Roman Catholic Bishops

"Poor victim, poor assassin, poor avenger. Poor is the society that created them. The young girl who succumbed to drugs, the young man who chopped her up, [and] the man who shot to avenge her, are three witnesses of a chain of failures that concern all of us."

"Not everything goes the way we would like it to, but we hope that one day, guided by the Holy Spirit, we will find ourselves fully united in Christ, according to His will."

"The universal call to holiness espoused by the Council, encourages all to be actively part of the life of the pilgrim Church. The primacy of conscience re-affirmed by Vatican II, respects the unique responsibility each Christian has before God."

"The Holy Father's trip to Britain may have caused a bad impression, and I want to reassure you that he has manifested his constant desire to be evenhanded to the two countries."

"His generous and intense work, first as a priest and then as the bishop of Tucuman and then for 23 years as the archbishop of this particular Church, extending his ministerial work after his retirement in the shrine of St. Cajetan as a witness to the cause of the Gospel, all are proof of his deep love for the Church and his zeal for saving souls."

"Walking with the poor, living with their ambiguity and uncertainties, being truly catholic and inclusive are just some of the challenges which we face as Church if we are to be true to the Gospel. As well, we need to be a humbler Church, a less clerical Church, a more forgiving Church. We should seek to minister to whole persons, not just to their intellects if we are to offer them a true experience of God as revealed in Jesus."

"Money given to priests is not their money, it belongs to the community. Priests must manage it. All of us, all pastors, must have communal sense to help one another."

"Today it is urgent to continue this work in the field of formation and education, so that Christians can be part of the leadership of the country. It is therefore important to focus on the laity. In Pakistan, Christians are often poor and marginalized, they do the most menial jobs and are struggling to survive: one can give them dignity only through the fundamental tool of education."

"I am very much convinced that I need to be empowered by God daily. Only then can I do something worthwhile. Once we grow in love everything else will fall in line."

"As bishop, it has not only been a great honor, but an enriching experience as I have come to know many people throughout this local Church. I have been impressed by their love for Jesus Christ, their willingness to share their Catholic faith, and their concern for the less fortunate. It would not have been possible to serve as their shepherd without their continued support, cooperation, and prayers."

"God will show his mercy on humanity and end the series of pandemic deaths. As we cannot do much in our human capacity, I am sure God will surely intervene."

"I will continue to work as long as I possibly can. I'm officially retired, but that does not mean I'm going to ride off into the sunset."

"Evangelization will not be fruitful, unless we involve the local Christians."

"It has become more evident that the celebration of the Eucharist is truly the culmination and source of all the life and mission of the Christian communities, which are called to live and transmit the message of hope and peace of the Gospel from generation to generation."

"We'll get through this, the Church has been through a whole lot worse than this, but the thing is when you're in the middle of the storm, most of the time, all you comprehend is the storm. And when you're in that storm, it's like, when will this ever end? Because all your energy is focused on getting out of the storm and getting through the storm alive. You lose sense that it was calm before the storm, and there'll be calm afterwards and life will go on."

"The lay ministries are characterized by their "essence" and not by the rank according to the ordained ministry, and can develop within the broad fields of the three functions of Christ, priestly, prophetic and royal, serving the community so that the latter can fulfill its mission in the world."

"Many of them have suffered greatly through the years leading up to their arrival in the U.S, and they have shown me that their faith is what has sustained them and what they treasure most."

"The grace of God with the coming of the Pope is being felt in our country. I am referring especially to the joy, disposition and gratitude of the people involved in this event of such great magnitude."

"As Apostolic Nuncio I firmly believe that interfaith dialogue is the means to promote good relations among people of different faiths who can discover the beauty of other peoples' faith."

"My experience is that there is very little hostility towards the Holy See as an entity, but rather they do see a value in it. We work to make a contribution that is obviously grounded in our faith but also in the experience and history of our Church."

"The Pope inspires in the bishops a new vitality, encouraging them to motivate communities toward unity and spiritual growth in the dioceses."

"Dialogue could involve sharing with mainlanders Catholic spiritual values. Religious people are working for peace and harmony."

"Faith and reason for Catholics are unified, they're both gifts of God's creation. Faith takes nothing away, but gives them a whole new way of being human."

"Today, more than ever, human life is threatened at its most crucial stages from the beginning to the end. Government campaigns, supported by powerful transnational associations, try to solve the problem through the massive distribution of contraceptives. Enlightened by the Holy Spirit, the Catholic Church is assuming, with an increasing lucidity, the defense of humans conceived but not yet born, as an essential part of its mission of evangelization and liberation."

"I thank you for the trust placed in me and, considering the importance of the cause of ecumenism and religious dialogue, I accept to provide this service for the conference."

"Now is the time to go out into the sea of life and bring people aboard the boat of the Church, revealing to them the meaning of human dignity and elevating them to the practice of the virtues of the Gospel. May the blessed handmaid of the Lord and queen of the apostles intercede for me so that every day I may strengthen my faith in Jesus Christ and, following the example of my dear parents and brothers and sisters, find consolation in the voice of the Lord who repeats without tiring: Fear not, I have called you by name."

"People, of course, who maybe put their hope their pursuits in material things are very soon disappointed — "OK, what happens next?" It doesn't really answer the true happiness of the deepest part of the human heart. Only God answers that. And we try to get that message across."

"The central nucleus of a nativity scene calls for a child in swaddling clothes to be placed in a manger, and this must be respected. The most important part of the crib cannot be represented by a boat. I'm not saying a crib cannot be enriched by other elements, and certainly, a boat is a symbol that reminds us of the need for hospitality, but don't forget that Jesus is the saviour of all problems, not just one."

"I greet your Pastor, Bishop Ernesto Vecchi, and I thank him for the words which he addressed to me, and especially for the service that he renders to the Church of Terni-Narni-Amelia. It is a service he is offering at a time of his life when he has the right to rest, and rather than resting he continues to work: thank you, Bishop Vecchi, thank you very much!"

"Being mutally open to one another allows us to understand and appreciate one another, because authentic love, inspired by God, cannot fail to generate in the hearts of all of us the desire for mutual help, despite the differences that can characterize us."

"He was not one of your sons, you hardly knew him, he spoke only a few words of your language...why have you come to his funeral? This is the power of the faith, this is what it means to be Christians."

"Through our social teaching and our emphasis on certain values - like the common good, solidarity, subsidiarity, justice, the option for the poor and those who are marginalized - we can give an important contribution, to the different issues that Europe faces."

"The Catholic Church in Ireland which has – in the course of its history and in the spiritual footsteps of its great missionary "Father in the Faith" and in nationhood, St. Patrick – taken the message of Pentecost to heart and zealously spread the Good News of salvation at home and abroad. The Church in Ireland, which counts among its sons and daughters an abundant blossoming of saints – some of whom have paid the ultimate price for their fidelity to Christ."

"The peaceful coexistence among people of different ethnicities, religions, is so important: we are all brothers, sons, and daughters."

"To reconcile all men in one family, the family of God, is and remains the first mission of the Church. It is not just for some. It is a duty for us all: Bishops, Priests, laity and all the ecclesial institutions. Christians should not be afraid of testifying their faith. This commitment presupposes concrete acts of reconciliation. To be at the service of reconciliation, the Church must truly be a reconciled family."

"Thousands of women, men, children, old people, peasants, natives, lawyers, media people, mothers of families, catechists and religious leaders have given their lives as martyrs for the Kingdom of God, and for their brethren. Following the example of these martyrs of the faith, who believed that those who die have more to gain than those who kill, the layman, the Christian of today, has a mission to accomplish in society: renew the family, do away with corruption and poverty."

"We welcome the news that the Holy Father will be in Prato with great joy. Our whole diocese is celebrating this event, which will mark our history: Peter will truly visit out Church and confirm us in the faith."

"The Church works to promote vocations. Our Church was born of missionaries who came a long time ago to our country. Now the time has come for us to shoulder our responsibilities as mature Christians at the spiritual and material level. There is still much space for missionaries who help keep the faith alive. We wish to ask the missionaries to work for the future of the county, helping us to form our young people."

"The death of our dear brother in Christ certainly saddens us. But it is also an encouragement for all of us to continue with humility and simplicity in faithful service to the Gospel, always being prepared for the Lord's call."

"Work for the evangelization of North Korea. This task is all the more important the closer we get to the border, and we are very close. This institution will be a new base for cultivating peace in East Asia and even the world."

"Joy must spring from God's understanding of the world, we have to try and develop a Christian vision."

"All that we are experiencing now, the horror of war, is actually so terrible because it touches, above all, ordinary people, poor people who lived normally in families and led normal lives, and now our boys die at the front, women become widows, children become orphans."

"We know how much damage corruption causes in our society, and the Church can't remain insensitive to that which hurts the human being."

"Let no worries obscure the main one, so that we may always be on the way to Jesus! Become God's children, that is, people who unconditionally trust God! Celebrating Christmas means welcoming the Baby Jesus with your heart and trusting him completely. I wish you such a celebration, and I pray for it! I am asking you to send kind thoughts in the form of prayers to our homeland and the Church in Poland among the wishes made during this holiday season."

"The proof of holiness for the Church is precisely small actions performed each day. The holiness of the "saints next door" is that lived every day by Christians who, in every part of the world, bear witness to Jesus' love and risk their own lives without ever taking into account their own particular interests."

"It will help Gorkha people safeguard their language and ethnic culture which they consider under threat.Gorkha people to have dialogue and solve the problem, or else the situation will be out of control."

"We are here to pay respect to the successor of Peter and share with him all our joys and worries of our pastoral experiences. We want to share, with the Pope and others, our concern in regard to the lack of Eucharistic ministers, thus the gradual spiritual starvation of our Catholic people and their moving away from us to find spiritual nourishment elsewhere. What can we do to stop this spiritual wandering of our people?"

"The time has arrived to look at the Japanese Church within the context of Asia and the world."

"We need to grow, with the help of Providence, to bring the Good News of the Kingdom of God to the heart of Asia."

"We pray and we hope peace will be restored. It is necessary to build peace: we ourselves here in Kyrgyzstan must begin to build peace. Our political leaders must give priority to dialogue and peace, essential for the common good. For our part, we will pray and ask for the assistance of the Holy Spirit for a future of reconciliation and wellbeing in the country."