Pope John Paul II
Euthanasia and assisted suicide are never acceptable acts of mercy. They always gravely exploit the suffering and desperate, extinguishing life in the name of the 'quality of life' itself.Collection: Suicide
Condemning class struggle does not mean condemning every possible form of social conflict. Such conflicts inevitably arise and Christians must often take a position in the "struggle for social justice." What is condemned is "total war," which has no respect for the dignity of others (and consequently of oneself). It excludes reasonable compromise, does not pursue the common good but the good of a group, and sets out to destroy whatever stands in its way.Collection: Christian
The aesthetic value of creation cannot be overlooked. Our very contact with nature has a deep restorative power; contemplation of its magnificence imparts peace and serenity. The Bible speaks again and again of the goodness and beauty of creation, which is called to glorify God.Collection: Serenity
Only faith in Christ gives rise to a culture contrary to egotism and death.Collection: Atheist
Prayer gives us light by which to see and to judge from God's perspective and from eternity. That is why you must not give up on praying!Collection: Prayer
To predispose our mind to welcome the Lord who, as we say in the Creed, one day will come to judge the living and the dead, we must learn to recognize him as present in the events of daily life. Therefore, Advent is, so to speak, an intense training that directs us decisively toward him who already came, who will come, and who comes continuously.Collection: Intense Training
Truth must be the foundation stone, the cement to solidify the entire social edifice.Collection: Catholic
As believers, how can we fail to see that abortion, euthanasia and assisted suicide are a terrible rejection of God's gift of life and love? And as believers, how can we fail to feel the duty to surround the sick and those in distress with the warmth of our affection and the support that will help them always to embrace life?Collection: Suicide
A society will be judged on the basis of how it treats its weakest members; and among the most vulnerable are surely the unborn and the dying.Collection: Dying
Christians will want to be in the vanguard in favoring ways of life that decisively break with the exhausting and joyless frenzy of consumerism.Collection: Christian
The ecological crisis is a moral issue.Collection: Issues
The call for a sincere gift of self is the fullest way to realize our personal freedom.Collection: Faith
A just wage for the worker is the ultimate test of whether any economic system is functioning justly.Collection: Tests
The world [is] tired of ideology [and] is opening itself to the truth. The time has come when the splendor of this truth has begun anew to illuminate the darkness of human existence.Collection: Tired
I hope that your example attracts many souls to the adoration of Jesus Christ who is present on the altar to be of comfort and hope to those who confide in him with faith and love; they look on him as the Emmanuel, God with us, who wished to dwell amongst us: his heart in our heartCollection: Jesus
This worship, given therefore to the Trinity of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, above all accompanies and permeates the celebration of the Eucharistic liturgy. But it must fill our churches also outside the timetable of Masses. Indeed, since the Eucharistic mystery was instituted out of love, and makes Christ sacramentally present, it is worthy of thanksgiving and worship. And this worship must be prominent in all our encounters with the Blessed Sacrament, both when we visit our churches and when the sacred species are taken to the sick and administered to themCollection: Father
None of us is alone in this world; each of us is a vital piece of the great mosaic of humanity as a whole.Collection: Humanity
Another name for peace is development.Collection: Names
The Gospel must not be kept hidden because of fear or indifference. It was never meant to be hidden away in private. It has to be put on a stand so that people may see its light and give praise to our Heavenly Father.Collection: Father
Man must reconcile himself to his natural greatness.... he must not forget that he is a person.Collection: Faith
In a world where the name of God is sometimes associated with vengeance and even a duty of hatred and violence, this message is both timely and significant.Collection: Names
The mystery of the Holy Night, which historically happened two thousand years ago, must be lived as a spiritual event in the 'today' of the Liturgy," the Pope clarified. "The Word who found a dwelling in Mary's womb comes to knock on the heart of every person with singular intensity this Christmas.Collection: Christmas
The Eucharist is the full realization of the worship which humanity owes to God, and it cannot be compared to any other religious experience.... The risen Lord ... calls the faithful together to give them the light of His Word and the nourishment of His Body as the perennial sacramental wellspring of redemption. The grace flowing from this wellspring renews mankind, life, and history.Collection: Religious
Yes, the civilization of love is possible; it is not a utopia. But it is only possible by a constant and ready reference to the "Father from whom all fatherhood and motherhood on earth is named," from whom every human family comes.Collection: Faith
Christians, in particular, realize that their responsibility within creation and their duty towards nature and the Creator are an essential part of their faith.Collection: Christian
In Christ and through Christ man has acquired full awareness of his dignity, of the heights to which he is raised, of the surpassing worth of his own humanity, and of the meaning of his existence.Collection: Men
The Church must persist in the teaching transmitted to her by Christ.Collection: Teaching
The Gospel of Life is not for believers alone: it is for everyone. The issue of life and its defense and promotion is not a concern of the Christian alone. Although faith provides special light and strength, this question arises in every human conscience which seeks the truth and which cares about the future of humanity. Life certainly has a sacred and religious value, but in no way is that value a concern only of believers. The value at stake is one which every human being can grasp by the light of reason; thus it necessarily concerns everyone.Collection: Christian
The Gospel lives in conversation with culture, and if the Church holds back from the culture, the Gospel itself falls silent. Therefore, we must be fearless in crossing the threshold of the communication and information revolution now taking place.Collection: Fall
For by his incarnation the Son of God united himself in a certain way with every man. He labored with human hands... and loved with a human heart. Born of Mary the Virgin, he truly became one of us.Collection: Faith
The most generous choices, especially the persevering, are the fruit of profound and prolonged union with God in prayerful silence.Collection: Faith
It is legitimate and necessary to ask oneself if this is not perhaps part of a new ideology of evil, perhaps more insidious and hidden, which attempts to pit human rights against the family and against man.Collection: Men
A man, even if seriously sick or prevented in the exercise of its higher functions, is and will be always a man ... [he] will never become a 'vegetable' or an 'animal,'" the Pope said. "The intrinsic value and personal dignity of every human being does not change depending on their circumstances.Collection: Exercise
Treating a person as a means to an end, and an end moreover which in this case is pleasure, the maximization of pleasure, will always stand in the way of love.Collection: Mean
Laws which legitimize the direct killing of innocent human beings through abortion or euthanasia are in complete opposition to the inviolable right to life proper to every individual; they thus deny the equality of everyone before the law.Collection: Law
Truth can never be confined to time and culture; in history it is known, but it also reaches beyond history.Collection: Truth
Every Mass is a memorial of that one sacrifice and that passover which restored life to the world. Every Mass puts us into intimate communion with her, the mother, whose sacrifice 'becomes present' just as the sacrifice of her Son 'becomes present' at the words of consecration..... At the root of the Eucharist is the virginal and maternal life of MaryCollection: Mother
The frenetic pace of modern life can lead to an obscuring or even a loss of what is truly human... Perhaps more than in other periods of history, our time is in need of that genius which belongs to women, and which can ensure sensitivity for human beings in every circumstance.Collection: Faith
Sacred scripture wishes simply to declare that the world was created by God, and in order to teach this truth it expressed itself in terms of the cosmology in use at the time of the writer. Any other teaching about the origin and makeup of the universe is so alien to the intentions of the Bible, which does not wish to teach how heaven was made but how one goes to heaven.Collection: Teaching
The new evangelization calls for followers of Christ who are unconditionally pro-life who will proclaim, celebrate, and serve the Gospel of life in every situation. A sign of hope is the increasing recognition that the dignity of human life must never be taken away, even in the case of someone who has done great evil. I renew the appeal I made ... for a consensus to end the death penalty, which is both cruel and unnecessary.Collection: Taken
Following Christ, the Church seeks the truth, which is not always the same as the majority opinion.Collection: Inspirational
The Mother of Christ, who stands at the very center of this mystery...is given as mother to every single individual and all mankind.Collection: Mother
The family, as the fundamental and essential educating community, is the privileged means for transmitting the religious and cultural values which help the person to acquire his or her own identity. Founded on love and open to the gift of life, the family contains in itself the very future of society; its most special task is to contribute effectively to a future of peace.Collection: Religious
Each man, in his suffering, can also become a sharer in the redemptive suffering of Christ.Collection: Men
Catholic education aims not only to communicate facts but also to transmit a coherent, comprehensive vision of life, in the conviction that the truths contained in that vision liberate students in the most profound meaning of human freedom.Collection: Profound
The distinctive mark of the Christian, today more than ever, must be love for the poor, the weak, the suffering.Collection: Christian
Offer Christ your heart in meditation and personal prayer which is the foundation of the spiritual life.Collection: Spiritual
You, too, be courageous! The world needs convinced and fearless witnesses. It is not enough to discuss, it is necessary to act!Collection: Fearless
Let us not accept violence as the way of peace. Let us instead begin by respecting true freedom: the resulting peace will be able to satisfy the world's expectations, for it will be a peace built on justice, a peace founded on the incomparable dignity of the free human being.Collection: Freedom