catholics-from-germany

"Early Christian inscriptions confirm the Catholic doctrine of the Resurrection, the sacraments, the veneration of the Blessed Virgin, and the primacy of the Apostolic See. It would be difficult to over-estimate the importance of these evidences, for they are always entirely incidental elements of the sepulchral inscriptions, all of which were pre-eminently eschatological in their purpose."

"In character he was amiable and virtuous."

"He was a moral, religious man, of much force of character, to whom half measures and shiftiness were foreign."

"Kuhn was a clear thinker, with remarkable gifts for philosophical and theological speculation."

"The rising sense of history would gradually transform the Roman marble quarry into a vast open-air museum where the unlearned touring public could discover the past. [...] The prophet and founding hero of modern archaeology, herald of this ever-widening public significance, was Johann Joachim Winckelmann."

"Der gute Geschmack, welcher sich mehr und mehr durch die Welt ausbreitet, hat sich angefangen zuerst unter dem griechischen Himmel zu bilden. Alle Erfindungen fremder Völker kamen gleichsam nur als der erste Same nach Griechenland, und nahmen eine andere Natur und Gestalt an in dem Lande, welches Minerva, sagt man, vor allen Ländern, wegen der gemäßigten Jahreszeiten, die sie hier angetroffen, den Griechen zur Wohnung angewiesen, als ein Land welches kluge Köpfe hervorbringen würde."

"Die Nachahmung des Schönen der Natur ist entweder auf einen einzelnen Vorwurf gerichtet, oder sie sammlet die Bemerkungen aus verschiedenen einzelnen, und bringet sie in eins. Jenes heißt eine ähnliche Kopie, ein Porträt machen; es ist der Weg zu holländischen Formen und Figuren. Dieses aber ist der Weg zum allgemeinen Schönen und zu idealischen Bildern desselben; und derselbe ist es, den die Griechen genommen haben."

"A Philhllene of extraordinary passion, [Winckelmann] loved every aspect of his image of Greece, seeing its two dominant essences as liberty and youth. According to him Greece epitomized freedom, while Egyptian culture had been stunted by its monarchism and conservatism and was the symbol of rigid authority and stagnation — which also happened to be non-European. In his mind, the Greek city-states contained the liberty without which it was impossible to create great art. Winckelmann, and his followers, loved this liberty and youth for their freshness and vitality. Yet he insisted upon the soft gentleness of Greek art, and the ‘noble simplicity’ and ‘serene greatness’ of Greek culture as a whole, which he saw as the result of the equable Greek climate. Moreover, central to his love of Greece was his appreciation of Greek homosexuality. Winckelmann himself was homosexual, and the major homosexual strand which has persisted in modern Hellenism has continued to be associated with him."

"So wie die Tiefe des Meers allezeit ruhig bleibt, die Oberfläche mag noch so wüten, ebenso zeiget der Ausdruck in den Figuren der Griechen bei allen Leidenschaften eine große und gesetzte Seele."

"In spite of his resolute party attitude, he succeeded in gaining and retaining not only the confidence of his political friends, but also the high regard of his political opponents."

"A negative precept of natural law which prohibits a thing intrinsically evil can never be lawfully transgressed not even under the influence of the fear of death."

"In all human undertakings the period of growth is followed by one of decay unless a new spirit pours fresh life into the old forms."

"A man of keen intellectual vision and an unlimited capacity for work, Stattler was ever ready to guard and defend Catholic principles."

"He was an enthusiastic student and one of the foremost Semitic scholars of modern times."

"There is hardly a branch of theological science which has till quite recently been brought to so little certain and recognised results as the history of the Christian Liturgy. This arose in the main from the practical necessity that the Catholic doctrine of the Holy Eucharist in the representative continuance and application of the sacrifice of Christ, in opposition to the Protestant polemic, should be shown to be the primitive Christian form. But in a period of more than three centuries little more was done than to collect the material, which recently from their great numbers, critical inquiry rather tended to confuse than to enlighten."

"A keen intellect with powers of clear exposition, joined to the spirited delivery which distinguished his lectures, ensured him great success."

"He laboured zealously and, moreover, inaugurated at Fulda, those annual reunions of the German bishops which have since produced such excellent results."

"The Pope has asked us to be precious stones in the edifice of the Catholic Church in Russia. Our local Church is a small edifice, we are not many, but we too can be the precious stones that build the universal Church."

"The Christian's weakness in front of his persecutors is not a disadvantage, but paradoxically, the way in which he is able to endure moments of crisis."

"Profane History is for the most part a record of sin and scandal, of successful plunders and murders, it is a vast scene of crime and misery. The history of the saints, on the other hand, is the narration of the triumphs of God's kingdom, of spiritual prowess and heroic virtue. Yet whist all the branches of secular history employ many pens, the history of the saints, which of all others deserves the attention of a Christian, is neglected and nearly forgotten."

"There is a great need among Catholics to be united despite the distances and at the same time to care for others, for example the poor, regardless of what background they come from."

"If we trust in God, we too can carry out the mission that He has entrusted to us."

"Though the Californians seem to possess nothing, they have, nevertheless, all that they want, for they covet nothing beyond the productions of their poor, ill-favored country, and these are always within their reach. It is no wonder, then, that they always exhibit a joyful temper, and constantly indulge in merriment and laughter, showing thus their contentment, which, after all, is the real source of happiness."

"Another reason, perhaps the most important one, why only men and not women can become priests in the Church is based on the fact that, when offering the Eucharistic sacrifice on the altar, the priest acts in persona Christi, the Heavenly High Priest (cf. Heb. 2:17). ‘Christ is here preparing the supper,’ says John Chrysostom (De Jud. 6), ‘for it is not by the work of a man that what is on the altar becomes the Body and Blood of Christ. When he approaches the altar and presents his priestly supplication there, he is only the interpreter and representative of the Saviour, but the grace and power that accomplishes everything is that of the Lord.’Now, since Jesus here on earth as a man was precisely a man, a woman cannot represent him at the altar, even if she were fully worthy. On the contrary, a man is suitable to do so, not because of his character or because he is worthy but solely because this is the will of Jesus by virtue of priestly consecration."

"Father Clementine was a very industrious man, who in his spare time translated a number of useful works."

"Seek to possess real virtue, not the appearance of it ; avoid all singularity in word and act, which often gives others a wrong idea of virtue, even making it appear ridiculous. Give to every duty its proper time and place, whether it relate to prayer, study or amusement. True virtues always command respect and esteem, while pretended ones are condemned and despised."

"Resurrection does not simply spell the survival of the soul but requires the transformation of the world as we know it."

"He was foremost among the German theologians of the eighteenth century as a guide and an inspirer of ecclesiastical youth, and may be considered a model of lifelong devotion to all the sciences that befit an ecclesiastic."

"When we have assured ourselves that the Bible is really as old and as truthful a record of history as it pretends to be^ and that it has for it such human testimony as leads us to admit historic facts in general, we shall occupy ourselves with its contents, with the influence which this wonderful book, this ancient testament of our royal Sire, exercises upon the heart, the mind, the general culture, by which it leads us to our inheritance, and enables us to assume our place in our destined home."

"Gifted and original, a keen observer of human nature, a master of language with every shade of expression at command, he united a broad sense of humour and an effective satire with a deep sincerity of religious feeling, a delicacy in the portrayal of conditions of the soul, and a poetical force and beauty in his descriptions of nature."

"Personally and through the clergy trained by him, Liebermann exerted a wholesome and long-continued influence upon the revival of the ecclesiastical spirit in Mainz and the adjoining dioceses."

"The Church does not demand a recognition of her superiority over the State for the promotion of the personal and temporal interests of her rulers, but only for the maintenance of the truth revealed by God, which is for the true interest of the State and the Christian people. She only requires that the recognition of God as the source of every right shall not merely be speculative and theoretical, but practically and truly acted upon by the State, or at least that it shall not be positively contravened, which ever will be and ever has been injurious to the State. We must also remember the incontrovertible theological principle that Grace does not destroy Nature, that the supernatural order does not annul the natural order. The Church could not possibly exercise everywhere the functions of the civil power, just as little as the civil power could exercise the functions of the Church. The Church needs the State as the State needs the Church."

"I have somewhere read that more men rust out than wear out; a piece of mechanism is more apt to get out of repair when not employed than when performing its accustomed labor."

"The spirit of religion and the love of neighbor impelled our forefathers to erect magnificent churches, schools, orphan asylums, hospitals, universities, and other like institutions, to give learned men and saints to the land. Within these institutions men were trained for the object of their existence, and while the Te Deum resounds within those time-honored walls, it is re-echoed by the saints above, who erected those buildings."

"It is difficult for inhabitants of a more humid climate to realize the importance which a country like Palestine attaches to any source of fresh water."

"A poem is a whole, complete 'made' world: a fiction is a half, incomplete, poorly made piece of world."

"[...] the soul feels, in contemplation of the landscape, a gentle being-carried, a movement as if by an invisible spirit, through which lingering on the charming details first gains its appeal."

"When the world of the senses and the world of the spirit appear absolutely separated, then sin is at its peak: it has systematized and completed itself."

"I too have often dreamed of a union of that greater nation to which we belong, as a branch belongs to the trunk, expecting revolutions, heroes, and various changes in the sentiments of nations, which should come and favor the dream. The great federalism of European peoples, which will one day come, as surely as we live, will also bear German colors; for everything great, profound, and eternal in all European institutions is German – that is the certainty that has remained to me among all those hopes. Who can still separate the German element out of Europe?"

"An artist who forgets the world over his work will never speak to the world through the work, may perhaps tear the work dead from himself, but will never be able to close it into its own free and necessary life."

"The state is [...] an alliance of past generations with the following ones, and vice versa. It is an alliance not only of contemporaries, but also of 'spatial contemporaries'; [...] The state is not merely the union of many 'living side by side', but also of many 'succeeding one another' families."

"Man cannot be conceived outside of the state."

"Müller was a man of great and versatile talents, an excellent orator, and a suggestive writer."

"Man is endowed with a thousandfold desires and infinite longings, and thus has been sent into a world that would be rich enough to grant even more than he can demand. Every glow of the heart finds its shadow, every thirst its wave, every longing its distance, and countless hidden, well-protected refuges are prepared for the soul that strives for safety and peace."

"The reconciliation of science and art and of their noblest ideas with serious political life was the purpose of my larger works."

"The prestige of the faculty of Bonn had suffered sadly because of the inroads of Hermesianism, and this learned theologian, who was eminently qualified for the work of academic teaching, set about to restore its fallen glory. His brilliant and zealous activity, especially during the first two decades of his office, placed him in the first rank among the shining lights of the university."

"Hinderer was not only a man of science, but also a missionary who for forty years laboured as an apostle and by his zeal and efficiency achieved substantial results."

"The ancient was the peer of the modem merchant. One thing only we may claim for our own times: Christianity has certainly implanted in us a deeper sympathy with the rights and the feelings of our fellow-men, and a greater abhorrence of their violation."

"The German language abounds in rich homiletic and catechetic literature for students and pastors of souls. But for the English-speaking clergy there is a dearth, much felt."

"With deep gratitude and joy we welcome the election of the new Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI . The choice of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger turns our Church in the right direction. We can be sure the Holy Father will continue the work of his predecessor and we know we can rely on him to guide the Church towards God with great responsibility."