Roman Catholic Bishops

"When I get asked the question, "When did you know you wanted to be a priest?," many times I say "This morning." Every day you have to wake up and say, "God, what are you calling me to do today?" The layers of lived experience is what brings us to an appreciation for what we’re called to do in that moment."

"Rediscover the faith in its own characteristics, overcoming every possible reduction and distortion. The risk is to make it an intellectual or sentimental reality, no longer grasping it as a salvific event that leads to the fulfillment of humanity; man can not do it by himself and faith allows him to fulfill his humanity; faith completes what my being a creature only glimpses and predicts."

"I say that coming to the Holy Land is also a nice gesture of solidarity. It helps to know that other Christians - despite everything - come here."

"World Youth Day in Sydney was a moment of great grace. And now, it is very important that the WYD spirit remains alive through creative initiatives, designed to promote and renew youth ministry in Australia."

"Freedom, the most distinctively human and humanizing of all gifts, becomes in human history a temptation to power and self-centeredness - just the opposite of what we need and are made for. The very gift that makes us most human and after which we most deeply yearn is the very cause of so much human pain and deterioration, for unless we use this freedom for our own good and the good of one another, we end up making one another slaves."

"In Chinese society, it is felt that there is a need for moral reference points, because corruption ruins and destroys everything. So it has provoked a widespread aspiration for good, to do things out of respect for others and the common good. And in this way, in my opinion, a climate is spreading that is conducive to the spirit of the Gospel. We see that we can work together. Chinese society expects a positive and constructive contribution from us as Christians."

"Mary places herself between her Son and mankind in the reality of our hardships and sufferings. She places herself in the middle - she becomes a mediator not as a stranger, but in her role as true mother, aware that as such she makes present to her Son the needs of mankind."

"May the Almighty, who in the cross of Jesus testifies how much He loves us, help that no religious community in Croatia turns into a captivating ideology, but that their members manifest their faith in love that liberates and accepts others regardless of their diversity."

"As baptized, we have the responsibility to preach the message of God, keeping the Word of God in our hearts and bringing it into our lives. The message of God present in the Bible must be preached with our lives, bearing witness of faith with life and behavior. If we allow ourselves to always be guided by referring to the Bible, every believer would become a living Bible, with great benefit for evangelization."

"Visit cemeteries and pray for the dead. In this way we remember our loved ones, knowing that they have not been forgotten and are not gone forever. We don't visit a cemetery as if we were going to a museum or an art gallery, but rather for Christians, death is illuminated by the faith. The cemetery is a place for silence and for remembering our loved ones in prayer. It is the final resting place for those who shared their lives with us and who await the Resurrection."

"Reciprocal knowledge helps to eliminate prejudice and build peace. Being a Franciscan in this context means being authentic brothers to people of different opinion, religion, or race. Living fraternity can also help Indonesia as a country: a reality dispersed over its 13,000 islands."

"I say to myself, and also to many believers I speak to, that our main weapons, so to speak, are humility, surrendering ourselves totally to God, solidarity, and love. Because in any case if we are here for each other, if we are close to God, if we are faithful, He will look after us."

"The entire work of Adrienne von Speyr is configured as a "world" so constituted that isolating some partial aspect within it can be dangerous as the global perspective is lost."

"Peace that is imposed is only war that is postponed, while peace that is agreed, peace that is reached through dialogue, is lasting peace."

"It is unacceptable to transform Croatian patriotism into an ideology of hatred and violence. Croatian patriotism is a value system that incorporates the principles of the gospel. When someone hates members of other nationalities and commits violence against them, he is wounding the Christian heritage and acting against God's plan for mankind."

"The "easiest" and most effective in helping the Holy Land is by going there on pilgrimage. A pilgrimage is good for both the pilgrim and the local Christian and is not an added burden for anyone."

"We should never give up whatever happens because there is someone real stronger than every political power, and that is the strength of the risen Lord,"

"Education with humility leads to wisdom; without humility, it leads to arrogance."

"The human being is open to the Kingdom of God in his nature and the Kingdom of God exists with the purpose of belonging to us human creatures. Our human nature has been made and organised in such a way of being directed, despite the freedom of choice given to us, towards the value of the Kingdom of God, for it is only in that value and through it, that it achieves its utter fullness."

"The Christian life really starts from an inner renewal, from a conversion: the return to God. I believe it is a good opportunity to rediscover the foundations of the fundamental choice of Christian life: live it every day in relationship with others and in a dimension of solidarity and openness to the world."

"The unity of the Church and the unity of Christians in Nigeria should be a sign for the whole of society and an example for our Muslim brothers."

"Here the Church was born and then went out to others, with the wounds of the passion still in one hand and a piece of bread in the other."

"Although we may be different in our look, ethnicity, culture, and clothing we are all the same and want the same – faith, hope and love. Our beliefs bind us so closely, that even though we come from various backgrounds we are able to live with each other in peace and harmony."

"Diversity obligates to us a Christian identity well accented and deep, because the more I feel secure in my faith, the more I am capable of having that interior liberty in my relationship with whatever person. When I feel weak in faith, I am afraid of the other beliefs, other religions, they may detour my own security. The difference of religion should invite us to be more mature in faith!"

"We are all disciples of Jesus, we are urged not to consider ourselves the owners, dominators of the faith of others. We are servants for the sake of Jesus."

"While moral rectitude cannot be substituted by professional competencies, it does promote and cultivate them."

"We will be humble and trusting pilgrims in a place that is of highest importance in the faith, bringing our hopes and anxieties, and in the celebration of the Eucharist, in our encounter with the Risen Lord, we will pray for ourselves and our Church, that we may receive the gift of a joyful and courageous faith, so as to produce hope and dialogue with those who will ask us about the meaning of life. We owe it to Rome, to offer this city a renewed proclamation of the Gospel, capable of transforming the daily lives of families, youth, the sick, and the poor."

"We should work towards an "education of hope," so that the Church in Rome may continue to proclaim the Gospel of the Risen Lord with renewed energy, as it is the ‘first fruit’ of new life that has no end. We should work towards a perseverant prayer that purifies the heart, opens itself to God and to others and sparks a testimony of love, especially towards the poor, and to a positive cooperation that knows how to find the good wherever it is."

"Even if the Pope's project ends, the Church will in fact continue to give its help and stay close to the people."

"Without a doubt, these children deserve a hope. By loving them, we need to show them that life can be different. Yes, their life is hard today, but tomorrow – with hope and trust in God – it will be different"

"I believe that the words of the Holy Father have been an invitation to moderation, to dialogue, to negotiation to get through the tension and to see, to hope, that there are none of these... acts of revenge."

"Bring the situation in the Middle East to the attention of the international community. Everyone must respect the rules of law."

"Dialogue enables us to appreciate the qualities of the other person and it's also a stimulus for us, for in dialogue we need to be consistent witnesses. Interreligious dialogue always begins with the profession of one's faith. This avoids relativism."

"2010 and 2011 are decisive years for Sudan's history. I am convinced that there is concrete hope for peace."

"He is being declared a saint during a time when many fascist forces are trying to divide the people in the name of religion, caste and creed, but Blessed Devasahayam symbolizes a person who connects all people. It is moment where we can encourage more laypeople to follow great people like Blessed Devasahayam and build bridges between communities where all will be equal without making any differences between any religions."

"The social situation at the time of Jesus was more similar to ours today. We are called to respond and act as Jesus responded and acted in his time. It is hard and tough I know. However there is no option other than to have the same mind as in Jesus in order to follow him."

"In my capacities as bishop it is not my job to tell the government and other public bodies which option they should favour. But I would go so far as to do so. A sound democracy has many different political parties. But pluralism is not confined to the diversity of the Parties. Pluralism is also conveyed through various religious and philosophical beliefs that accompany the development of the mentality of peoples, nations and cultures."

"There must be repentance and a turning away from their sinful ways before any meaningful restoration can take place. There is a call for an interior transformation before there can be any external, structural restoration. This, I propose, is the paradigm that we, as a nation and as a city must embrace in order that the desired lasting restoration can be realised."

"The effort to Christianize the family is a journey that should never end. When there is a healthy family, there is a healthy church."

"We should open our ears to listen to the voice of the needy around us; we should open our hearts to better see these needy; we should move our feet and hands to carry out our service. The most important is to always have a compassionate heart that is filled with merciful love for the needy, helping them to emerge from the dark valley of life and journey towards the light of the sun."

"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."

"Being together in the Indonesian Youth Day in Manado, the young people come as water, they go back as wine to evangelize."

"Adulthood essentially means making the right choices based on true love."

"As their shepherd have a deep concern for the condition of my flock. Help us, save our souls."

"In every saint there is a dimension beyond time. It is of perennial timeliness since the essence of holiness is communion with God and the perfect imitation of Christ. What saints bequeath to us is their conformity to Christ and the originality with which they were able to rework and present anew in their epoch the thought, words, manner and style of Christ."

"We should be convinced that our hope in God will not deceive or disappoint us even if our condition in life is not what we expect. God will still support us and grant us our spiritual and material needs when we least expect. We have no reason, therefore, to be anxious and doubtful of what will happen to us"

"Africa is not only on the receiving end. Africa can give a lot to the rest of the world. We are called to work for this to happen."

"In this tragedy I would like to underline a beautiful thing, in my opinion, and that is the Uganda's capacity to welcome."

"In any case, this is a blatantly political issue, which ambiguously exploits the religious issue."

"Our role as God's ministers is that of inspiring hope. The pain is great, and the wounds will take time to heal; without faith we cannot please God and this faith must be practical. As leaders, the challenge we face demands that we take practical steps of faith to heal and restore the hope of the people. We must demonstrate the required tenacity to remove the humiliation from our brothers and sisters whose dignity and rights have been constantly abused by a people bent on exterminating them simply because of different beliefs."