Benoît XVI citations (127 citations)

français
Dialogue sur le christianisme et l’islam, que le savant empereur byzantin Manuel II Paléologue mena avec un érudit perse, en 1391 à Ankara
Discours, Sur la foi et la violence

âme , nature , rapports , pensée

“La volonté de profiter pleinement dès à présent du monde et de ce qu'offre la vie, de chercher le ciel ici-bas sans se laisser arrêter par le moindre scrupule. Cette vision des choses est entrée pour une grande part dans la conscience moderne et elle détermine largement la conception de l'existence qui a cours aujourd'hui (…) Après l'expérience des régimes autoritaires, de la brutalité avec laquelle ils ont écrasé les hommes, raillé, asservi, frappé les faibles, nous sommes à nouveau à même de comprendre ceux qui ont faim et soif de justice.”

Benoît XVI

Jésus de Nazareth, 2007

volonté , vie , hommes , faim

“On ne peut oublier que le fondamentalisme religeux et le laïcisme sont des formes spéculaires et extrêmes du refus du légitime pluralisme et du principe de laïcité.”

Benoît XVI

Messages, Sur la religion

oubli , formation

Benoît XVI: Citations en anglais

“When human affairs are so ordered that there is no recognition of God, there is a belittling of man. That is why, in the final analysis, worship and law cannot be completely separated from each other. God has a right to a response from man, to man himself, and where that right of God totally disappears, the order of law among men is dissolved, because there is no cornerstone to keep the whole structure together.”

Help us translate this quote

Pope Benedict XVI

2000, The Spirit of the Liturgy (2000)

“Celibacy for the sake of the Kingdom means embracing a life completely devoted to love, a love that enables you to commit yourselves fully to God's service and to be totally present to your brothers and sisters, especially those in need.”

Help us translate this quote

Pope Benedict XVI

2008, Mass with the Clergy (18 July 2008)

“Life is not governed by chance; it is not random. Your very existence has been willed by God, blessed and given a purpose! Life is not just a succession of events or experiences. It is a search for the true, the good and the beautiful. It is to this end that we make our choices; it is for this that we exercise our freedom; it is in this - in truth, in goodness, and in beauty - that we find happiness and joy.”

Help us translate this quote

Pope Benedict XVI

2008, Papal Welcome (17 July 2008)

“It is true that the Muslim world is not totally mistaken when it reproaches the West of Christian tradition of moral decadence and the manipulation of human life. … Islam has also had moments of great splendor and decadence in the course of its history.”

Help us translate this quote

Pope Benedict XVI

from "Ratzinger denies Christianity 'superior' to Islam," Zenit.org via Catholic News, March 6, 2002
2002

“In and of itself, the market is not, and must not become, the place where the strong subdue the weak.”

Help us translate this quote

Pope Benedict XVI

2009, Cartias in Vertitate (29 June 2009)

“You are called to exercise the Spirit's gifts amidst the ups and downs of your daily life. Let your faith mature through your studies, work, sports, music and art. Let it be sustained by prayer and nurtured by the sacraments.”

Help us translate this quote

Pope Benedict XVI

2008, Youth Day Vigil (19 July 2008)

“[The atheist believes] a world marked by so much injustice, innocent suffering, and cynicism of power cannot be the work of a good God.”

Help us translate this quote

Pope Benedict XVI

Encyclical Letter Spe Salvi of the Supreme Pontiff Benedict XVI to the Bishops Priests and Deacons Men and Women Religious and All the Lay Faithful On Christian Hope, 30 November 2007
2007

“Love has a particular trait: it has a task or purpose to fulfill - to abide. By its nature, love is enduring. The Holy Spirit offers our world love that dispels uncertainty; love that overcomes the fear of betrayal; love that carries eternity within; the true love that draws us into a unity that abides!”

Help us translate this quote

Pope Benedict XVI

2008, Youth Day Vigil (19 July 2008)

“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. Yes, bless us, Holy Father. We entrust your dear soul to the Mother of God, your Mother, who guided you each day and who will now guide you to the glory of her son, our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.Today we bury his remains in the earth as a seed of immortality. Our hearts are full of sadness, yet at the same time (full) of joyful hope and profound gratitude.”

Help us translate this quote

Pope Benedict XVI

Homily during the Requiem Mass of the funeral of [Pope John Paul II], on April 8, 2005
2005

“"There is more joy in giving than in receiving." Never doubt the truth of our Lord's promise that whatever we give him of our creativity, our resources, our persons, will come back to us in abundance.”

Help us translate this quote

Pope Benedict XVI

2008, Closing Mass (19 July 2008)

“Dear young friends, the Lord is asking you to be prophets of this new age, messengers of his love, drawing people to the Father and building a future of hope for all humanity.”

Help us translate this quote

Pope Benedict XVI

2008, Closing Mass (19 July 2008)

“Certainly, the contradiction of tensions and divisions between the followers of different religious traditions, sadly, cannot be denied. However, is it not also the case that often it is the ideological manipulation of religion, sometimes for political ends, that is the real catalyst for tension and division, and at times even violence in society?”

Help us translate this quote

Pope Benedict XVI

" Meeting with Muslim religious leaders, members of the diplomatic corps and rectors of universities in Jordan http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/speeches/2009/may/documents/hf_ben-xvi_spe_20090509_capi-musulmani_en.html" (9 May 2009)
2009

“In the hour of its greatest success, Europe seems to have become empty inside, paralyzed by a life-threatening crisis to its health and dependent on transplants.”

Help us translate this quote

Pope Benedict XVI

Values in Times of Upheaval (2005)
2005

“How much filth there is in the Church, even among those who, in the priesthood, should belong entirely to Him. How much pride, how much self-sufficiency.”

Help us translate this quote

Pope Benedict XVI

At a Good Friday devotion, the Stations of the Cross, in 2005, seen by many as a statement about the clergy sex abuse scandal
2005

“Relations between States and within States are correct to the extent that they respect the truth. When, instead, truth is violated, peace is threatened, law is endangered, then, as a logical consequence, forms of injustice are unleashed.”

Help us translate this quote

Pope Benedict XVI

In Address to the International Diplomats Address to the International Diplomats http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/speeches/2006/march/documents/hf_ben-xvi_spe_20060318_intern-organizations_en.html (18 March 2006)
2006

“Reason always stands in need of being purified by faith: this also holds true for political reason, which must not consider itself omnipotent. For its part, religion always needs to be purified by reason in order to show its authentically human face. Any breach in this dialogue comes only at an enormous price to human development.”

Help us translate this quote

Pope Benedict XVI

2009, Cartias in Vertitate (29 June 2009)

“Our Christian conviction is that Christ is also the messiah of Israel. Certainly it is in the hands of God how and when the unification of Jews and Christians into the people of God will take place.”

Help us translate this quote

Pope Benedict XVI

God and the World, published October 2000, as reported by National Catholic Reporter
2000

“In times like these, given the cultural and social context in which we are living, there may be a greater risk of reducing Christian hope to an ideology, to a group slogan or to outward appearances. Nothing is more contrary to Jesus' message! He does not want his disciples to "recite" a part, even that of hope. He wants them "to be" hope and they can only be hope if they remain united to him! He wishes each one of you, dear young friends, to be a small source of hope for your neighbour and, all together, to become an oasis of hope for the society in which you are integrated.”

Help us translate this quote

Pope Benedict XVI

In Homily for Holy mass on the fourth anniversary of the death of John Paul II http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/homilies/2009/documents/hf_ben-xvi_hom_20090402_anniv-morte-gpii_en.html (2 April 2009)
2009

“The Church does not have technical solutions to offer and does not claim “to interfere in any way in the politics of States.” She does, however, have a mission of truth to accomplish, in every time and circumstance, for a society that is attuned to man, to his dignity, to his vocation. Without truth, it is easy to fall into an empiricist and sceptical view of life, incapable of rising to the level of praxis because of a lack of interest in grasping the values — sometimes even the meanings — with which to judge and direct it. Fidelity to man requires fidelity to the truth, which alone is the guarantee of freedom (cf. Jn 8:32) and of the possibility of integral human development. For this reason the Church searches for truth, proclaims it tirelessly and recognizes it wherever it is manifested. This mission of truth is something that the Church can never renounce. Her social doctrine is a particular dimension of this proclamation: it is a service to the truth which sets us free. Open to the truth, from whichever branch of knowledge it comes, the Church's social doctrine receives it, assembles into a unity the fragments in which it is often found, and mediates it within the constantly changing life-patterns of the society of peoples and nations”

Help us translate this quote

Pope Benedict XVI

2009, Cartias in Vertitate (29 June 2009)

“A Catholic would be guilty of formal cooperation in evil, and so unworthy to present himself for holy Communion, if he were to deliberately vote for a candidate precisely because of the candidate's permissive stand on abortion and/or euthanasia. When a Catholic does not share a candidate's stand in favor of abortion and/or euthanasia, but votes for that candidate for other reasons, it is considered remote material cooperation, which can be permitted in the presence of proportionate reasons.”

Help us translate this quote

Pope Benedict XVI

2004 memorandum to Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick of Washington, D.C.
2003

“Dear young people: What will you leave to the next generation? Are you building your lives on firm foundations? Are you living in a way that opens a space for the Spirit in the midst of a world that wants to forget God, or even rejects him in the name of a falsely-conceived freedom? How are you using the gifts you have been given, the 'power' that the Holy Spirit is even now prepared to release within you?”

Help us translate this quote

Pope Benedict XVI

2008, Closing Mass (19 July 2008)

“Currently, I see in Germany, but also in the United States, a somewhat fierce debate raging between so-called "creationism" and evolutionism, presented as though they were mutually exclusive alternatives: those who believe in the Creator would not be able to conceive of evolution, and those who instead support evolution would have to exclude God. This antithesis is absurd because, on the one hand, there are so many scientific proofs in favour of evolution which appears to be a reality we can see and which enriches our knowledge of life and being as such. But on the other, the doctrine of evolution does not answer every query, especially the great philosophical question: where does everything come from? And how did everything start which ultimately led to man?”

Help us translate this quote

Pope Benedict XVI

remarks http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/speeches/2007/july/documents/hf_ben-xvi_spe_20070724_clero-cadore_en.html at Auronzo di Cadore (24 July 2007)
2007

“Because God loves us, because He wants us to grow into truth, He must necessarily make demands on us and must also correct us”

Help us translate this quote

Pope Benedict XVI

"Cardinal Ratzinger on Laicism and Sexual Ethics," Zenit.org, Nov. 19, 2004
2003

“The primary capital to be safeguarded and valued is man, the human person in his or her integrity”

Help us translate this quote

Pope Benedict XVI

2009, Cartias in Vertitate (29 June 2009)

“The ecclesial communities which have not preserved the valid Episcopate and the genuine and integral substance of the Eucharistic mystery, are not Churches in the proper sense; however, those who are baptized in these communities are, by Baptism, incorporated in Christ and thus are in a certain communion, albeit imperfect, with the Church.”

Help us translate this quote

Pope Benedict XVI

Dominus Jesus declaration, 2000
2000

“Dear brothers and sisters after the great Pope, John Paul II, the cardinals have elected me, a simple and humble worker in the Lord's vineyard. The fact that the Lord can work and act even with insufficient means consoles me, and above all I entrust myself to your prayers. In the joy of the resurrected Lord, we go on with his help. He is going to help us and Mary will be on our side. Thank you.”

Help us translate this quote

Pope Benedict XVI

Full text of his first public speech as pope, upon his presentation as Pope Benedict XVI
2005

“The Holy Spirit is God eternally giving himself; like a never-ending spring he pours forth nothing less than himself. In view of this ceaseless gift, we come to see the limitations of all that perishes, the folly of the consumerist mindset. We begin to understand why the quest for novelty leaves us unsatisfied and wanting. Are we not looking for an eternal gift? For the spring that will never run dry?”

Help us translate this quote

Pope Benedict XVI

2008, Youth Day Vigil (19 July 2008)

“Society today is being fragmented by a way of thinking that is inherently short-sighted because it disregards the full horizon of truth - the truth about God and about us. By its nature, relativism fails to see the whole picture. It ignores the very principles that enable us to live and flourish in unity, order and harmony.”

Help us translate this quote

Pope Benedict XVI

2008, Youth Day Vigil (19 July 2008)

“If technical progress is not matched by corresponding progress in man's ethical formation, in man's inner growth, then it is not progress at all, but a threat for man and for the world.”

Help us translate this quote

Pope Benedict XVI

Encyclical Letter Spe Salvi of the Supreme Pontiff Benedict XVI to the Bishops Priests and Deacons Men and Women Religious and All the Lay Faithful On Christian Hope, 30 November 2007
2007

“After having repeatedly examined my conscience before God, I have come to the certainty that my strengths due to an advanced age are no longer suited to an adequate exercise of the Petrine ministry. In order to govern the bark of St. Peter and proclaim the Gospel, both strength of mind and body are necessary — strengths which in the last few months, have deteriorated in me to the extent that I have had to recognize my incapacity to adequately fulfill the ministry entrusted to me.”

Help us translate this quote

Pope Benedict XVI

Statement announcing his resignation as pope, quoted in ABCNews http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/vatican-pope-resigning-feb-28-18462573, 'Pope Benedict to Resign, Vatican Says' (11 February 2013)
2013