Catholics From Spain

"For twenty years the missionary heart of our diocese has pulsed with new life."

"God is the Creator of everything and everyone, so we are members of a single family and we must recognize ourselves as such. This is the fundamental criterion that faith offers us to move from mere tolerance to fraternal coexistence, to interpret the differences that exist among us, to defuse violence and to live as brothers and sisters."

"We cannot renounce our faith and not give a reason for it to those who wish to hear us. We need not hide our faith in Jesus Christ out of fear, nor should we keep quiet when there is an opportunity to bear witness to it."

"The greatest need of the Church in our times is her own evangelization: to strengthen the faith of Christians, reinitiate in the faith those who are non-practicing and propose the faith to non-believers."

"In Kazakhstan, the people of God continue to grow in number and, above all, in quality, that it is the most important thing."

"(About the 2023 Morocco's earthquake) Most of all, I think they will need people to come and support them, because psychologically and spiritually they are very affected."

"Ours is an unassuming Church -- we are less than 0.1% of the population -- but it seeks to be significant, and it desires to be a sign and sacrament of the Kingdom of God. To live dialogue on a daily basis, the Christian must know and feel himself as the ‘sacrament of encounter. The whole local Church must ask itself how to concretely live its mission. Our Church is a Church of encounter and dialogue. Yet, although we have made a good start, we can do much more. or example, how to live Islamic-Christian dialogue after the pope’s visit, after Fratelli tutti, after the document of the Universal Fraternity signed by Pope Francis and the Grand Imam al Tayyeb?"

"We are a periphery that bears witness to God's love for the whole world."

"Emigrating is a human right, but before that right to migrate, everyone also has the right to stay where they were born and where they have developed their lives."

"We can be united even though we live in different countries, with different governments and cultures. And this is possible because we have the same faith, we belong to the same Church: on the other hand, Catholicism is distinguished precisely by its universality. I think that it is a very beautiful testimony."

"For me, Pope Francis was like a father, a model pastor, a friend who knew me. I greeted him for the first time at one of those meetings where there are 200 people and the Pope shakes hands with everyone. Then in 2018, he appointed me Bishop of Rabat at the request of the corresponding congregation, and when I got to know him a little better, he admitted that he had appointed me bishop without even knowing what I looked like. I got to know him on a more personal level in 2019, when Francis came to Morocco and I was the host who was to receive him. He came to comfort us and to confirm us in the faith. My fondest memory of that visit was when we went together to visit a social work, in a visit described as private, in which only the driver, security, he and I were present. We sat in the back seat of the car, talking in Spanish and laughing together, first for 20 minutes on the way there and then for 30 minutes on the way back. And there I was able to explain to him who I was and what the Church was like in Morocco. And he probably liked me, because I made him laugh."

"The priority is not to expand the Church. The priority is not to be more, to have more baptisms or religious weddings. The priority is to build a world of brothers and sisters with those who share our faith or have a different faith, and with those who have no faith."

"The Church, which is not only the bishops, must be where there is pain. Christians must be like the blood that goes to the wound without being called. When the blood gushes from the wound, it is not that it wants to escape; it wants to close the wound with platelets. A Christian should be where there is a wound in the world, trying to heal that wound. One should be everywhere, but especially where there is a wound."

"If I am elected, I will flee from the Conclave."

"I don't like my name appearing on the papal candidate lists."

"I suffer a lot when, in Spain, some people, after having participated in the Eucharistic celebration, ask me, in a spiteful tone, not to send any more migrants from Morocco. I ask myself: how is it possible to go to Mass and feel almost no compassion for the men, women and children who are suffering?"

"Discover that all men are my brothers, even though they do not think and believe as I do. That is not easy, and that can only be given to us by Our Lord and He alone enables us to do so. I think one has to learn to get out of the sofa and actually get oneself out there, out in the streets. We have to get together with all men, in real situations in which they are, shaking hands with them, and, at the same time, sharing with them everything that we are."

"The philosophy of legal positivism is not the way of the Church, for the Church it is not a possible way of thinking. What truly links the Church, and the faithful, are the sacraments, the word of Christ. No authority is binding that rejects the sacraments; that is not possible, acting that way would not be possible, even if some say that it could be so."

"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"

"It's sad when there are people that bow before human power and forget the need to love, which is the great power with which revolutions are made. We, priests, are also to blame for this, because we have often talked about politics instead of Christ. It's true that in dramatic circumstances it's necessary to do so, but once the exceptional situations are surmounted, political freedom must be an integral part of the human person."

"As a society we have to be united and be honest, without depriving the most vulnerable of material goods, because in doing so we take away their hope, which is much worse."

"Each bishop has his qualities and in each historical moment society needs different styles."

"When faced with violence, we stand up against it. This is not the way, not the solution. So how do we live? We live with pain. Every day we have to encourage those brothers or sisters who say they are happy and that everything is fine. No it isn't! There are many forms of injustice and we must get involved. We cannot just remain on the side lines."

"We want to accompany people and be communities that encounter Christ. If we are relating in a way that is not what Christ wants, but with an attitude of arrogance, abuse of the other, something has to change. We have to change the way we relate to each other, to society, and to these people who are suffering because they are victims. Sometimes you have a clear goal, but sometimes you don't."

"If we have the faith very strong in the Word of God and in the Providence of God, we Christians and Muslims also, according to their religion, this faith is what keeps us alive."

"The celebration of the new Christian Millenium is a very important event in Ethiopia, as it defines one of the characteristics of the national identity."

"Christ's presence among men takes place primarily through the Eucharist."

"Virtual reality can never replace reality. Let us not forget that what brings museums alive are people. To enjoy art, you need your eyes and heart."

"Our fundamental word and our key witness is to make present the Good News: God loves us. Without that, we could be the most skilled, and we would not be the most qualified."

"Enemies of the Church have found a gold mine for discrediting her, and each day they strategically dispense a few drops of this elixir which brings pleasure to demons."

"Today, too, there are young people working and studying, preparing themselves for the future with dignity and hope. The future belongs to these honorable young people and not so much to those who spend all of their vital energy these days on carousing."

"For Christians, in their 2,000 year-long history, red is the color of the blood of the martyrs, it is the color of the Holy Spirit. This is not the color red of the Marxist revolution, which was a resounding failure, nor of the nihilism of Nietzsche, which leads to nothing and to meaninglessness even though it exalts the super man"

"Lifelong fidelity is possible, a love that never ends is possible, happiness is possible in marriage, which God himself created and Christ has sanctified."

"In expressing publicly our faith we are exercising a civil right that is rooted in the religious freedom of a free country. It is not some privilege that is granted by public officials. It is a right that we exercise in a civil way and as citizens."

"In the current situation it seems improbable that one could make a priest appreciate, especially at the beginning of his formation, the value of Latin as a language endowed with nobility of structure and words, able to foster a concise, rich, harmonious style, full of majesty and dignity, which allows for clarity and gravity, able to advance every form of culture, the humanitatis cultus, among peoples."

"We come closer to the heart of the Church if we let ourselves to be guided by our goal, primary and crucial, which is Salvation, if we identify ourselves with our mission, if we intercede for our sisters and brothers, praying for graces they need, and if we share with them our joy that springs from our Faith."

"Even though the media has repeated it so many times, the Pope has not decided that we are going to return to celebrating the Mass in Latin. To say such a thing is not only ignorant, it's also thoughtless. It has always been permitted to celebrate the Mass in Latin, even after Vatican II, and the books of the liturgical reform were written in Latin and later translated into the different languages."

"May Our Lady of Mount Carmel, whose image is carried about on the Cantabrian Sea, through our cities, fields and valleys, accompanied by the fervor of her children, be the star that guides us to Christ, the safe port of salvation."

"In these sorrowful moments, in faith we are united in human suffering, in prayer, and in Christian hope."

"Notwithstanding its errors and sins, Christian history succeeded in tracing paths of freedom, dignity, goodness and truth."

"To play God today is to be the owner of human life, to control that life in all of his stages and all of its forms. A control that decides who must be eliminated and when."

"The Church must always be popular. It is about the person and his relationship with God. The church that is financially well off can forget its content. We are nothing without the people. What is important is that the people connect with their God, and with the Eternal Word of the Father, who became man and walked with us. Now it is us who are trying to walk with him."

"The knowledge of the Church doesn't come from knowing, it comes from living with Jesus. The Gospel is alive."

"The two machines have been welcomed with great joy, because the pope's paternal gesture and attention has been understood for this country that suffers from a very delicate situation"

"This Pope has removed two or three bishops per month throughout the world because either the accounts in their dioceses were a mess or their discipline was a disaster."

"We encourage, especially the Christians, we encourage them to remain there because we think that their presence is so important for the country. Not just for the Church, that is so important, but also for society because they can play a very important role. And to encourage them to remain I always tell them that they have a very special mission that no one can play in their place. They have a special mission of being Christians in the Holy Land, of being Christians in a context that is difficult but is very necessary."

"It's important to work together. And to transmit this necessity of continuing to help these people, to assist these people, with prayers and spiritual assistance, but also with concrete assistance...to contact authorities, to engage more in promoting peace and development. Also because it's the best way to avoid the problem of migration. Instead of trying to cover the emergency here (in Europe), to try to solve the problems at the root so that people don't have to leave their countries."

"In any case, this has become so frequent that now it is boring."

"I have approached this like a scientist: even though I wear a habit, I am not void of reason."

"Perhaps the origin of the idea and the message got lost along the way. The slogan wasn't, "what a man is capable of doing for his faith". Instead, it was, "what a man, with faith in himself, can achieve". But if we take the religious aspect out of Justo, we cease to understand him."