Pope Benedict Quotes (87 Quotes)

Thank you from the heart to all those who in various ways are near me or follow me spiritually with affection and prayers from afar. To each one of you, I ask you to continue to support me by praying to God to let me be his gentle and firm pastor of his church.

Terrorist activity is continually recurring in various parts of the world, sowing death and destruction and plunging many of our brothers and sisters into grief and despair.

I send them my warmest encouragement to persevere in the patience and charity of Christ.

We can be sure our beloved pope is standing today at the window of the father's house, that he sees us and blesses us.

The family has always been at the center of attention of my venerable predecessors, especially John Paul II. He was convinced, and reiterated it many times, that a crisis within the family comes at the grave detriment of our civilization.

Love is the only Christian response to the violence which threatens peace in the world.

not tolerance but hypocrisy.

With great pain, I feel the duty to express my strongest condemnation for such a terrorist act.

The State of Israel has to be able to exist peacefully in conformity with the norms of international law. Equally, the Palestinian people has to be able to develop serenely its own democratic institutions for a free and prosperous future.

We will never forget that blessing. It was the most pained and moving blessing, which left us with the extreme testimony of his will to complete his ministry until the end.

It is imperative to deepen even further fraternal relations between communities in order to promote the harmonious development of society, recognizing the dignity of each person and allowing everyone the free exercise of his religion.

Rock' music. . . is the expression of elemental passions, and at rock festivals it assumes a cultic character, a form of worship, in fact, in opposition to Christian worship. People are, so to speak, released from themselves by the experience of being part of a crowd and by the emotional shock of rhythm, noise, and special lighting effects. However, in the ecstasy of having all their defenses torn down, the participants sink, as it were, beneath the elemental force of the universe.

A good confession before Easter remains an obligation that should be fully valued and gives us the opportunity to start anew.

It is extremely powerful, the idea in this psalm, that in this 'unformed' embryo God already sees the whole future. In the Lord's book of life, the days that this creature will live and will fill with works during his time on earth are already written.

Even today there is need for conversion to God, to the God of love so that the world is freed from wars and from terrorism.

In today's world, God is absent. People need anesthesia to live. They live in a dark world.

We hope you will have a peaceful time.

Thus, a vision of the whole gradually grew for me that was nourished by the various experiences and realizations I had encountered along my theological path. I rejoiced to be able to say something of my own, something new and yet completely within the faith of the Church. The feeling of aquiring a theological vision that was ever more clearly my own was the most wonderful experience of those years.

reason for concern and vigilance.

Joy is the true gift of Christmas, not expensive gifts that cost time and money, but joy.

With this liturgical assembly we enter into Holy Week, to live the Passion, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

We have all been touched by the case of little Tommaso. Let us pray for him and all victims of violence.

Gestures and words of renewed fraternity between the pastors of the Lord's flock indicate a more intense collaboration in the truth and in charity will help increase the spirit of communion that should guide the paths of all baptized.

Today I have the joy of presiding for the first time over a canonization rite.

In Iraq, may peace finally prevail over the tragic violence that continues mercilessly to claim victims.

In the light of this common mission, we cannot not denounce and combat with decisiveness the hate and incomprehension, the injustices and the violence that continue to sow worry in the soul of men and women of good will.

In the mirror of the cross we have seen all the suffering of humanity today. We saw the suffering of abandoned, abused children ... threats against families, the division in the world in the pride of the rich and the misery of all those who suffer hunger and thirst.

a special freshness and future.

In this regard, one can only note with dismay the evidence of a continuing growth in military expenditures and the flourishing arms trade, while the political and juridical process established by the international community for promoting disarmament is bogged down in general indifference.

After 40 years of fruitful collaboration, we look forward to continuing this journey of hope and promise, as we intensify our endeavors towards reaching that day when Christians are united in proclaiming the gospel message of salvation to all.

On this night, when we look toward Bethlehem, let us pray in a special way for the birthplace of our Redeemer and for the men and women who live and suffer there.

Because the truth of God is love, conversion to God is conversion to love.

The very same pastoral sensibility in the face of real situations must end up safeguarding the truth and applying the necessary rules to safeguard it.

This evening, our thoughts turn with emotion to the moment of the death of our beloved pontiff, but at the same time the heart, as it were, is urged to look forward.

But the point is that Christ's resurrection is something more, something different. If we may borrow the language of the theory of evolution, it is the greatest 'mutation,' absolutely the most crucial leap into a totally new dimension that there has ever been in the long history of life and its development a leap into a completely new order which does concern us, and concerns the whole of history.

How could one imagine the government of the church without this contribution It is a determining factor without which the church could not survive.

I am touched by this important appeal and I invite you to join it for peace in that troubled nation.

And it was from this desire to serve the church in the most useful and efficient way that the vow of special obedience to the pope was born.

You should bring joy, not expensive gifts that cost time and money.

May the international community, which reaffirms Israel's just right to exist in peace, assist the Palestinian people to overcome the precarious conditions in which they live and to build their future, moving toward the constitution of a state which is truly their own.

Let us put our hands today again at (God's) disposition and pray that he takes our hands to guide us. Let his hand take ours so we won't sink, but will serve life which is stronger than death, and love which is stronger than hatred.

Leprosy is a symptom of a more serious and vaster ill, which is poverty. For this reason, following in the wake of my predecessors, I renew the appeal to leaders of nations so that they will unite their efforts to overcome the grave imbalances that still penalize a large part of humanity.

In his last years, the Lord gradually stripped him of everything. When he could no longer travel and then not walk and finally not even speak, his gesture, his proclamation was reduced to the essential to the gift of self until the last.

The modern age is often seen as an awakening of reason from its slumbers, humanity's enlightenment after an age of darkness.

Where the Church is, there is the Spirit of God. And there the Spirit is, there is the Church and all grace.

I am not alone. I do not have to carry alone what in truth I could never carry alone.

God comes down and becomes a slave he washes our feet so we can be at his table. The bath in which he washes us is his love, ready to confront death. Only love has the purifying force that takes away our filth and elevates us to God.

I have to announce that on March 24 I will hold a consistory, for which I will nominate the new members of the College of Cardinals.

Both popes in their youth -- both on different sides and in different situations -- were forced to experience the barbarity of the Second World War.

In the final years, the Lord gradually stripped him of everything. And when he could no longer travel, and then could no longer walk, and finally could no longer speak, his announcement was reduced to the essential The gift of himself until the very end.