Pope Benedict XVI Quotes

The Catholic Church is not dead, it is not even tired!

Let us allow ourselves to be 'infected' by St. Joseph's silence! We need it greatly, in a world that is often too noisy, that does not favor meditation or listening to the voice of God.

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

The only really effective apologia for Christianity comes down to two arguments, namely, the saints the Church has produced, and the art which has grown in her womb.

Richard Dawkins's The Selfish Gene is a classic example of science fiction.

Thus, the apostles' adventure began as a gathering of persons who open to one another reciprocally. A direct knowledge of the Teacher began for the disciples.

Thanks to being profoundly rooted in Christ, he was able to bear a burden which transcends merely human abilities.

We do not seek a Christ whom we have invented, for only in the real communion of the Church do we encounter the real Christ.

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.

The Church is not an association that wishes to promote a certain cause. It is not about a cause. It is about the person of Jesus Christ.

The world needs transparent lives, clear souls, pure minds that refuse to be perceived as mere objects of pleasure.

The fundamental task of the evangelization of culture is the challenge to make God visible in the human face of Jesus.

I'm not a man who constantly thinks up jokes.

A spiritual desert is spreading: an interior emptiness, an unnamed fear, a quiet sense of despair.

In Latin America in general, it's very important that Christianity not be simply a thing of reason, but also of the heart.

The Church's mission is to spread hope "contagiously" among all peoples... It is only in this mission that the true journey of humanity is understood and attested.

Tell others about the truth that sets you free.

The 'commandment' of love is only possible because it is more than a requirement. Love can be 'commanded' because it has first been given.

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

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

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

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

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

After the evil spirit of a narrow Scholastic orthodoxy has been driven out, in the end seven much more wicked spirits return in its place.

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

The principle of tolerance and respect for freedom promoted by the reforms of the Second Vatican Council are today being manipulated and erroneously taken too far.

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

There are those who argue that the public celebration of festivals such as Christmas should be discouraged, in the questionable belief that it might somehow offend those of other religions or none.

An important function of theology is to keep religion tied to reason and reason to religion. Both roles are of essential importance for humanity.

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

Loving the church also means having the courage to make difficult, trying choices, having ever before oneself the good of the church and not one's own.

The Gospel purifies and renews: it bears fruit wherever the community of believers hears and welcomes the grace of God in truth and lives in charity. This is my faith this is my joy.

God guides his church, maintains her always, and especially in difficult times. Let us never lose this vision of faith, which is the only true vision of the way of the church and the world.

It is very important for a priest, in the parish itself, to see how people trust in him and to experience, in addition to their trust, also their generosity in pardoning his weaknesses.

We need Grace and forgiveness.

All the great works of art, the cathedrals - the Gothic cathedrals and the splendid Baroque churches - are a luminous sign of God, and thus are truly a manifestation, an epiphany of God.