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POPE FRANCIS
IN HIS OWN WORDS
ON AGE AND AGEING
Old age, they say, is the seat of wisdom. The old ones have the wisdom that they have earned from walking through life, like old Simeon and Anna at the temple whose wisdom allowed them to recognize Jesus. Let us give with wisdom to the youth: like good wine that improves with age, let us give the youth the wisdom of our lives.
Address to cardinals, The Vatican Today, 15 March 2013
The old person is the transmitter of history, he who brings us memories, the memory of our people, of our country, of our family, culture, and religion ā¦ he has lived a long time, and even if heās done so as a fool, he deserves serious consideration.
Sobre El Cielo y La Tierra, 2010
The bitterness of the old person is worse than any other because it is without return.
Sobre El Cielo y La Tierra, 2010
ON HIS APPOINTMENT AS POPE
I donāt want to keep the people waiting. (Before appearing on the balcony to greet people in St Peterās Square.)
13 March 2013
Brothers and sisters, good evening. (His first words to the crowd after his introduction as Pope.)
13 March 2013
ON ARGENTINA
Is it true that Argentinians donāt want to dialogue? I wouldnāt put it that way. Rather, I think weāve become victims of attitudes that donāt permit us to dialogue: arrogance, the inability to listen, an exasperation with language ā¦ and so many others.
Sobre El Cielo y La Tierra, 2010
Our painful political history has all too often courted silence. The use of euphemisms has often anaesthetized us.
Homily, Easter 2008
Argentina has arrived at a moment of critical decision-making ā¦ the decision to continue as a country, to learn from its painful experiences of the past and initiate a new path, or to drown in misery, chaos, the loss of values, and decomposition as a society.
Annual Message to Educational Communities, Easter 2002
I dare to say it still: we Argentinians have a long history of mutual intolerance.
Homily, Easter 2005
We live in the most unequal part of the world, which has grown the most yet reduced misery the least. The unjust distribution of goods persists, creating a situation of social sin that cries out to heaven and limits the possibilities of a fuller life for so many of our brothers.
Address, CELAM conference, 21 May 2007
ON ARGENTINAāS DIRTY WAR
In the Church, there were Christians from both camps: Christians who died as guerrillas, Christians who helped save people, and Christian oppressors who believed they were saving the homeland.
Sobre El Cielo y La Tierra, 2010
We believe that the steps taken by the justice system in clarifying these events must serve to renew the efforts of all citizens toward reconciliation, and are a call to distance ourselves not only from impunity but from hatred and rancour as well. [Any Catholic who participated did so] on his own responsibility, erring and sinning gravely against God, against mankind, and against his own conscience.
Interpress Service, 11 October 2007
The horrors committed under the military governments were revealed only drip by drip, but for me they are still one of the worst blights on this country.
Sobre El Cielo y La Tierra, 2010
ON ART AND ARTISTS
Artists know well that beauty isnāt solely consoling, but that it can also be disturbing. The grand masters have known how to present with beauty those realities of the human condition that are most tragic and painful.
Dissertation of the Archbishop in ADEPA, 6 April 2006
Argentina has given the world many writers and artists of quality ā¦ in every genre, from the most traditional to those that express the views of the youngest generations ā all saying something about who we are and who we want to be!
Annual Message to Educational Communities, Easter 2006
The White Crucifixion by Marc Chagall. (His favourite painting.)
El Jesuita, 2010
ON ASKING CATHOLICS FOR THEIR PRAYERS
I would like to give you a blessing, but first I want to ask you for a favour. Before the bishop blesses the people, I ask that you pray to the Lord so that he blesses me.
First Blessing as Pope, 13 March 2013
ON ASPIRATIONS
No one can grow if he does not accept his smallness.
Homily, 25 May 2006
ON ASSISTED SUICIDE
In Argentina there is clandestine euthanasia. Social services pay up to a certain point; if you pass it, ādie, you are very oldā. Today, elderly people are discarded when, in reality, they are the seat of wisdom of the society. The right to life means allowing people to live and not killing, allowing them to grow, to eat, to be educated, to be healed, and to be permitted to die with dignity.
LifeSiteNews.com, 5 October 2007
A culture of discarding the elderly.
Speech, Aparecida Document, 2 October 2007
ON ATHEISTS
I donāt say that [the atheistās] life is condemned [to Hell], because I am convinced I donāt have the right to pass judgment about the moral uprightness of that person.
Sobre El Cielo y La Tierra, 2010
Not everyone present belongs to the Catholic faith and others do not believe. I respect the conscience of each one of you, knowing that each one of you is a child of God. May God bless you.
Vatican press conference, 16 March 2013
[I] know more agnostics than atheists; the first is more undecided, the second, more convinced.
Sobre El Cielo y La Tierra, 2010
ON BAPTIZING THE CHILDREN OF SINGLE PARENTS
The child has absolutely no responsibility for the state of his parentsā marriage. And often a baptism can be a new start for the parents as well.
30 Giorni, August 2009
In our ecclesiastical region, there are priests who donāt baptize the children of single mothers because they werenāt conceived in the sanctity of marriage. These are todayās hypocrites: those who clericalize the Church, those who separate the people of G...
