Best quotes from Pope Francis

Pope Francis (born Jorge Mario Bergoglio) is the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State. Francis is the first Jesuit pope, the first from the Americas, the first from the Southern Hemisphere, and the first pope from outside Europe since the Syrian Gregory III, who reigned in the 8th century. He is also the first Pope since Gregory XVI (1831 – 1846) to have been a priest of a religious order. Bergoglio was ordained a Catholic priest in 1969, and from 1973 to 1979 was Argentina’s provincial superior of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits). 

He became the archbishop of Buenos Aires in 1998 and was created a cardinal in 2001 by Pope John Paul II. He led the Argentine Church during the December 2001 riots in Argentina. The administrations of Néstor Kirchner and Cristina Fernández de Kirchner considered him a political rival. Following the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI on 28 February 2013, a papal conclave elected Bergoglio as his successor on 13 March. He chose Francis as his papal name in honor of Saint Francis of Assisi. 

Throughout his public life, Pope Francis has been noted for his humility, emphasis on God’s mercy, international visibility as pope, concern for the poor and commitment to interfaith dialogue. He is credited with having a less formal approach to the papacy than his predecessors, for instance choosing to reside in the Domus Sanctae Marthae guesthouse rather than in the papal apartments of the Apostolic Palace used by previous popes. He maintains that the Church should be more open and welcoming. 

He does not support unbridled capitalism, Marxism, or Marxist versions of liberation theology. Francis maintains the traditional views of the Church regarding abortion, marriage, ordination of women, and clerical celibacy. He opposes consumerism and overdevelopment, and supports taking action on climate change, a focus of his papacy with the promulgation of Laudato si’. In international diplomacy, he helped to temporarily restore full diplomatic relations between the United States and Cuba and supported the cause of refugees during the European and Central American migrant crises. 

Since 2018, he has been a vocal opponent of neo-nationalism. Francis has faced increasingly open criticism, particularly from theological conservatives, on many questions, including the admission of civilly divorced and remarried Catholics to Communion with the publication of Amoris laetitia and on the question of the alleged cover-up of clergy sexual abuse, against which he promulgated Vos estis lux mundi.

Some of the best quotes from Pope Francis are listed below.

1. “A beautiful homily, a genuine sermon, must begin with the first proclamation, with the proclamation of salvation. There is nothing more solid, deep and sure than this proclamation.” – Pope Francis
2. “A Christian who does not pray for those who govern is not a good Christian.” – Pope Francis
3. “A church without women would be like the apostolic college without Mary. The Madonna is more important than the apostles, and the church herself is feminine, the spouse of Christ and a mother.” – Pope Francis
4. “A little bit of mercy makes the world less cold and more just.” – Pope Francis
5. “A mother defends herself with a heart filled with love before doing so with words. I wonder whether there is any love for the church in the hearts of those who pay so much attention to the scandals.” – Pope Francis
6. “A person once asked me, in a provocative manner, if I approved of homosexuality. I replied with another question: ‘Tell me: when God looks at a gay person, does he endorse the existence of this person with love, or reject and condemn this person?’ We must always consider the person.” – Pope Francis
7. “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.” – Pope Francis
8. “Abortion isn’t a lesser evil, it’s a crime. Taking one life to save another, that’s what the Mafia does. It’s a crime. It’s an absolute evil.” – Pope Francis
9. “Agape, the love of each one of us for the other, from the closest to the furthest, is in fact the only way that Jesus has given us to find the way of salvation and of the Beatitudes.” – Pope Francis
10. “Among us, who is above must be in service of the others. This doesn’t mean we have to wash each other’s feet every day, but we must help one another.” – Pope Francis
11. “An example I often use to illustrate the reality of vanity, is this: look at the peacock; it’s beautiful if you look at it from the front. But if you look at it from behind, you discover the truth… Whoever gives in to such self-absorbed vanity has huge misery hiding inside them.” – Pope Francis
12. “Anyone who wants to be pope doesn’t care much for themselves, God doesn’t bless them. I didn’t want to be pope.” – Pope Francis
13. “Before all else, the Gospel invites us to respond to the God of love who saves us, to see God in others and to go forth from ourselves to seek the good of others.” – Pope Francis
14. “Being a Christian is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty idea, but the encounter with an event, a person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction.” – Pope Francis
15. “Christmas is joy, religious joy, an inner joy of light and peace.” – Pope Francis
16. “Despite the slowness, the infidelity, the errors and sins it committed and might still commit against its members, the Church, trust me, has no other meaning and goal but to live and witness Jesus.” – Pope Francis
17. “Each of us has a vision of good and of evil. We have to encourage people to move towards what they think is good… 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.” – Pope Francis
18. “Ecumenical relations it is important not only to know each other better, but also to recognize what the Spirit has sown in the other as a gift for us.” – Pope Francis
19. “Even today we raise our hand against our brother… We have perfected our weapons, our conscience has fallen asleep, and we have sharpened our ideas to justify ourselves as if it were normal we continue to sow destruction, pain, death. Violence and war lead only to death.” – Pope Francis
20. “Every child that isn’t born, but is unjustly condemned to be aborted, has the face of Jesus Christ, has the face of the Lord.” – Pope Francis
21. “Every man, every woman who has to take up the service of government, must ask themselves two questions: ‘Do I love my people in order to serve them better? Am I humble and do I listen to everybody, to diverse opinions in order to choose the best path?’ If you don’t ask those questions, your governance will not be good.” – Pope Francis
22. “Faith grows when it is lived and shaped by Love.” – Pope Francis
23. “Finally an evangelizing community is filled with joy; it knows how to rejoice always.” – Pope Francis
24. “Find new ways to spread the word of God to every corner of the world.” – Pope Francis
25. “First of all, you ask me if the God of Christians forgives one who doesn’t believe and doesn’t seek the faith. Premise that – and it’s the fundamental thing – the mercy of God has no limits if one turns to him with a sincere and contrite heart; the question for one who doesn’t believe in God lies in obeying one’s conscience.” – Pope Francis
26. “Frequently, we act as arbiters of grace rather than its facilitators. But the Church is not a tollhouse; it is the house of the Father, where there is a place for everyone, with all their problems.” – Pope Francis
27. “From my point of view, God is the light that illuminates the darkness, even if it does not dissolve it, and a spark of divine light is within each of us.” – Pope Francis
28. “G. K. Chesterton: “When Man ceases to worship God he does not worship nothing but worships everything.” – Pope Francis
29. “God always has patience.” – Pope Francis
30. “God makes Himself felt in the heart of each person. He also respects the culture of all people…God is open to all people. He calls everyone. He moves everyone to seek Him and to discover Him through creation.” – Pope Francis
31. “God never gives someone a gift they are not capable of receiving. If he gives us the gift of Christmas, it is because we all have the ability to understand and receive it.” – Pope Francis
32. “God never tires of forgiving us; we are the ones who tire of seeking his mercy.” – Pope Francis
33. “God’s image is the married couple, a man and woman, together. Not just the man. Not just the woman. No, both of them. That’s God’s image.” – Pope Francis
34. “Grace is not part of consciousness; it is the amount of light in our souls, not knowledge nor reason.” – Pope Francis
35. “He who doesn’t pray to the Lord prays to the devil.” – Pope Francis
36. “How can it be that it is not a news item when an elderly homeless person dies of exposure but it is news when the stock market loses two points?” – Pope Francis
37. “Human rights are not only violated by terrorism, repression or assassination, but also by unfair economic structures that creates huge inequalities.” – Pope Francis
38. “Human self-understanding changes with time, and so also human consciousness deepens.” – Pope Francis
39. “I am a sinner. This is the most accurate definition. It is not a figure of speech, a literary genre. I am a sinner.” – Pope Francis
40. “I am always wary of decisions made hastily. I am always wary of the first decision, that is, the first thing that comes to my mind if I have to make a decision. This is usually the wrong thing. I have to wait and assess, looking deep into myself, taking the necessary time.” – Pope Francis
41. “I believe in God – not in a Catholic God; there is no Catholic God. There is God, and I believe in Jesus Christ, his incarnation. Jesus is my teacher and my pastor, but God, the Father, Abba, is the light and the Creator. This is my Being.” – Pope Francis
42. “I believe that Catholics involved in politics carry the values of their religion within them, but have the mature awareness and expertise to implement them. The Church will never go beyond its task of expressing and disseminating its values, at least as long as I’m here.” – Pope Francis
43. “I dream of a church that is a mother and shepherdess.” – Pope Francis
44. “I entered the diocesan seminary. I liked the Dominicans, and I had Dominican friends. But then I chose the Society of Jesus, which I knew well because the seminary was entrusted to the Jesuits. Three things in particular struck me about the Society: the missionary spirit, community and discipline.” – Pope Francis
45. “I have a dogmatic certainty: God is in every person’s life. God is in everyone’s life. Even if the life of a person has been a disaster, even if it is destroyed by vices, drugs or anything else – God is in this person’s life. You can – you must – try to seek God in every human life.” – Pope Francis
46. “I like it when someone tells me ‘I don’t agree.’ This is a true collaborator. When they say ‘Oh, how great, how great, how great,’ that’s not useful.” – Pope Francis
47. “I love tango, and I used to dance when I was young.” – Pope Francis
48. “I prefer a church which is bruised, hurting and dirty because it has been out on the streets, rather than a church which is unhealthy from being confined and from clinging to its own security.” – Pope Francis
49. “I see clearly that the thing the church needs most today is the ability to heal wounds and to warm the hearts of the faithful; it needs nearness, proximity.” – Pope Francis
50. “I see the church as a field hospital after battle. It is useless to ask a seriously injured person if he has high cholesterol and about the level of his blood sugars. You have to heal his wounds. Then we can talk about everything else.” – Pope Francis
51. “I sincerely hope I can contribute to the progress there has been in relations between Jews and Catholics since the Second Vatican Council in a spirit of renewed collaboration.” – Pope Francis
52. “I think that we succumb to attitudes that do not permit us to dialogue: domination, not knowing how to listen, annoyance in our speech, preconceived judgments and so many others.” – Pope Francis
53. “Idolatry, then, is always polytheism, an aimless passing from one lord to another. Idolatry does not offer a journey but rather a plethora of paths leading nowhere and forming a vast labyrinth.” – Pope Francis
54. “If investments in banks fall, it is a tragedy, and people say, ‘What are we going to do?’ but if people die of hunger, have nothing to eat or suffer from poor health, that’s nothing.” – Pope Francis
55. “If one has the answers to all the questions – that is the proof that God is not with him. It means that he is a false prophet using religion for himself. The great leaders of the people of God, like Moses, have always left room for doubt. You must leave room for the Lord, not for our certainties; we must be humble.” – Pope Francis
56. “If our hearts are closed, if our hearts are made of stone, the stones find their way into our hands and we are ready to throw them.” – Pope Francis
57. “If someone is gay and he searches for the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge? We shouldn’t marginalise people for this. They must be integrated into society.” – Pope Francis
58. “If the Christian is a restorationist, a legalist, if he wants everything clear and safe, then he will find nothing. Tradition and memory of the past must help us to have the courage to open up new areas to God.” – Pope Francis
59. “If we start without confidence, we have already lost half the battle and we bury our talents.” – Pope Francis
60. “If, hypothetically, Western Catholicism were to review the issue of celibacy, I think it would do so for cultural reasons, not so much as a universal option.” – Pope Francis
61. “In Europe first and now in America, elected men have taken it upon themselves to indebt their people to create an atmosphere of dependency. And why? For their own selfish need to increase their own personal power.” – Pope Francis
62. “In our ecclesiastical region there are priests who don’t baptize the children of single mothers because they weren’t conceived in the sanctity of marriage. These are today’s hypocrites. Those who clericalize the church. Those who separate the people of God from salvation.” – Pope Francis
63. “In the Church, and in the journey of faith, women have had and still have a special role in opening doors to the Lord.” – Pope Francis
64. “In the Western Church to which I belong, priests cannot be married as in the Byzantine, Ukrainian, Russian or Greek Catholic Churches. In those churches, the priests can be married, but the bishops have to be celibate. They are very good priests.” – Pope Francis
65. “In this quest to seek and find God in all things, there is still an area of uncertainty. There must be. If a person says that he met God with total certainty and is not touched by a margin of uncertainty, then this is not good.” – Pope Francis
66. “Inconsistency on the part of pastors and the faithful between what they say and what they do, between word and manner of life, is undermining the Church’s credibility.” – Pope Francis
67. “Indifference is dangerous, whether innocent or not.” – Pope Francis
68. “Instead of being just a church that welcomes and receives by keeping the doors open, let us try also to be a church that finds new roads, that is able to step outside itself and go to those who do not attend Mass, to those who have quit or are indifferent.” – Pope Francis
69. “Instead of imposing new obligations, (Christians) should appear as people who wish to share their joy, who point to a horizon of beauty and who invite others to a delicious banquet.” – Pope Francis
70. “It is not ‘progressive’ to try to resolve problems by eliminating a human life.” – Pope Francis
71. “It is true that going out on to the street implies the risk of accidents happening, as they would to any ordinary man or woman. But if the church stays wrapped up in itself, it will age. And if I had to choose between a wounded church that goes out on to the streets and a sick, withdrawn church, I would definitely choose the first one.” – Pope Francis
72. “It makes me sad when I find sisters who aren’t joyful. They might smile, but with just a smile they could be flight attendants!” – Pope Francis
73. “Jesus teaches us another way: Go out. Go out and share your testimony, go out and interact with your brothers, go out and share, go out and ask. Become the Word in body as well as spirit.” – Pope Francis
74. “Joy adapts and changes, but it always endures, even as a flicker of light born of our personal certainty that, when everything is said and done, we are infinitely loved.” – Pope Francis
75. “Justice on its own is not enough. With mercy and forgiveness, God goes beyond justice, he subsumes it and exceeds it in a higher event in which we experience love, which is at the root of true justice.” – Pope Francis
76. “Leaders of the Church have often been Narcissus, flattered and sickeningly excited by their courtiers. The court is the leprosy of the papacy.” – Pope Francis
77. “Let us all remember this: one cannot proclaim the Gospel of Jesus without the tangible witness of one’s life.” – Pope Francis
78. “Let us draw from the crib the joy and deep peace that Jesus comes to bring to the world.” – Pope Francis
79. “Life is a journey. When we stop, things don’t go right.” – Pope Francis
80. “Living our vocation to be protectors of God’s handiwork is essential to a life of virtue; it is not an optional or a secondary aspect of our Christian experience.” – Pope Francis
81. “Living together is an art. It’s a patient art, it’s a beautiful art, it’s fascinating.” – Pope Francis
82. “Mercy will always be greater than any sin, no one can put a limit on the love of the all-forgiving God. Just” – Pope Francis
83. “Money has to serve, not to rule.” – Pope Francis
84. “More and more people work on Sundays as a consequence of the competitiveness imposed by a consumer society.” – Pope Francis
85. “My authoritarian and quick manner of making decisions led me to have serious problems and to be accused of being ultraconservative. I have never been a right-winger. It was my authoritarian way of making decisions that created problems.” – Pope Francis
86. “My choices, including those related to the day-to-day aspects of life, like the use of a modest car, are related to a spiritual discernment that responds to a need that arises from looking at things, at people and from reading the signs of the times. Discernment in the Lord guides me in my way of governing.” – Pope Francis
87. “Narcissism makes people incapable of looking beyond themselves, beyond their own desires and needs.” – Pope Francis
88. “No one can grow if he does not accept his smallness.” – Pope Francis
89. “Not to share one’s wealth with the poor is to steal from them and to take away their livelihood. It is not our own goods which we hold, but theirs. – St John Chrysostom” – Pope Francis
90. “Often it is better simply to slow down, to put aside our eagerness in order to see and listen to others, to stop rushing from one thing to another and to remain with someone who has faltered along the way.” – Pope Francis
91. “Oh, how I would like a poor Church, and for the poor.” – Pope Francis
92. “Once elected, the Pope is by virtue of the promise of Jesus to Peter, the Pope is preserved from the possibility of error. God would change any spend thrift politician into a responsible Pope.” – Pope Francis
93. “One who believes may not be presumptuous; on the contrary, truth leads to humility, because believers know that, rather than ourselves possessing truth, it is truth that embraces and possesses us.” – Pope Francis
94. “Only the exclusive and indissoluble union between a man and a woman has a plenary role to play in society as a stable commitment that bears fruit in new life.” – Pope Francis
95. “Our faith in Christ, who became poor, and was always close to the poor and the outcast, is the basis of our concern for the integral development of society’s most neglected members.” – Pope Francis
96. “Perhaps I can say that I am a bit astute, that I can adapt to circumstances, but it is also true that I am a bit naive. Yes, but the best summary, the one that comes more from the inside and I feel most true is this: I am a sinner whom the Lord has looked upon.” – Pope Francis
97. “Politics is a noble activity. We should revalue it, practise it with vocation and a dedication that requires testimony, martyrdom, that is to die for the common good.” – Pope Francis
98. “Politics is the most important of the civil activities and has its own field of action, which is not that of religion.” – Pope Francis
99. “Politics, according to the Social Doctrine of the Church, is one of the highest forms of charity, because it serves the common good. I cannot wash my hands, eh? We all have to give something!” – Pope Francis
100. “Proselytism is solemn nonsense; it makes no sense. We need to get to know each other, listen to each other and improve our knowledge of the world around us.” – Pope Francis
101. “Religion has the right to express its opinion in the service of the people, but God in creation has set us free: it is not possible to interfere spiritually in the life of a person.” – Pope Francis
102. “Right now, we don’t have a very good relation with creation.” – Pope Francis
103. “See everything; turn a blind eye to much; correct a little.” – Pope Francis
104. “Sin, also for those who don’t have faith, exists when one goes against one’s conscience. To listen to and obey it means, in fact, to decide in face of what is perceived as good or evil. And on this decision pivots the goodness or malice of our action.” – Pope Francis
105. “Since God created the world, He also created reality.” – Pope Francis
106. “Since many of you do not belong to the Catholic Church and others are non-believers, from the bottom of my heart I give this silent blessing to each and every one of you, respecting the conscience of each one of you but knowing that each one of you is a child of God.” – Pope Francis
107. “Situations can change; people can change. Be the first to seek to bring good. Do not grow accustomed to evil, but defeat it with good.” – Pope Francis
108. “Some people want to know why I wished to be called Francis. For me, Francis of Assisi is the man of poverty, the man of peace, the man who loves and protects creation.” – Pope Francis
109. “Someone doesn’t want to carry the cross, I don’t know what she’s still doing in the convent.” – Pope Francis
110. “Sometimes negative news does come out, but it is often exaggerated and manipulated to spread scandal. Journalists sometimes risk becoming ill from coprophilia and thus fomenting coprophagia: which is a sin that taints all men and women, that is, the tendency to focus on the negative rather than the positive aspects.” – Pope Francis
111. “Spiritual worldliness kills! It kills the soul! It kills the Church!” – Pope Francis
112. “Tell me: when God looks at a gay person, does he endorse the existence of this person with love, or reject and condemn this person?… It is necessary to accompany them with mercy.” – Pope Francis
113. “The Church does not exist to condemn people but to bring about an encounter with the visceral love of God’s mercy. I” – Pope Francis
114. “The Church does not exist to condemn people but to bring about an encounter with the visceral love of God’s mercy.” – Pope Francis
115. “The Church is or should go back to being a community of God’s people, and priests, pastors and bishops, who have the care of souls, are at the service of the people of God.” – Pope Francis
116. “The Church must be a place of mercy freely given, where everyone can feel welcomed, loved, forgiven, and encouraged to live the good life of the Gospel.” – Pope Francis
117. “The confessional is not a torture chamber, but the place in which the Lord’s mercy motivates us to do better.” – Pope Francis
118. “The Jesuits have a vow to obey the pope, but if the pope is a Jesuit, maybe he should have a vow to obey the superior general… I feel like I’m still a Jesuit in terms of my spirituality, what I have in my heart.” – Pope Francis
119. “The language of the Spirit, the language of the Gospel, is the language of communion that invites us to get the better of closedness and indifference, division and antagonism.” – Pope Francis
120. “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!” – Pope Francis
121. “The Lord never tires of forgiving. It is we who tire of asking for forgiveness.” – Pope Francis
122. “The media only writes about the sinners and the scandals, he said, but that’s normal, because ‘a tree that falls makes more noise than a forest that grows.” – Pope Francis
123. “The most important thing in the life of every man and every woman is not that they should never fall along the way. The important thing is always to get back up, not to stay on the ground licking your wounds.” – Pope Francis
124. “The people of God want pastors, not clergy acting like bureaucrats or government officials.” – Pope Francis
125. “The Pope loves everyone, rich and poor alike, but the Pope has the duty, in Christ’s name, to remind the rich to help the poor, to respect them, to promote them.” – Pope Francis
126. “The proclamation of the saving love of God comes before moral and religious imperatives. Today sometimes it seems that the opposite order is prevailing.” – Pope Francis
127. “The Roman Curia has its defects, but it seems to me that people often overemphasize its defects and talk too little about the health of the many religious and laypeople who work there.” – Pope Francis
128. “The root of this possibility of doing good – that we all have – is in creation.” – Pope Francis
129. “The Son of God became incarnate in the souls of men to instill the feeling of brotherhood. All are brothers and all children of God.” – Pope Francis
130. “The worship of the golden calf of old has found a new and heartless image in the cult of money and the dictatorship of an economy which is faceless and lacking any truly human goal.” – Pope Francis
131. “There is a danger that threatens everyone in the church, all of us. The danger of worldliness. It leads us to vanity, arrogance and pride.” – Pope Francis
132. “There is a need for financial reform along ethical lines that would produce in its turn an economic reform to benefit everyone. This would nevertheless require a courageous change of attitude on the part of political leaders.” – Pope Francis
133. “These days there is a lot of poverty in the world, and that’s a scandal when we have so many riches and resources to give to everyone. We all have to think about how we can become a little poorer.” – Pope Francis
134. “This is important: to get to know people, listen, expand the circle of ideas. The world is crisscrossed by roads that come closer together and move apart, but the important thing is that they lead towards the Good.” – Pope Francis
135. “This is me, a sinner on whom the Lord has turned his gaze. And this is what I said when they asked me if I would accept my election as pontiff. I am a sinner, but I trust in the infinite mercy and patience of our Lord Jesus Christ, and I accept in a spirit of penance.” – Pope Francis
136. “This is the struggle of every person: be free or be a slave.” – Pope Francis
137. “Those who today always look for disciplinarian solutions, those who long for an exaggerated doctrinal ‘security,’ those who stubbornly try to recover a past that no longer exists – they have a static and inward-directed view of things. In this way, faith becomes an ideology among other ideologies.” – Pope Francis
138. “To say that you can kill in the name of God is blasphemy.” – Pope Francis
139. “Today, the news is scandals; that is news, but the many children who don’t have food – that’s not news. This is grave. We can’t rest easy while things are this way.” – Pope Francis
140. “Together with a culture of work, there must be a culture of leisure as gratification. To put it another way: people who work must take the time to relax, to be with their families, to enjoy themselves, read, listen to music, play a sport.” – Pope Francis
141. “Truth is a relationship. As such, each one of us receives the truth and expresses it from within, that is to say, according to one’s own circumstances, culture, and situation in life.” – Pope Francis
142. “Truth, according to the Christian faith, is God’s love for us in Jesus Christ. Therefore, truth is a relationship.” – Pope Francis
143. “Unrestrained liberalism only makes the strong stronger and the weak weaker and excludes the most excluded.” – Pope Francis
144. “Vanity, showing off, is an attitude that reduces spirituality to a worldly thing, which is the worst sin that could be committed in the church.” – Pope Francis
145. “We all have the duty to do good.” – Pope Francis
146. “We are impatient, anxious to see the whole picture, but God lets us see things slowly, quietly.” – Pope Francis
147. “We can get angry: it’s even healthy to get angry from time to time.” – Pope Francis
148. “We cannot insist only on issues related to abortion, gay marriage and the use of contraceptive methods. The teaching of the church is clear, and I am a son of the church, but it is not necessary to talk about these issues all the time.” – Pope Francis
149. “We don’t have to expect everything from those who govern us; that would be juvenile.” – Pope Francis
150. “We have observed that, in society and the world in which we live, selfishness has increased more than love for others, and that men of good will must work, each with his own strengths and expertise, to ensure that love for others increases until it is equal and possibly exceeds love for oneself.” – Pope Francis
151. “We have only one heart, and the same wretchedness which leads us to mistreat an animal will not be long in showing itself in our relationships with other people.” – Pope Francis
152. “We have to work harder to develop a profound theology of women within the church. The feminine genius is needed wherever we make important decisions.” – Pope Francis
153. “We just cannot worry about ourselves.” – Pope Francis
154. “We must always walk in the presence of the Lord, in the light of the Lord, always trying to live in an irreprehensible way.” – Pope Francis
155. “We must not reduce the bosom of the universal church to a nest protecting our mediocrity.” – Pope Francis
156. “We must restore hope to young people, help the old, be open to the future, spread love. Be poor among the poor. We need to include the excluded and preach peace.” – Pope Francis
157. “We need to avoid the spiritual sickness of a church that is wrapped up in its own world: when a church becomes like this, it grows sick.” – Pope Francis
158. “We need to remember and remind ourselves where we come from, what we are, our nothingness.” – Pope Francis
159. “When I was a seminarian, I was dazzled by a girl I met at an uncle’s wedding. I was surprised by her beauty, her intellectual brilliance… and, well, I was bowled over for quite a while.” – Pope Francis
160. “When Man ceases to worship God he does not worship nothing but worships everything.” – Pope Francis
161. “When we walk without the cross, when we build without the cross and when we proclaim Christ without the cross, we are not disciples of the Lord. We are worldly. We may be bishops, priests, cardinals, popes, all of this, but we are not disciples of the Lord.” – Pope Francis
162. “Whenever we encounter another person in love, we learn something new about God.” – Pope Francis
163. “Where there is no work, there is no dignity.” – Pope Francis
164. “Where there is truth, there is also light, but don’t confuse light with the flash.” – Pope Francis
165. “Work ends up dehumanizing people.” – Pope Francis
166. “Worshipping is stripping ourselves of our idols, even the most hidden ones, and choosing the Lord as the centre, as the highway of our lives.” – Pope Francis
167. “Worshipping the Lord means giving Him the place that he must have; worshipping the Lord means stating, believing – not only by our words – that He alone truly guides our lives; worshipping the Lord means that we are convinced before Him that He is the only God, the God of our lives, the God of our history.” – Pope Francis
168. “Wretched are those who are vindictive and spiteful.” – Pope Francis
169. “You can, you must try to seek God in every human life. Although the life of a person is a land full of thorns and weeds, there is always a space in which the good seed can grow. You have to trust God.” – Pope Francis
170. “You cannot be a conscious Christian without St. Paul. He translated the teachings of Christ into a doctrinal structure that, even with the additions of a vast number of thinkers, theologians and pastors, has resisted and still exists after two thousand years.” – Pope Francis
171. “You cannot be in a position of power and destroy the life of another person.” – Pope Francis
172. “You might say, ‘Can’t we have a more human Christianity, without the cross, without Jesus, without stripping ourselves?’ In this way we’d become pastry-shop Christians, like a pretty cake and nice sweet things. Pretty, but not true Christians.” – Pope Francis
173. “You tell me: Can you live crushed under the weight of the present? Without a memory of the past and without the desire to look ahead to the future by building something, a future, a family? Can you go on like this? This, to me, is the most urgent problem that the Church is facing.” – Pope Francis
174. “Young people are just as attracted to the truth as they are convenience and expediency.” – Pope Francis