Clergy From Italy

"O! how beautiful is Christian charity! How truly is it called Catholic! It makes no distinction of nation, language, or person; but takes all men into one family! And, not without motive, does it teach us to address all by the tender name of brother!"

"Be a witness, especially for those who harbor anger toward a society they see as hostile. The witness must instill hope in them by helping them understand that life is valuable when it is given freely."

"Indians have excellent eyes and ears; and our band, if weak in numbers, was certainly strong in lungs; for such as had wind instruments spared neither contortions of the face, nor exertions of their organs of respiration to give volume to the music."

"There is a certain Kemalist secularism which relegates religion to the private sphere, is not very desirable for us. On this point, too, we must break away from certain trivializations. In Europe, the total secularism of the state is considered a value, but there are controversial situations and questionable aspects. A government that takes into account the religious sentiments of the people is in any case desirable for us. We cannot accept a religion simply relegated to consciences."

"It is not a matter of religious beliefs. It is a natural reality that does not come from ideological or cultural tendencies, but from natural principals that proceed from the very nature of the human person. If we cut ourselves off from the common denominator of human nature...What universal reference would their be in humanity to guarantee our human rights?"

"I understand philosophy as the transition from sense to meaning, through cultural and doctrinal mediation, through the structure of pure thought, and through the mediation of practice."

"Philosophy is the hermeneutics of meaning, especially as historical data, so that it becomes significance, that is, decision, through cultural comparison that goes beyond mere memorization, by virtue of evaluation (theoretical moment) and practical-political impact (practical moment). Critical comparison of practical forms, to bring meaning (the data, we might say) to the value of significance."

"We are always exposed to the permanent risk of our contingency: the contingency of the environment, of society, our own intimate contingency. We ourselves oscillate, we are in oscillation with respect to ourselves."

"Freedom, observes the philosopher, is potential launched into infinity."

"A philosophy that consumes itself in thought consumes itself, annihilates itself. Philosophy must open the windows of freedom, the doors of freedom; it must establish freedom. A philosophy that does not establish freedom is a Procrustean bed, a guillotine."

"Salvatierra's memory needs no panegyric. His deeds speak for themselves; and in the light of these, the bitterest enemies of his religion or of his order cannot deny the beauty of his character and the disinterestedness of his devotion to California."

"The pope, by virtue of his primacy of jurisdiction, has the right to send legates to provide for the unity of Faith and for ecclesiastical discipline, and to choose them at will. Though self-evident, this authority of the pope has been contested from a very early period."

"The Ireland of to-day feels acutely that the springs of her greatness lie in the past, and that by restoring ancestral traditions, blending them naturally with existing social forms, and by drawing strength and dignity from the memories of pre-Christian and medieval Ireland, before the Anglo-Norman had deformed and strangled her, she may yet discover her true self, and start life afresh."

"The first gift that the Pope has given us and it is one that is visible on the faces of Angolans. From there, we can find the strength to continue on our mission of announcing the Gospel with a renewed spirit, in communion with the Holy Father."

"To stand tall, you need to know how to kneel in prayer."

"The girls forced into prostitution on the streets made me understand the beauty of chastity and the deep need for a relationship with God the Father."

"The important thing is to work so that, from childhood, people can nurture the infinite love that is present within each of us."

"Men must understand that if they go to prostitutes, they are contributing to the enslavement of these girls and to the growth of criminal organisations."

"It is the same logic that leads to abortion: if the child is a nuisance, it is not accepted, it is eliminated; and the citizens pay the costs. But the child is a person, a unique word of God, with its own history. [...] But then what is the difference between the Mafia, the Camorra and the 'Ndrangheta, who kill their opponents because they are a nuisance, and those who argue that it is acceptable to kill someone who is a nuisance in a premeditated murder?"

"(About the opening of the holy door) This is a great opportunity that God is offering us: let us all welcome it. A few days ago, I was in Loreto with Don Oreste Benzi and three elderly priests who were celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of their ministry. One of them said: 'The year 2000 is coming: what do you want to change? Don q:it:Oreste Benzi looked at us and replied: “There are five of us: if we five change, a lot will change”. So, we must take these words as an example: each of us can do something, each of us can give a little light, because each of us is an open window through which God's light can pass."

"There are certain negative influences in today's society that lead young people to drugs and keep them there because they take away their sense of responsibility, teaching them to do whatever they want, to have everything immediately and at any cost, instead of encouraging obedience to fundamental values."

"The collapse of the parameters for accepting oneself as male in today's society completes the picture of factors that create conditions favourable to homosexuality."

"Acquired homosexuals are the effeminate men mentioned in Scripture who are not allowed to enter the kingdom of heaven. Acquired homosexuality can be overcome and, being a vice, must be removed at all costs."

"I am addressing those concerned directly: there is no right to recognition of same-sex unions. Homosexuality can be corrected and the psychological deviation that is inherent in it can be removed. I am appealing to you to save the identity of natural and Christian marriage. Only you can save it by rejecting what is not your own."

"Prostitution comes from the heart, but it is also from the heart that good can begin."

"Magical and superstitious beliefs and practices are a way that allows these forces of evil to enslave us more and more."

"I well understand how Wikipedia represents an Enlightenment dream of describing the world, which, however, clashes with the difficulties of accrediting itself as a credible compendium of knowledge, while maintaining anonymity, flexibility and continuous openness to new contributors. At the same time, this 'utopia' overturns the dream of the traditional encyclopaedia, understood as an authoritative, organic and integrated construction of knowledge. In fact, Wikipedia is like a living organism: it grows (at the rate of 7 per cent every month), it 'falls ill', it is subject to internal compositions and decompositions, to continuous growth and reduction. But above all, Wikipedia conceals another, in its own way, ambiguous utopia: the absolute democracy of knowledge and the collaboration of multiple intelligences that gives rise to a kind of collective intelligence. This utopia could hide a new form of 'tower of Babel', which has its Achilles' heel not only in unreliability, but also in relativism. [...] His 'utopias' arise, radicalising them, from the profound needs of human knowledge, which the wíki, in general, help transform into concrete projects: knowledge understood as a dynamic process, open to all, and the fruit not only of individual commitment, but also of profound collaboration and intense confrontation between minds willing to share skills and intelligence."

"It is a common experience to have frequented a library. Entering the reference room is like crossing a threshold between the world of noise and the world of silence. The people one meets appear, in general, concentrated on what they are reading with an attitude of body that seems to express deep attention. The surroundings, the silence, the concentration that one 'breathes' in the air seem to recall, in some respects, entering a church and praying. The man who studies and the man who prays seem to assume similar attitudes. This analogy is very fruitful for reflection and leads one to naturally think of a spirituality of study. The Christian scholar is strongly urged to ask himself how his activity and prayer can coexist in his inner life."

"Christianity is not an encyclopaedia of contents and values, nor a list of battles to be fought, but an openness to the surprise of God. Without the experience of his Real Presence, without the encounter with the person of Christ, Christianity becomes a rigid ideology. But beware! God is to be sought and found everywhere in the world. He is present and active in the world and in history. He is not necessarily where we think He is."

"The model we have before our eyes, that of Francis de Sales, is therefore that of a journalism that communicates passion and has an intent of involvement, participation, education. The same attention to 'truth' is not a simple and cold focus on 'objectivity' or 'neutrality', but on understanding the value of things."

"I believe that in Internet there is a highly spiritual dimension. I would like to mention at least one person, a great Jesuit, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, who with his books, with his insights, his idea of the noosphere anticipated the idea of the Internet... We are talking about a Jesuit who lived in times when the Internet was not even conceivable, but he largely anticipated this phenomenon. I would also say that, in my opinion, the Internet is a reality that has strong spiritual potential."

"Digital technologies allow people, today more than ever, to stay connected and communicate, overcoming many distances. And with a technological system for communicating and thinking, a kind of intelligence distributed everywhere and growing all the time is being formed at the same time. The Internet, in fact, involves the sharing of resources, time, content, ideas. The now classic example is Wikipedia, which beyond any evaluation is the fruit of the convergence of many people, connected together across the planet, who think and write. Intelligence is distributed wherever there is humanity, and today it can be easily interconnected. The network of this knowledge gives rise to a form of 'collective intelligence' or common consciousness. [...] The Net is called from being a place of 'connection' to becoming a place of 'communion'. The risk these days is to confuse the two terms. Connection in itself is not enough to make the Net a place of fully human sharing. Working towards this goal is the specific task of the Christian."

"Interviewer: Well Salvini out of government? Antonio Spadaro: It is not clear how this will end. In any case, Salvini's role in the League's sovereignist mutation, after twenty years in which the party has expressed real capacity for government rooted in the territory will have to be investigated. From green it has turned black. For me the question, after the bathing coup, is the relationship between Salvini, a charismatic personality who has absorbed the party into himself, and the League itself. The question is what the right in Italy can be. A question that has never been resolved."

"[...] we live in times in which we run the risk of losing the meaning of study and seeing it only as functional to a job. Certainly study 'serves' man and also helps him to find his place in the world as a worker. The risk, however, is that of living study in an occasional and functional manner, and no longer as a strong and valuable life experience. The Christian presence in a study environment such as the university must therefore first and foremost aim not to add activity to other activities, but to help the young student live his main activity: study, in a Christian manner. Much less can Christian formation and academic study be considered in competition with each other."

"There is always a vulnerable point in Pavese's life, a point that exposes him to the beauty and intuition of the taste for life, but this seems to find no possibility of development."

"The Internet is no longer an agglomeration of isolated and independent websites, albeit connected and networked, but is to be considered as the whole of the technological capabilities achieved by mankind in the field of disseminating and sharing information and knowledge."

"Ultimately, Satan is interested in snatching souls away from God, and he does not want to take possession of the body just to lead it to spiritual death, which is far worse than physical death."

"The true exorcist knows that he must pay a very high price for his ministry."

"Man no longer has a spiritual plan for his life when he uses God for his own needs, to fill the void of his existence."

"When we fight with the devil, we must remain ‘seated’ in Christ. To perform exorcisms, absolute chastity is required."

"Satan can attack tirelessly, but he cannot triumph."

"One can lead a seemingly normal life without knowing that one is possessed by the Devil."

"Where there is genuine demonic possession, exorcisms instil confidence, strength and serenity in the soul of the person undergoing them, ensuring and sustaining their ability to fight and overcome evil spirits."

"Angels and demons are beings completely devoid of any form of matter."

"Exorcisms, on the other hand, have nothing to do with witchcraft: indeed, they are its antithesis."

"The Devil was condemned for pride, and those who are proud become like the Devil, consequently falling into his own condemnation."

"The theme of the fall of the rebellious angels is fundamental to understanding the mystery of evil."

"Man is undeniably responsible for the evil he voluntarily commits, but in the history of creation, the initiative, in an absolute sense, to do evil does not belong to man but to Satan."

"Lucifer (in Italian Lucifero), rather than being the actual name of the Devil, is a highly expressive image used to indicate what was initially the most beautiful angel created by God."

"Just as an illness does not affect a person's eternal salvation, so possession does not affect goodness, will, or love for God."