Roman Catholic Archbishops

"The strain of getting through ecclesiastical work in the pioneering days of Australia demanded a strength and a mental firmness of no ordinary capacity. The work accomplished by Archbishop Goold from 1848 to 1886 proves him a man of wonderful endurance and great organizing ability."

"Canada, where the harvest was white and the laborers few, called forth for dispensers of the word of truth and of the mysteries of God. This was particularly the case in the diocese of Ottawa."

"Joseph-Thomas Duhamel, second bishop and first Archbishop of Ottawa, whose episcopate of thirty-four years brought the diocese to its present prosperous state, will figure in the ecclesiastical history of Canada, as a prudent, saintly, and indefatigable worker. A country parish-priest before ascending the episcopal throne, he continued to lead the laborious life of an ordinary priest. His episcopal visitation was his only holiday."

"I celebrated Mass according to the new liturgical directives of 1965, but never according to the definitive ones of 1968, which bear the signature of Monsignor Bugnini. [...] The Faith is the teaching of the Church throughout the centuries, in accordance with the teaching of the Apostles. [...] I give you another definition, that contained in the anti-modernist oath of St. Pius X: the submission of the intellect and will to the Revelation of God, because God is the supreme authority and cannot err. Interviwer: And do you really think that Paul VI and John Paul II substantially changed this fundamental core of the Faith? Mgr. Lefebvre: I think they give another definition of the Faith. For them, Faith is a religious sentiment, an interior, subjective act. [...] The conscience is made to obey Revelation, not for itself. The problem is that for the last popes—speaking in Christian terms— the “subject” comes before the “object.” Whereas for the Tradition of the Church, the exact opposite is true: the object precedes the subject."

"(Referring to the Novus Ordo Missae) In some respects, it is truly a new creation, given that the image of the liturgy presented by the Second Vatican Council is completely different from that which the Catholic Church has had until now."

"[...] the path opened up by the Second Vatican Council is destined to radically change the face of traditional liturgical assemblies, in which, according to centuries-old custom, the liturgical service is performed almost exclusively by the clergy, and the people too often “attend” as silent spectators. Patient work of education will be needed to make people understand that the liturgy is the action of the whole people of God. The consequence will not only be liturgical, but will also have a beneficial influence on the development of the sense of the Church and the emergence of various ministries at the service of the community."

"The links between faith, the inherent dignity and rights of human beings, and a fair and peaceful society, were also understood by the founding fathers of the United States and these basic moral principles have shaped, over thousand of years, civilization."

"Lent is the right time to find ways for individual and collective healing, and the words of our National Anthem offer a good starting point."

"As we enter the electoral period we call for calm., tolerance and respect for the law. May the political actors place peace before their own personal interests."

"It is our duty to proclaim the Good News. Our approach to evangelisation is based on an integral vision of the human person, as a spiritual being who lives in the world. We proclaim salvation not only in heaven but already here on earth. We do not say "we are waiting for a perfect world in heaven" instead we say there is a world waiting for the saving message of the Lord. This is why we are active also in the social field."

"Let us ask God to open our hearts that instead of always looking at the negatives in the society, that we may also see the good that other people do."

"The amount of national and racial hatred in the Christian world at a given time is the measure of the danger to which the unity of the Church is exposed, and the highest interest of the Holy Father as the guardian of this unity, is the removal of the causes of hatred by a safe and lasting peace."

"No human power can now stop the march of a nation destined to exert its influence all over the world and perhaps to dominate it."

"Toronto is a difficult city to manage both for the Church and the State and while I hope to be conciliatory no doubt there will be local religious storms sometimes."

"Join in prayer with the men and women who throughout history spread the Gospel and put into practice Christ's call to serve the last even in the toughest conditions."

"Q: In this sense, how should we interpret the Pope's decision to eliminate the central sector of the diocese? A: I would not speak of elimination, but I would start from Evangelii gaudium and from one of the principles most dear to Pope Francis in these 11 years: the Church that goes forth. If in this Church that goes forth we are not capable of reviewing the territorial organisation, it is not clear how we live this mission. The Pope's idea is that of greater interaction between the peripheries and the centre. The parishes in the centre cannot fail to feel the hardships of the peripheries, just as the peripheries cannot fail to participate in the beauty of the centre. So rather than eliminating the centre, I would say integrating the sectors of the diocese, including the centre."

"[Pope Francis has left] an immense legacy, placing the Gospel of Jesus Christ at the centre of the Church. [...] I read in his will that he offered all his sufferings to the Lord for peace. [...] [His successor] inherits a Church within which Pope Francis had initiated and opened up various processes, processes that deserve to be deepened and further accompanied. This was one of the pillars of Pope Francis' teaching: rather than occupying spaces, initiate processes. He initiated so many, and we hope that his successor will be able to accompany these processes for the missionary reform of the Church. [...] History teaches us that any prediction [about the duration of the conclave] is likely to be wrong because, in reality, it is the Holy Spirit who guides the Church; it is the Holy Spirit who guides the conclave. Therefore, the Holy Spirit will dictate the timing, and we entrust ourselves to Him."

"(Regarding the death of Pope Francis) In these days, Rome is a people mourning their bishop, a people together with other peoples who have lined up, finding a space among the places of the city to mourn and pray, like sheep without a shepherd. [...] Sheep without a shepherd: a metaphor that allows us to piece together the feelings of these days and to grasp the depth of the image we have received from the Gospel of John, the grain of wheat that must die to bear fruit. [...] A parable that tells of the shepherd's love for his flock."

"(About illegal immigration) We cannot accept that in 2025 there will still be human waste. They are all brothers and sisters who deserve welcome, respect and dignity."

"Social decomposition is due to a lack of integral health of communities. When there is no work, when there is injustice, when there is impunity, when there is an excessive ambition for money, when people's lives have a price, what is put at the center is money, then everything has a price and whoever has the money is the one who commands."

"During his years as Pope, Francis has placed great emphasis on the “Catholic” (universal) dimension of the Church, favouring the presence of pastors from all over the world, including in the composition of the College of Cardinals. The fact that he wanted a cardinal for your diocese does not contradict this line, but rather reinforces it, since Rome is called to preside over the communion and charity of all the Churches. In the Diocese of Rome, the universal character of the Church and its particular character come together in a special way. For this reason too, the closeness of Pope Francis, not only to me personally but to the whole Church, is a grace."

"[With regard to the vote on Pius XII's Salus Populi Romani and the liberation of Rome from Nazi-Fascist oppression (4 June 1944)] The vote was not only the expression of an imminent need in the face of fear, but it should also involve an act of constant conversion. [...] It is a real commitment. The Roman people, says the prelate, have a great devotion to the Virgin, but this devotion needs to be translated into concrete gestures, because otherwise there is a risk of separating religious devotion from daily practice. Faith and works must always go hand in hand."

"It is not presumption in one lawfully appointed, whatever be his own attainments, to hope for success when under Divine favor he is supported by a faithful laity and surrounded by a devoted and zealous clergy."

"According to recent research (March 2025) carried out by Sapienza University of Rome and promoted by the Mayor of Rome, Prof. Roberto Gualtieri, and the City Councillor for Heritage and Housing Policy, Dr. Andrea Tobia Zevi, “An approximate total of around 114,000 households can therefore be estimated as being in a fragile housing situation in Rome and, therefore, overexposed to the risk of serious housing hardship.” This total includes “households in situations of serious emergency, identified as special populations: around 22,000 families”. All this in the presence of approximately 160-200,000 empty and unused private apartments! The problem is complex and has deep roots. It certainly does not help to note that in certain large suburban areas, there are reports of publicly owned dwellings that are uninhabited and awaiting allocation, These are easily exposed to possible squatting, often colluding with criminal activities in the area, such as drug dealing and prostitution. They are sometimes in poor condition, in need of structural renovation, or have many architectural barriers or non-functioning lifts, which isolate the many elderly people who live there alone and many disabled people. Meanwhile, “short-term” rentals are rampant, yielding much higher returns for landlords than “long-term” rentals, i.e. regular rental contracts, and are disrupting the social fabric of many neighbourhoods, not only in the centre. In July 2024, the Istat report indicated that in ten years, the resident population in the First Municipality had fallen by 38%, i.e. more than 20,000 people had moved elsewhere. Meanwhile, the number of short-term rentals on the web reached 35,000, including holiday homes and mini-apartments, without taking into account the irregular market."

"I feel like one who has charge of a vessel. There are numbers of men aboard who work, one for one purpose and another for another purpose. He who guides the vessel has the whole credit, and still he but represents the whole. And so it is with him at the head of the diocese. If I have done anything for which I should take credit to myself, it is, as I say, owing to my clergy, and also to the laity. I have simply to hold the rudder strongly, give the vessel the right direction, and the winds and waves will carry it where I wish it to go. They simply require a hand to guide them and to restrain them."

"Cardinal Aveline: Identity, the core and physiognomy of what constitutes us, what we are, can only be built within a living relationship with otherness, with the other; a closed, impermeable identity is sterile. Interviewer: Is that why you are so committed to interreligious dialogue? Cardinal Aveline: No, the opposite happened. On this front, which was assigned to me by surprise by my bishop at the time, Mgr. Robert Coffy, I was able to verify the truth I had experienced in my life: through dialogue, familiarity, openness and sharing, we are able to make our identity flourish and encounter others more closely, and also to be missionaries, which does not mean proselytising. We need to de-centre ourselves in order to live the mission."

"Interviewer: You are very involved in dialogue with Islam and Judaism. Is it possible to combine mission and interreligious dialogue? Cardinal Aveline: The Church's mission begins with the creation of this climate of dialogue. Again in Ecclesiam suam, Paul VI states that "the climate of dialogue is friendship. Indeed, service." This is what Charles de Foucauld, Pierre Claverie and many others understood: the need for a climate that unites us around the same fundamental existential questions. It is then that the Gospel can be proclaimed, but not as a mere slogan that does not take into account the existential questions of the other. If we consider mission without taking into account the concrete existence of the other, the concrete questions they ask themselves, we risk turning it into a mere word, but not a reality."

"As Christians it is important to share moments of joy and also of sorrow around the Eucharist, source of faith and hope."

"The primary duty of every religious leader is to foster harmony and peace in the community of our pluralist nation and safeguard the secularity and religious freedom guaranteed by our Constitution."

"Q: The meeting of SEC’s Permanent Commission took place last February 23-24. One of the topics addressed was the implementation of Pope Francis’ Letter for the institution of the laity — men and women — as lectors and acolytes. What does this approval imply, which recognizes the co-responsibility of all the baptized in the Church and, in particular, for the mission of the laity and of women? A: I believe that the Holy Father’s decision makes more active the participation of all the laity in the celebration of the Liturgy. I believe that it’s a question of normalization of a very concrete situation, given that over the last years women have already exercised this role in Liturgical celebrations. In fact, in no. 103 of Querida Amazonia, "Pope Francis affirmed: “In a Synodal Church women, who in fact play a central role in Amazonian communities, should be able to access functions including ecclesial services that don’t require Holy Orders, enabling them to express better their own place. It should be remembered that these services imply stability, public recognition, and the sending by the Bishop.""

"The slaves present a vast and rich harvest to the apostolic laborer. I do not believe that there is in this country, without excepting the Indians, a class of men among whom it is possible to do more good. But far from being able to do what I would desire for the salvation of the unhappy negroes, I see myself unable to meet the wants of the thousands of whites, who, equally deprived of the succors of religion, feel most keenly their spiritual abandonment."

"Social regeneration involves not only the economy but also the education of values; family, school and the Church can do much if they agree. Today school proposes anti-value courses. Public education can insist on proposing the Constitution, but if it touches the moral issues, issues of their own parents, then it imposes the values of political power. It is something very serious."

"The Church still has with-in her hierarchy men of the stamp of Chrysostom, Basil, and Gregory Nazienzen, men who strained every nerve to avoid honors as much as men of the world strive for them."

"The planting of the Catholic Church in this country was a very costly, indeed very bloody, enterprise, in terms of human lives lost. It is very important, therefore, that we keep alive the memory of this tragic chapter in the history of our Church in Sierra Leone. But it is even more important that we maintain and promote a missionary consciousness at all levels in our local Church as it is the best homage we could pay to those who sacrificed their lives in the process of establishing the Church in our land."

"Lorenzana's government of the archdiocese, though a brief one, was marked by acts that justly entitled him to a high place among the most distinguished members of the Mexican episcopacy."

"Gloria summa tibi, laus et benedictio, Christe, Qui praestas famulis haec bona grata tuis."

"The entire life of the people and of the ecclesial missionary communities, such as pastoral work and missionary work, are entirely animated by the power of the Word of God."

"Vox, philomela, tua cantus edicere cogit, Inde tui laudem rustica lingua canit."

"Vox, philomela, tua curarum semina pellit, Recreat et blandis anxia corda sonis."

"Porrige dulcisonas attentis auribus escas; Nolo tacere velis, nolo tacere velis."

"His humility and simplicity of manner, though by nature retiring, drew to him the hearts of all classes."

"I feel that God has always been by my side, leaning down to help me build cornerstones and solve difficulties one by one."

"This excellent prelate had fulfilled the functions of his bishopric, for nine years, in Guatemala, so satisfactorily to the masses, that his elevation to supreme power in Mexico was hailed as a national blessing. He devoted himself from the first, diligently, to the adornment of the capital and the just and impartial administration of public affairs. He improved the roads and entrances into the city; and, by his moderation, justice and mildness, united with liberality and economy, raised the reputation of his government to such a degree of popular favor that, in the annals of New Spain, it is referred to as a model public administration."

"A general feeling of satisfaction prevailed when the appointment of Rivera as viceroy became known, for the fame he had acquired in Guatemala, and during his pastoral labors in the capital, had justly won for him the good opinion of the people."

"Anxiety is the threat of terror the blind attacks Where will we find the strength to face dangers if we do not rely on hope We who believe in the God of Jesus Christ our hope is trusting in the word of God as received and transmitted by the Prophet: They will fight against you but they will not prevail against you for I am with you to save you and to deliver you I will rescue you from the hand of the wicked and I will deliver you from the grip of the powerful My fortress is God the God of my love Cardinal s homily at the Mass for the souls of the victims of Saint-Étienne-du-Rouvray."

"For some people recognizing sexual difference in marriage and family where equality is necessary and foundational would be a deception that would shake one of the foundations of our society and establish discrimination especially among children."

"They dress themselves in masks and place them in the trappings of religion to hide their murderous project and those who want to announce to us the god of death Moloch who rejoices in the death of man and promises paradise to those who kill with his help cannot hope to Humanity surrenders to their illusion The hope that God has inscribed in the human heart has a name which is life Hope has a face the face of Christ who gave his life in sacrifice so that people could have life in abundance Hope has a project a project to unite humanity into one people not through extermination but through condemnation and the call for freedom and love among people."

"Marriage is love and affection between two parties but it is not just a generous openness to marriage in front of new categories of citizens but rather a transformation in marriage that will affect everyone It will not be a marriage for everyone but rather a marriage of a few people imposed on everyone but some people apply this opinion and some do not."

"With our hearts filled with grief we communicate the anguish, sadness, sufferings of this country for many years: civil war, inhuman violence, chronic poverty, hunger, unemployment, lack of sources of work, political situation unable to deal with this reality. In addition to this desolate scene, sad and dark, now there are the effects of hurricane Stan: loss of life, material damage to homes, harvests, infrastructures, and a panorama of devastation which calls for our Christian solidarity."

"Dear son, whom I love, let me tell you that today you have the grace to preside over the destinies of the Togolese people. I want to humbly ask you in the name of God, in all humility to use for the reforms of all your prerogatives to propose a new realistic and consensual calendar for the legislative elections."