Quotes

[on the practice of relocating to other parishes those priests behaving inappropriately with children] This is stupid because the priest continues to carry the problem in his backpack.

[to the crowds thronging St. Peter's Square following his election] Now I would like to give the blessing, but first I want to ask you a favor. Before the bishop blesses the people, I ask that you would pray to the Lord to bless me - the prayer of the people for their bishop. Let us say this prayer - your prayer for me - in silence.

[on the issue of abortion] Preventing the development of a being that already has the genetic code of a human being is not ethical.

[to the cardinals who elected him the new pontiff] May God forgive you.

[as Cardinal Bergoglio, on whether demanding celibacy lies at the core of clerical sex abuse] If a priest is a pedophile, he is so before he becomes a priest.

[Addressing the issue of the gay lobby, Pope Francis said it was important to "distinguish between a person who is gay and someone who makes a gay lobby," saying, "a gay lobby isn't good."] A gay person who is seeking God, who is of good will -- well, who am I to judge him? The Catechism of the Catholic Church explains this very well. It says one must not marginalize these persons, they must be integrated into society. The problem isn't this (homosexual) orientation -- we must be like brothers and sisters. The problem is something else, the problem is lobbying either for this orientation or a political lobby or a Masonic lobby.

[in an interview, referring to the Church being 'obsessed' with gay people, abortion and contraception] This church, with which we should be thinking, is the home of all, not a small chapel that can hold only a small group of selected people. We must not reduce the bosom of the universal church to a nest protecting our mediocrity.

[On having the retired Pope Benedict to consult] (It) is like having a grandfather at home -- a very wise grandfather.

We are all sinners, but we are all not corrupt.

[on the training of priests] It must be a work of art, not a police action. We must form their hearts. Otherwise we are creating little monsters. And then these little monsters mold the people of God. This really gives me goose-bumps.

[on the actions of some former pontiffs] They have often been narcissists, flattered and thrilled by their courtiers. The court is the leprosy of the papacy.

Unrestrained liberalism only makes the strong stronger and the weak weaker and excludes the most excluded.

Politics is the most important of civil activities and has its own field of action, which is not that of religion.

Everyone has his own idea of good and evil and must choose to follow the good and fight evil as he conceives them. That would be enough to make the world a better place.

[admitting to sometimes nodding off during prayers, after a long and busy day] It is good to fall asleep in God's presence.

[Public warning to Italy's mobsters on March 21, 2014] This life that you live now won't give you pleasure. It won't give you joy or happiness. Blood-stained money, blood-stained power, you can't bring it with you to your next life. Repent. There's still time to not end up in hell, which is what awaits you if you continue on this path.

[Adressing a group of 15 couples that have been married between 25 and 60 years during a daily Mass, Pope Francis stressed the importance of three qualities in a successful Christian marriage - faithfulness, perseverance and fruitfulness.] This culture of well-being from 10 years ago convinced us: It's better not to have children! It's better! You can go explore the world, go on holiday, you can have a villa in the countryside, you can be carefree... it might be better - more comfortable - to have a dog, two cats, and the love goes to the two cats and the dog. Is this true or is this not? Have you seen it? Then, in the end this marriage comes to old age in solitude, with the bitterness of loneliness.

The Lord has redeemed all of us, all of us, with the Blood of Christ: all of us, not just Catholics. Everyone! 'Father, the atheists?' Even the atheists. Everyone! And this Blood makes us children of God of the first class! We are created children in the likeness of God and the Blood of Christ has redeemed us all! And we all have a duty to do good. And this commandment for everyone to do good, I think, is a beautiful path towards peace. If we, each doing our own part, do good to others, if we meet there, doing good, and we go slowly, gently, little by little, we will make that culture of encounter that so much. We must meet one another doing good. 'But I don't believe, Father, I am an atheist!' But do good: we will meet one another there.

Before God and his people, I express my sorrow for the sins and grave crimes of clerical sexual abuse committed against you.

Eight months without a visit from her children, that is a mortal sin. Where the elderly are not honored, there is no future for the young. A society where the elderly are discarded carries within it the virus of death. If we do not learn to look after and to respect our elderly, we will be treated in the same way. The quality of a society, I mean of a civilization, is also judged by how it treats elderly people and by the place it gives them in community life.

Dear Armenian Brothers and Sisters, A century has passed since that horrific massacre which was a true martyrdom of your people, in which many innocent people died as confessors and martyrs for the name of Christ. Even today, there is not an Armenian family untouched by the loss of loved ones due to that tragedy: it truly was 'Metz Yeghern', the 'Great Evil', as it is known by Armenians...It is the responsibility not only of the Armenian people and the universal Church to recall all that has taken place, but of the entire human family, so that the warnings from this tragedy will protect us from falling into a similar horror, which offends against God and human dignity.

The earth...is beginning to look like a pile of filth. .

[on being asked about Donald Trump] A person who thinks only about building walls wherever they may be, and not building bridges, is not Christian. This is not in the Gospel. As far as what you said about whether I would advise to vote or not to vote, I am not going to get involved in that.

[regarding the use contraception during the 2016 Zika outbreak] Abortion is not the lesser of two evils. It is a crime. It is to throw someone out in order to save another. That's what the Mafia does. It is a crime, an absolute evil. On the 'lesser evil,' avoiding pregnancy, we are speaking in terms of the conflict between the fifth and sixth commandment. Paul VI, a great man, in a difficult situation in Africa, permitted nuns to use contraceptives in cases of rape... Avoiding pregnancy is not an absolute evil. In certain cases, as in this one, or in the one I mentioned of Blessed Paul VI, it was clear. I would also urge doctors to do their utmost to find vaccines against these two mosquitoes that carry this disease.

I think that the Church not only should apologise... to a gay person whom it offended but it must also apologise to the poor as well, to the women who have been exploited, to children who have been exploited by [being forced to] work. It must apologise for having blessed so many weapons

Faced with the suffering and need of our defenseless brothers, some turn away or move on, whereas others stop and respond with generous dedication to their cry for help.You adherents of the Pro-Life Movement, have sought, in forty years of activity, to imitate the Good Samaritan. In face of various forms of menaces to human life, you have approached the fragility of your neighbor, and have worked so that those that live in precarious conditions are not excluded and discarded.

[Answer to frequent question about the Holocaust, "Where was God?"] Where was Man?

[on abortion, when he was cardinal in Buenos Aires] "Perhaps for that reason they might bring us to the courts. Perhaps, for that reason, for caring for life, they might kill us," he said. "We should think about the Christian martyrs. They killed them for preaching this Gospel of life, this Gospel that Jesus brought. But Jesus gives us the strength." "Go forth! Don't be fools," he said. "Remember, a Christian doesn't have the luxury of being foolish. ... He can't give himself the luxury. He has to be clever, he has to be astute, to carry this out." "When one listens to what Jesus says: Look, 'I send you, I send you like sheep amongst the wolves,' one has the desire to ask: 'Lord, are you joking, or do you not have a better place to send us?' Because what Jesus says is a little chilling: 'if you proclaim my message, they are going to persecute you, they are going to slander you, they are going to set traps to deliver you to the courts and to have you killed. But you must continue forward. For that reason, take care, Jesus says, and be astute, be clever like the serpent but very simple like doves,' joining the two things."

[on a shortage of priests in the Church, 2017] We must consider if viri probati [married men of good standing] is a possibility.

How can we respond to those who say that there is no need to go to Mass, not even on Sundays, because what is important is to live well, to love our neighbors? It is true that the quality of the Christian life is measured by the capacity to love, but how can we practice the Gospel without drawing the necessary strength to do it, one Sunday after another, from the inexhaustible spring of the Eucharist? We Christians need to participate in Sunday Mass because only with the grace of Jesus, with his living presence in us and among us, can we put into practice his commandment, and thus be his credible witnesses.

In the vulnerable human being, each of us is called to recognize the face of the Lord, who in his human flesh experienced indifference, and the solitude to which we often condemn the poorest, both in developing countries and in countries that are well-off. Every unborn child, unjustly condemned to be aborted, bears the face of Jesus Christ, the face of the Lord, who, even before he was born, and then as soon as he was born, experienced the rejection of the world. And every elderly person (I just spoke about the child, but let's also consider the elderly) every elderly person, even if sick or at the end of their life, bears the face of Christ.

It is painful to say this today: People speak of varied families, of various kinds of family - the family [as] man and woman in the image of God is the only one.

Christians and Muslims are brothers and sisters, and we must act as such

It is not coincidental that at times there is a resurgence of symbols typical of Nazism. And I must confess to you that when I hear a speech (by) someone responsible for order or for a government, I think of speeches by Hitler in 1934, 1936. With the persecution of Jews, gypsies, and people with homosexual tendencies, today these actions are typical (and) represent 'par excellence' a culture of waste and hate. That is what was done in those days and today it is happening again.

Our world today needs fathers.

Yes, dogs and cats take the place of children. Yes, it's funny, I understand, but it is the reality. And this denial of fatherhood or motherhood diminishes us, it takes away our humanity. And in this way civilization becomes aged and without humanity, because it loses the richness of fatherhood and motherhood. And our homeland suffers, as it does not have children.

If we want the world to change, then first our hearts must change.

[After the death of his predecessor Pope Benedict XVI.] With emotion we remember him, so noble, so kind. And we feel so much gratitude in our hearts: gratitude to God for having given him to the church and to the world; gratitude to him, for all the good he did, and above all for his testimony of faith and prayer, especially in these last years of his retired life

Today children - children - are taught in school that everyone can choose his or her sex. Why are they teaching this? Because the books are provided by the people and institutions that give you money. These forms of ideological colonization are also supported by influential countries. And this is terrible!