or a moral appeal, which, however, don't give the necessary answers to a world, living in confusion. Christian faith is essentially an encounter with the living Christ. The Church is invited to meet Him with the joy of the beginning."

"The preservation of the fragments of Greek and Roman classics now extant is largely due to the monasteries, which for twelve centuries from the fall of the Western Empire were the custodians, not only of sacred codices but also of manuscripts of the ancient Greek philosophers and the Latin rhetoricians. A medieval monastery was often rich in archives."

"The family is the most efficient school of humanity of Christian life, transmitting human and Christian values in its own peculiar manner, based on example and testimony, on experience and daily life."

"I believe it was time for a cardinal to be chosen from here. It will be a challenge, I am sure, but with the help of God and my community I will try to further the teachings of the Lord."

"It is absolutely necessary to have committed Catholics in the field of communications, not as a fifth column to infiltrate in hostile territory but as a group of convinced believers who can and should bring Christian and Catholic values to their professional life."

"We must therefore fulfill the obligation of being aware of a world which continues to ignore with a guilty conscience the Law of God, and which is based on human laws imposed by those who hold the power of economic strength. It is up to the latter to give up these interests."

"Demographic politics, with the ways of a hew ideology and what is called "demographic colonialism", specialize in poor regions and countries. These are not the product of something spontaneous. They are provoked, concerted and coordinated for powerful institutions working with a particular view."

"The danger denounced by the Latin American bishops is that of the prevailing of an ideology that is not Latin American but which can have a certain contingent success, as sometimes happens with the democratic majorities that are here today and gone tomorrow. A danger arising out of anthropological confusion and out of the juridical positivism reigning in some countries, whereby the law, as law, is always good. But this is not a certain criterion, history is full of examples that run counter."

"The faithful have the right to full communion with the Church of Christ. Without this protection offered to the pastors against divisions and without the protection offered to the faithful against negligent Pastors, the Pope would go against his basic duty of confirming his brethren."

"Faith in God and the rootedness of our culture in its Christian and its Judeo-Christian heritage; faith in God is a huge asset, it's not a problem and what we must not do is begin to think that this extremism is the product of religious faith; it's a distortion, it's a corruption."

"We must strive to be a Church capable of listening to the religious expressions of the communities, of welcoming the religious richness of the rituals of the people, of offering opportunities for commissioning ministries, of perceiving the presence of God in the way of living in harmony with everything and everyone."

"We need to be careful and instead of looking for justifications not to become involved we need to ask ourselves: "what is the Lord asking me to do in this situation?" And then simply, obey."

"The basic ecclesial communities come together, actually all the races come together. Territorial parishes come together. Where the Lord is placed, all come together. In our country, there is diversity."

"The future of the Catholic Church depends on the quality of the priests."

"Closeness makes sharing possible for authorities with our people, particularly the most vulnerable. Listening allows us to discover how people live, want and expect; and not exactly just what we like to hear. Service is the guiding principle of every project and social, political or economic program."

"We know that every priestly vocation is a call from the Lord, but the call comes through the Church, in the Church and for the Church. For that reason the Church has the right, indeed the duty, of determining the requisites necessary for being admitted to the priesthood."

"We cannot use a time of so-called crisis as an excuse for feeling sorry for ourselves for declining numbers of occasion, neither should we blame the changes in the church or even the human faults and failings of her members."

"We always run the risk of turning into administrators if we are too many years in a job."

"Healing entire populations of the consequences of war and armed conflicts, especially the people that have been most affected and victimized, is the best investment in building up true security and a durable peace."

"Faced especially with the Chinese, I judged it appropriate in no way to accredit the suspicion that the Catholic religion seemed to be placed under the protection and, even worse, as a political instrument at the service of European nations. I wanted, from my first acts, to claim my freedom of action in the field of religious interests, by refusing to be accompanied before the local civil authorities by representatives of foreign nations."

"I remind you that it is not a personal award, it is to let everyone see the need to work for the understanding among all Venezuelans, overcoming all kinds of violence is the only way that will allow us a future of peace and harmony."

"Dr. Wiseman was particularly pleased by the conversion of a Mr. Morris, who, as he said, was ‘the author of the essay, which won the prize on the best method of proving Christianity to the Hindoos.’"