Quotes about popes (16 Quotes)




    We believe that Pope's conviction was unjustifiable and wrong. We have said to the Russians at every level, from the president on down... that we believe he should be released on humanitarian grounds if nothing else.

    Or it needs only to look back over past centuries and the iniquities alike of populace, nobles, kings, and popes to perceive an almost incomprehensible futility of the beliefs everywhere held and perpetually insisted upon.




    What is wrong with priests and popes is that instead of being apostles and saints, they are nothing but empirics who say I know instead of I am learning, and pray for credulity and inertia as wise men pray for scepticism and activity.

    HALO, n. Properly, a luminous ring encircling an astronomical body, but not infrequently confounded with aureola, or nimbus, a somewhat similar phenomenon worn as a head-dress by divinities and saints. The halo is a purely optical illusion, produced by moisture in the air, in the manner of a rainbow but the aureola is conferred as a sign of superior sanctity, in the same way as a bishop's mitre, or the Pope's tiara. In the painting of the Nativity, by Szedgkin, a pious artist of Pesth, not only do the Virgin and the Child wear the nimbus, but an ass nibbling hay from the sacred manger is similarly decorated and, to his lasting honor be it said, appears to bear his unaccustomed dignity with a truly saintly grace.

    But history, real solemn history, I cannot be interested in.... I read it a little as a duty, but it tells me nothing that does not either vex or weary me. The quarrels of popes and kings, with wars or pestilences, in every page the men all so good for nothing, and hardly any women at all it is very tiresome.

    We are deeply disappointed by the verdict. Throughout this case we have seen no evidence that Mr. Pope violated any Russian laws. We remain very concerned that his (Pope's) health has deteriorated in recent days. We have been making clear to the Russian government that they should move to release Mr. Pope on humanitarian grounds.

    Real solemn history, I cannot be interested in . . . The quarrels of popes and kings, with wars or pestilences in every page the men all so good for nothing, and hardly any women at all.


    I want to offer congratulations to Pope Benedict XVI, a man of great wisdom, and knowledge. He's a man who serves the Lord. And we remember well a sermon at the pope's funeral in Rome -- how his words touched our hearts and the hearts of millions. We join our fellow citizens and millions around the world who pray for continued strength and wisdom as His Holiness leads the Catholic Church.

    After the Second Vatican Council, the impression arose that the pope really could do anything in liturgical matters, especially if he were acting on the mandate of an ecumenical council. Eventually, the idea of the givenness of the liturgy, the fact that one cannot do with it what one will, faded from the public consciousness of the West. In fact, the First Vatican Council had in no way defined the pope as an absolute monarch. On the contrary, it presented him as the guarantor of obedience to the revealed Word. The pope's authority is bound to the Tradition of faith, and that also applies to the liturgy. It is not manufactured by the authorities. Even the pope can only be a humble servant of its lawful development and abiding integrity and identity. . . . The authority of the pope is not unlimited it is at the service of Sacred Tradition. . . . The greatness of the liturgy depends - we shall have to repeat this frequently - on its unspontaneity.


    There can be little doubt that over the centuries that there have been great priests, bishops - and maybe even popes - who by today's criterion would be deemed homosexual in orientation, ... It's not the nature of one's temptations - be they sexual or som



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