Jesuits

"Faith and hope in Jesus through Mary is the basis of your spirituality and the good works you achieve, like Monfort you show mercy to the poor and the suffering."

"Inculturation is not a superficial strategy for the propagation of our faith, but the very nature and identity of our mission, on the very pattern of God's mission manifested through Jesus in the dialogue of salvation. Only when the Church dialogues with the cultures of Asia, giving birth to Asian forms of Christian spirituality, prayer and worship, theology and lifestyle, will we grow as fully Asian and authentically Christian Churches."

"We owe no one any apology for being Christians and Indians. This is our birthright and is enshrined in our Constitution. At the same time we must avoid demonizing those who attack us. They are also human beings like us even if their ideology sometimes blinds them and blunts their consciences. There is no substitute to dialogue in all its dimensions."

"Instead of the "rights" language, we prefer to focus on the cultivation of "dignity" and a healthy sense of "duty" toward the community, society, and country. Our duty is to promote or ensure dignity of the others, not only our own. Having said that, China, like the rest of the world, also needs to learn to do better in the promotion of dignity among all in the country as well as in the world."

"We usually say that this is not Rosario, it's not Rosario yet. We are at a moment where it almost depends on us for this to not be Rosario, but if we are careless, it will be Rosario in three months, or it already is and it will be more blatant to see."

"People vote more now with their feet than they do with their geography. I tell the seminarians that people want intelligent priests; they want educated priests — priests who know what’s going on in politics, government and culture — so they can comment intelligently from the pulpit when interpreting the Gospel."

"We're the new mission lands. So I wanted to talk to the students at your graduation about being local missionaries, reaching out here. This is more challenging. There's more unbelief, more "nones," and more hostility to our faith. It's right here in our backyard."

"The Pope chose to go to the periphery because that is where the sufferings the people live are to be found—real life. It is a sign of his concern for those living in Rome, a way of showing he is near."

"There is clearly a pastoral dimension. We have the task of promoting and defending the Faith, preaching the Faith. This is an eminently pastoral role. It involves promoting the Catholic Faith so that it is increasingly known and, when there are problems, defending this Faith as well."

"It is necessary to be extremely cautious, because if hatred is fostered with a spirit of vengeance, the fundamentalists are given the possibility to have more power, and the terrorists the opportunity to recruit other terrorists more easily."

"Mindanao needs stabilisation, which must come about in small steps, gradually, with the contribution of all."

"The presence of Mother Teresa is for India and for the world today is like a new incarnation that brings salvation, redemption, and freedom for all those in strife. Only a person led by God could do what Mother did: gather children, terminally ill, poor and abandoned, and restore their dignity. The Church is always on the side of the poor through works of education, social development, and education. We are a Church that promotes the dignity of the Dalits, the outcasts, that works for social justice, according to Gospel values."

"We Jesuits always have to remember that most Catholics are not Jesuits — a fact we tend to overlook sometimes. Our spirituality is not for everyone — perhaps hard to say, but so true. For me, becoming a bishop was a real change, for then I had to recognize the whole spectrum of theologies, spiritualties, ministries and charisms present in the diocese entrusted to me. Through this I came to realize what a great gift doctrine is for the Church, enabling it to be one, holy, and catholic."

"One ought to guard oneself against including among the canonical books of the Indians the Ezour Vedam , of which there is a socalled translation in the Royal Library, and which has been published in 1778. It is definitely not one of four Vedams, not withstanding its name. It is a book of controversy, written by a missionary at Masulipatam. It contains a refutation of a number of Pouranons devoted to Vichenou, which are several centuries later than the Vedams. One sees that the author tries to reduce everything to the Christian religion; he did introduce a few errors, though, so that one would not be able to recognize the missionary under the disguise of the Brahmin. Anyhow, Mr Voltaire and a few others were wrong when they gave this book an importance which it does not deserve, and when they regard it as canonical. 62"

"This manuscript undoubtedly belongs to the time when the ancient religion of the gymnosophists had begun to be corrupted; except for our own sacred books, it is the most respectable monument of belief in a single God. It is called Ezour Veidam: as if one were to say the true Veidam, the Veidam explained, the pure Veidam."

"The very idea that he came, as he said, to preach a new or a fifth Veda, which had been lost, shows how well he knew the strong and weak points of the theological system he came to conquer."

"…With the permission of Father General I left Rome in 1603 and after two years spent travelling I arrived in Goa. Soon after I came to Cochin, and thence to Madura. There I remarked that all the efforts made to bring the heathens to Christ had all been in vain. I left no stone unturned to find a way to bring them from their superstition and the worship of idols to the faith of Christ. But my efforts were fruitless, because with a sort of barbarous stolidity they turned away from the manners and customs of the Portuguese and refused to put aside the badges of their ancient nobility. When I noticed that certain Brahmins were highly praised because they led lives of great hardship and austerity and were looked upon as if they had dropped from the sky, I thought that, if to win popularity among the pagans, and raise themselves in their esteem, they contrived to keep perpetual chastity and weaken their bodies by watching, fasting and meditation, I could, to win them to Christ, conform myself to their mode of life in all such things which were not repugnant to the holiness of the Christian doctrine, for it seemed to me that with divine help I could do for God’s sake, what they did with wicked cunning to win vain applause and worldly honours. Therefore I professed to be an Italian Brahmin who had renounced the world, had studied wisdom at Rome (for a Brahmin means a wise man) and rejected all the pleasures and comforts of the world. I had already learned Tamil and Sanskrit, which among them holds the same place as the Latin among us…"

"The Amazon is a territory that is devastated and threatened by the concessions made by States to transnational corporations. Large-scale mining projects, monoculture and climate change place its lands and natural environment at great risk, leading to the destruction of cultures, undermining the self-determination of peoples and above all affronting Christ incarnate in the people who live there."

"If political leaders and ministers publicly mingled, supported and received the accused from the prison, it has not only demoralized the Christians but also other minority communities in the country."

"We go back, in the sense that we also explore the beginning of the universe from the point of view of science, but we also go far away, because we also study the farthest, the most distant galaxies ... And this brings up the questions that we all should ask about the relationship between science and faith. I think this is the mission of the Observatory: go out to the truly most distant boundaries, the boundaries of the universe, that is always a gift of God."

"Today Slovakia is an independent nation. But it experienced two world wars and its people, especially its Christians – were the victims of one of fiercest Communist persecutions from 1948 to 1989 when the regime collapsed. Bishops, clergy and laity were imprisoned, religious orders suppressed, diocesan seminaries closed, and Catholic organisations and press banned. Those were years of barbarism and terror. In 1989 we found our freedom once again."

"Justice can only serve Truth: this is written on the palace of Justice in Bratislava. Courageous and honest Slovak men have fought throughout history for this justice. I do not ask for mercy: I simply appeal to the Truth, to the Law and to Justice. The injustices I have personally experienced can be forgotten. But I can never renounce Truth and Justice."

"He was a Jesuit cardinal, persecuted by the regime, imprisoned, and sentenced to forced labor until he fell ill. When he came to Rome for the Jubilee of the Year 2000, he went to the catacombs and lit a candle for his persecutors, imploring mercy for them. This is the Gospel. It grows in life and in history through humble and patient love."

"Social change, if it is to endure and take place on as wide a basis as possible, can only happen when the people who are the target of change participate in the process from start to finish, have a say in the setting of goals, in the decisions taken to accomplish those goals, in the action on the decisions. It is a common sense insight that social anthropologists make much of but which technocrats and governments in a hurry most often ignore."

"If we can take care of our problems, then we don't need the bases and we won't even need the compensation."

"The only possible aim for ecumenism is communion. The old notion that the church begins with God, then the pope, and on down in pyramidal fashion, is gone. What we're dealing with now is sister churches. That's what we had before the East/West schism."

"Anything that helps spread the news and the flood of ever-new documentation on inter-church relations can only be viewed positively. And it is a mistake to think that this is not true in countries of the less-developed so-called "third world," where those interested in the rest of the world are often more computer-literate than those of us in the West. Some of my Orthodox friends in far away countries are computer whizzes compared to me!"

"Dialogue is the only way to resolve differences in these difficult moments. I appeal to my brothers in Celendín to stop the violence and favor dialogue."

"Can we find ways to be more open, more receptive and more welcoming to people who don't fit into standard categories? That's the essence of the debate. Some say: You can't adjust the practice without influencing the doctrine. Others say that you can maintain the doctrine and adjust the practice. I would be in the latter category. It's a matter of theological debate."

"We can't just talk about liturgical matters or translations of particular books of the Bible, as important as they are. We have to deal with the fact that people are suffering."

"Christianity was considered a foreign religion - contaminated, dirty and evil through and through. Such treatments or situations were indeed "moments of grace" as they served to challenge us to witness to the Gospel and its values by deeds of Christian concern and care of those who needed us educationally and through social uplift programmes."

"We bishops have urged the people to keep praying for the patients and for the medical staff fighting the disease and to provide all the necessary assistance. I want to express my deep appreciation for all that the doctors and nurses are doing even risking their own lives to help the patients recover. I would encourage Chinese Catholics to sustain the doctors and nurses with their prayers offering all the love and solidarity possible. I call on the whole human community to unite to overcome SARS."

"In relations with China the trouble is, if China wants an independent Church this will always be outside the universal Church and will also be an obstacle to relations with the Holy See. However we pray and we hope the future will be better."

"Through our Catholic schools we are able reach out to numerous families in our country. If teachers are aware of their mission the effects of students will soon be seen. Our teachers will only be appreciated if their life style is in keeping with that of Jesus, the greatest Teacher of all."

"The true faith of the people of God is surely and principally rooted in the faith and piety of the mother of the family who can also be a key person in fostering vocations. Tribal women are very good catechists. If they are trained well in their faith, they have a great advantage over men catechists. If tribal women are trained as evangelizers, they will be great carriers of the Gospel of Jesus."

"War is the fruit of sin, and perhaps, we have forgotten sin too much in our prosperous Europe. But sin is present."

"It will be a pontificate in continuity with the magisterium of Pope Francis. I am very happy about that. This is what the majority of the cardinals wanted ... but with a style of their own. [...] Pope Leo XIV, in his first message, spoke of a “synodal Church.” Having participated in the work of the Synod, we have a Pope who knows synodality, who understands it, who dares to be synodal. There will not be a revolution, but an evolution."

"We are here to serve, and sometimes we receive humiliations, the Church always asks for consent and offers physical and moral spaces for dialogue."

"One who denies that we are sick of violence, I think looks the other way. I do not know if many of those who criticize today have ever walked through neighborhoods as we do. A radio station said that Bishops are like Princes of the Church. I want to invite this reporter, if he wants, to put on a pair of shoes suitable for mud and to accompany and walk with me in the diocese. There are many who speak without knowing, without basis."

"As long as we keep our eyes closed and our ears closed and continue to pretend that human trafficking is something that barbarians do on the other side of the world, it's going to continue, and it's going to get worse."

"Dancing on a tightrope requires that one maintain an equilibrium from one moment to the next by recreating it at every step by means of new adjustments; it requires one to maintain a balance that is never permanently acquired; constant readjustments renews the balance while giving the impression of ‘keeping it’."

"Nothing stops a bullet like a job."

"Our Churches make themselves servants of the Kingdom which goes far beyond the frontiers of the visible Church because the frontiers of the Kingdom are none other than those of Charity. The Church is not an enterprise that seeks to expand, but it is a witness and servant of what God is doing in humanity. The witness is first of all one who recognizes in the other the work of the Spirit. He offers himself to collaborate in it."

"The Church in Algeria has a mission. We must be weavers of friendship, brotherhood and peace with everyone. We are called to disarm our hearts. We are a Church of encounter."

"The Church carries out its mission through the help provided by the offerings of the faithful. And we don't know how much people will be able to give. Precisely for this reason we must be sober, rigorous. We must manage the finances with the passion and diligence of a good family man"

"We have to try again and again and never give up in this. It is our duty I think, our duty that comes from Christ himself who wants his disciples to be united."

"Today, especially in the West, there are many challenges for the Catholic Church. However, if Catholics and Orthodox were more united between them, then the Christian witness would become stronger and more profound. The Orthodox Churches and I'd say the Orthodox Tradition in general, resists secularization better. The Orthodox has great respect for the Spiritual Tradition; they don't reject it. Even those who are not close to the Church identify themselves in any case with the spiritual tradition of their country and their community. In face of the challenge of secularization, Orthodoxy is an ally for Catholics."

"Money and the desperate quest for it, deeply affect every aspect of human life, mostly on a daily basis, and people should be aware of the prevalence of this dangerous trend that has also taken root among Indonesian Catholics. Indonesians, even Catholics, are easily influenced by money, position and social status. And this leads people to believe in values that are not based on our moral or cultural attitudes. This moral decadence is a very serious problem that we must face daily."

"May God have mercy on you! May God bless you! Lord, Thou knowest that I am innocent! With all my heart I forgive my enemies! Long live Christ the King!"

"I still feel like a Jesuit. And I am grateful for what I received from the Society of Jesus. I would like to say to all Jesuits: Thank you, brothers."