Pope Benedict XVI Quotes

To be sure, it was not Easter Sunday but Holy Saturday, but, the more I reflect on it, the more this...

If we may not remain silent about evil in the Church, then neither should we keep silent about the g...

A tolerance that no longer distinguishes between good and evil would become chaotic and self-destruc...

Thus there is need of deeper reflection. Before entering into an examination of individual texts, we...

There are those who argue that the public celebration of festivals such as Christmas should be disco...

Loving the church also means having the courage to make difficult, trying choices, having ever befor...

Artificial intelligence, in fact, is obviously an intelligence transmitted by conscious subjects, an...

Evil draws its power from indecision and concern for what other people think.

I would designate as science fiction in the best sense: they are visions and anticipations by which ...

Without God man neither knows which way to go, nor even understands who he is... One of the deepest ...

Creation exists to be a place for the covenant that God wants to make with man. The goal of creation...

The formula "the Church is the Body of Christ" thus states that the Eucharist, in which the Lord giv...

We need Grace and forgiveness.

I don't know if the term 'liberation theology,' which can be interpreted in a very positive sense, w...

Thus [the altar] brings heaven into the community assembled on earth, or rather it takes the communi...

A just laicism allows religious freedom. The state does not impose religion but rather gives space t...

There are those who would advocate that the voice of religion be silenced, or at least relegated to ...

The human person finds his perfection "in seeking and loving what is true and good.

Having a clear faith, based on the creed of the church is often labeled today as fundamentalism. Whe...

God guides his church, maintains her always, and especially in difficult times. Let us never lose th...

Beauty, then, is not mere decoration, but rather an essential element of the liturgical action, sinc...

It is theologically and anthropologically important for woman to be at the center of Christianity. T...

Human rights, of course, must include the right to religious freedom, understood as the expression o...

The fundamental human right, the presupposition of every other right, is the right to life itself. T...

God of peace, bring your peace to our violent world: peace in the hearts of all men and women and pe...

The mature fruit of mystagogy is an awareness that one's life is being progressively transformed by ...

The life of the community, both domestically and internationally, clearly demonstrates that respect ...

To have Christian hope means to know about evil and yet to go to meet the future with confidence. Th...

The human spirit is so utterly one with the body that the term "form" can be used of the body and re...

God is our Father and loves us, even when his silence remains incomprehensible.

From a theological point of view, Easter is the center of the Church year; but Christmas is the most...

I realized that everything I had to do I could not do on my own, and so I was almost obliged to put ...

We are not some casual and meaningless product of evolution. Each of us is the result of a thought o...

In reality, I am more a professor, one who reflects and mediates on spiritual questions. Practical g...

All the great works of art, the cathedrals - the Gothic cathedrals and the splendid Baroque churches...

So Jesus in the throes of his Passion is an image of hope: God is on the side of those who suffer.

In the course of my intellectual life I experienced very acutely the problem of whether it isn't act...

We must respect the interior laws of creation, of this Earth, to learn these laws and obey them if w...

The theology of littleness is a basic category of Christianity. After all, the tenor of our faith is...

The Gospel purifies and renews: it bears fruit wherever the community of believers hears and welcome...

If you follow the will of God, you know that in spite of all the terrible things that happen to you,...

One who has hope lives differently.

The principle of tolerance and respect for freedom promoted by the reforms of the Second Vatican Cou...

The wrath of God is a way of saying that I have been living in a way that is contrary to the love th...

The world offers you comfort. But you were not made for comfort. You were made for greatness

How much we need, in the church and in society, witnesses of the beauty of holiness, witnesses of th...

How many winds of doctrine we have known in recent decades, how many ideological currents, how many ...

Both need each other: The agnostic cannot be content to not know, but must be in search of the great...

Something I constantly notice is that unembarrassed joy has become rarer. Joy today is increasingly ...

Today, I, too, wish to reaffirm that I intend to continue on the path toward improved relations and ...

The Christian faith can never be separated from the soil of sacred events, from the choice made by G...

Not all moral issues have the same moral weight as abortion and euthanasia. There may be legitimate ...

On the one hand, faith is a profoundly personal contact with God, which touches me in my innermost b...

The love, loyalty, and dedication of Mary and Joseph are an example for all Christian couples, who a...

It is essential that God created men and women to be one, as it is said in the first chapters of the...

God does not change; he is Love, ever and always. In himself, he is communion, unity in Trinity, and...

Above all, we must have great respect for these people who also suffer and who want to find their ow...

We must have great respect for these people who also suffer and who want to find their own way of co...

It is very important for a priest, in the parish itself, to see how people trust in him and to exper...

The positive aspects of modernity are to be acknowledged unreservedly: we are all grateful for the m...

Only if the being of creation is good, only if trust in being is fundamentally justified, are humans...

Knowing is not simply a material act, since the object that is known always conceals something beyon...

God's dialogue with us becomes truly human, since God conducts his part as man.

If in my life I fail completely to heed others, solely out of a desire to be 'devout' and to perform...

Faith, hope and charity go together. Hope is practised through the virtue of patience, which continu...

An important function of theology is to keep religion tied to reason and reason to religion. Both ro...

Morality is not man's prison but rather the divine element in him.

Are we not perhaps all afraid in some way? If we let Christ enter fully into our lives, if we open o...

For me, it's a great joy to be together with priests: in the end, the bishop of Rome is the bishop a...

Each of you has a personal vocation which He has given you for your own joy and sanctity. When a per...

In the end, even the “yes” to love is a source of suffering, because love always requires expropriat...

The 'commandment' of love is only possible because it is more than a requirement. Love can be 'comma...

God's love for his people is so great that it turns God against himself, his love against his justic...

The State which would provide everything, absorbing everything into itself, would ultimately become ...

Purity of heart is what enables us to see.

The great question that will be with us throughout this entire book: What did Jesus actually bring, ...

Ultimately, in the battle against lies and violence, truth and love have no other weapon than the wi...

The blessing hands of Christ are like a roof that protects us. But at the same time, they are a gest...

The risen Lord is the new Temple, the real meeting place between God and man.

Today we have to learn all over again that love for the sinner and love for the person who has been ...

The intellectual climate of the 1970s, for which the 1950s had already paved the way, contributed to...

It is obvious that the concept of truth has become suspect. Of course it is correct that is has been...

The aim of all Christian education, moreover, is to train the believer in an adult faith that can ma...

Since man always remains free and since his freedom is always fragile, the kingdom of good will neve...

The capacity to accept suffering for the sake of goodness, truth and justice is an essential criteri...

the Twelve Apostles are the most evident sign of Jesus' will regarding the existence and mission of ...

After the evil spirit of a narrow Scholastic orthodoxy has been driven out, in the end seven much mo...

Jesus assumes, as it were, the fall of man, lets himself into man's fallenness, prays to the Father ...

We throw ourselves down, as Jesus did, before the mystery of God's power present to us, knowing that...

The glory of God is the living man, but the life of man is the vision of God', says St. Irenaeus, ge...