"Rosary counter!"
"They make themselves up like little holy cards, looking up at heaven as they pray, making sure they are seen!"
"Vain, butterfly-priest!"
"Existential schizophrenics!”
“It’s the sickness of those who live a double life, fruit of hypocrisy that is typical of mediocre and progressive spiritual emptiness that academic degrees cannot fill!"
"Terrorism of gossip!”
“It’s the sickness of cowardly people who, not having the courage to speak directly, talk behind people’s backs!”
"They have a funereal face!”
“Those who insatiably try to multiply their powers and to do so are capable of calumny, defamation and discrediting others, even in newspapers and magazines, naturally to show themselves as being more capable than others!”
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"Jesus Christ did not come down from Heaven like a hero that comes to save us. No, Jesus Christ has a history!"
"A Christian without a people, a Christian without the Church is incomprehensible! it is something invented in a lab, something artificial, something lifeless!”
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"This leads to excluding them from 'our little group', to being selective, and this is not Christian!”
"The attitude of the Scribes and the Pharisees is the same, they exclude!"
"The root of all wars: all calamities, all wars, begin with an exclusion!"
‘No, no to this, no to that, no to that…’ and a little of circle of friends is created, which is their environment!"
"It is a dialectic between exclusion and inclusion!"
"We have read what this servant did, how he acted with shrewdness, in order to remain in his position!”
"Climbers those who are attached to money!"
"And the comfort of the state: I have reached a certain state and I live comfortably!"
"When the Church is tepid, closed in on itself, businesslike!"
"Humans often bow down before things whose splendour is only a reflection that will be extinguished one day - or worse still they become devoted to even more fleeting pleasures!"
"They are attached to this idolatry! They are astonished by the power and energy of these things!"
"The temptation to deify our earthly things and even to idolize our habits!"
"Worldliness is saying: 'We put up for auction our identity card; we are equal to everyone!'"
"Worldliness that leads you to one unique thought, and to apostasy!"
"Worldliness destroys identity; worldliness leads to the single thought!"
"This mentality, this humanism, which is to take the place of the true man, Jesus Christ, that comes to take away the Christian identity and brings us to the single thought: 'They all do it, why not us?!'"
"Beware of poisonous roots that lead away from the Lord!"
"Just as woodworm slowly destroys things, so worldliness slowly leads us to lose our Christian identity!"
"A double life which distances us from God and destroys our Christian identity!"
"Today Jesus weeps as well: because we have chosen the way of war, the way of hatred, the way of enmities!"
"We are close to Christmas: there will be lights, there will be parties, bright trees, even Nativity scenes – all decked out – while the world continues to wage war!"
"At most, the worldly spirit can provide amusement, it can provoke excitement, but true joy can only come from faith!"
"There is always a danger of corruption within the Church!"
"This happens when the Church becomes dominated by money and power!"
"These were people who had lost their sense of Godliness, and even the ability to rejoice, to praise God!" "They did not know how to worship the Lord because they were too distracted by money and power, and by a form of worldiness!”
"This is ‘holy bribery’!"
"Not to be ensnared by worldly desires, by obsession, by apostasy! Today!"
"The temptation to seek revenge and from the spiral of endless retaliation!"
“The coexistence of wealth and poverty is a scandal, a true disgrace to humanity!”
"They have no horizons!"
"They are men who are locked in their calculations! They are slaves to their rigidity!”
"Those who take refuge in the slavery of rigidity and know nothing of God's mercy!"
“God does not love rigidity!"
"A culture of indifference which not infrequently turns ruthless!"
"Humility is not a pretense!"
"It’s not a theatrical attitude!"
"No to a Church that is attached to money, that thinks of money, that thinks of how to earn money!"
"How many people seem spiritual: 'How spiritual that person is!' but they do not talk about doing works of mercy. Why?"
"The two sons of Eli, those criminal priests who exploited people in the Sanctuary of Shiloh!”
"The slaves of appearances!"
"Did the Lord make him a saint? No, is the answer - King David is saint King David, this is true, but he became a saint after living a long life.”
"It’s as if they went about by guessing: What has been said and what doesn’t change is what’s important; what I hear—from myself and my closed heart — more than the Word of the Lord.’
"Obstinate Christians!"
"Christian rebels!"
"The Christian who is obstinate sins! The sin of idolatry!
"It is the sin of so many Christians who cling to what has always been done and who do not change the wineskins!"
"This rebellion is the sin of divination and obstinacy is the sin of idolatry!"
“How ugly envy is! It is an attitude, it is an ugly sin!"
"The envious heart, too – we hear it here – leads to killing, to death!"
"Envy kills!”
"But how many times, in our communities – and we don’t have to look too far to see this – are people killed, through jealousy, with the tongue?"
"The first job of a bishop is not to prepare pastoral plans...no, no!"
"God's people suffer. Because the columns are weak!"
"As Bishop of Rome and pastor of the Catholic Church, I want to ask for mercy and forgiveness for the behavior of Catholics towards Christians of other Churches which has not reflected Gospel values!"
"So he lacks! He’s missing something and is not a true Christian!"
"There is a moment where the attitude of sin, or a moment where our situation is so secure and we see well and we have so much power that sin stops and becomes corruption!"
"It takes a special grace to change the heart of a corrupt person!"
"Woe betide routine in spiritual life!"
"The charisms of the founders are not to be sealed in a bottle, they are not museum pieces!"
John the Baptist "invited his disciples to ask Jesus: ‘But tell us, tell us the truth: are you He who is to come?’ because that doubt made him suffer!"
"‘Was I mistaken in proclaiming someone who isn’t who I thought?’ The suffering, the interior solitude of John the Baptist!"
"Obstacles that close the doors of the heart!"
"There is the temptation to bolt the doors, that is, to live with our own proper sins, minimizing them, always justifying ourselves, thinking we are no worse than others!"
"Another obstacle is the shame in opening the secret door of the heart!"
"The trap of moving away from the door!"
"Alone with ourselves, closing in on ourselves and fleeing from the light!"
"The love that serves, not the selfishness that is served!"
"The seizing hold of goods destined for all, and using them only for 'my own people'!"
"Making firewood from a felled tree!"
"The pursuit of prestige based on continuous, relentless exclusion of those 'who are not like me'"!
"A people intoxicated with themselves!"
"A resignation which paralyzes us and prevents us not only from walking, but also from making the journey!"
"God’s employees!"
"Christians who treat the faith as though it were window dressing!"
"Christians who treat the faith as though it were an occasion for aggrandizement!"
"How many parents say they are Catholics, but never have time to talk to their children, to play with their children, to listen to their children!"
"This is the religion of saying!”
"“The mercy of the Lord goes out to meet those who dare to argue with Him, but to argue about the truth!"
"A Christian in name only, on the path of lies!”
"Truly in a bubble of vanity!"
"He took the way of falsehood, because he trusted only in himself, in his things – he did not trust in God!"
"This wealth, this is power, this can accomplish anything, this is a priest with a career, a bishop with a career!"
"The contempt of the doctors of the Law who sought salvation in moral casuistry!"
"From antiquity through their Middles Ages, their modernity, and even down to their present – and we do not forget. Why?!"
"Teachers of the law who knew theology, but they were very, very closed!"
"This is the story, the story of this failed fidelity!"
"The schedules and programmes which do not meet the real needs of those who may approach the confessional; human regulations!"
"Trapped, not so much by insurmountable stone walls or steel enclosures that affect many peoples, but rather by a digital, virtual worldliness that is opened and closed by a simple click!"
"One gesture: All of us together, Muslims, Hindus, Catholics, Copts, Evangelical Protestants brothers and sisters – children of the same God – we want to live in peace! Integrated!"
"You, we, all of us together, of different religions, different cultures, but children of the same Father, brothers – and there, those poor people, who buy weapons to wreck fraternity!"
"Money is the enemy of harmony; money is selfish!”
"I once heard a wise thing from a bishop: 'There is tranquility in the diocese. But if you touch on a certain problem - this problem or that problem - war breaks out.’"
"This courageous Peter has nothing in common with Peter the coward!"
"It hurts when I read that small passage from the Gospel of Matthew, when Judas, who has repented, goes to the priests and says: ‘I have sinned' and and gives them the coins! ‘Who cares! - they say to him: it’s none of our business!’ They closed their hearts before this poor, repentant man, who did not know what to do!"
"The life of a person did not matter to them!"
"Doctors of the letter!"
"Velvet-gloved persecutions that are cloaked in politeness!"
"Seeking to justify this resistance to the Spirit with a so-called fidelity to the law, that is, to the letter of the law!"
"Closed, hard, foolish hearts resisting the Spirit!"
"A healthy curiosity, not the curiosity of gossip!"
"The voices of those who are not Jesus, those entering through the window, who are bandits!"
"Happiness cannot be bought: it is not an app that you can download on your phones!"
"Not the worldly novelties of fashion, but the novelties of the Spirit who always surprises us!"
"If you say you are in communion with the Lord, then walk in the light. But no to double lives! Not that!"
"No to double lives and all that!”
"Motionless Christians!"
"Enbalmed, mummy Christians!"
"Labyrinth Christians without a compass!"
"Christians who stop half way along their journey!"
"Non-Christian Christians!"
"Christians who don’t make the Beatitudes bloom in their lives!"
“A joy without hope is just enjoyment, a temporary happiness!"
"When there is a strong joy, there’s no formality, just joy!"
"This ‘orphan-like’ condition which the spirit of the world wants to put us in!”
"It is not enough to just respect the Commandments and do nothing more!"
"Christian life is not just an ethical life! It is an encounter with Jesus Christ!”
"Parlour Christians!"
"Virtual Christians who are not virtuous!"
"The all-too-common spiritual illiteracy which renders us incapable of prayer!"
"Once, a Catholic Christian said to another Christian, from the East—also a Catholic — “My Christ rises the day after tomorrow. When does yours rise?” We are not even united in Easter!"
"These people are called ‘weed-sowers’! They sow weeds, they divide!"
"The tongue is capable of destroying a family, a community, a society; of sowing hatred and war!”
"Speaking about others behind their back is like this: it dirties the other!"
"He destroys! He destroys the reputation, he destroys the life, and so many times—so many times! Without reason, contrary to the truth!"
"This is a worldly temptation but one that divides and destroys the Church."
"True bloodsuckers!"
"Without a pension, without health care…Then they suspend it, and in July and August they have to eat air!"
"Living on the blood of the people! And this is a mortal sin. This is a mortal sin!"
"This is worse! This is starving the people with their work for my own profit!"
"“I’ll pay you this much, without vacation, without health care, without… everything under the table… But I will become rich!”
"The trap of casuistry!"
"This small group of enlightened theologians, always negotiate with the truth, reducing it to casuistry!"
"Jesus never negotiates with the truth!"
"This culture of the provisional!"
"They are closed in the trap of a mathematical equation of 'Can it be done? Can it not be done?'"
"This is a gift, this is what the Holy Spirit teaches us, not these enlightened doctors, who to teach us need to reduce the fullness of God to a casuistic equation!"
"Shackled to his belongings!"
"Riches are not bad in themselves, but slavery to wealth – this, is wickedness!"
"One who serves cannot hoard his free time!"
"When I see a timetable on Church doors and parishes it means that the doors are not always open!"
"This is the system through which they legitimate: the lawyers, theologians!"
"A system of corruption, worldliness and concupiscence!’
"Christians with a grimace!"
"Sad Christians, are a very ugly thing. It’s really ugly, ugly, ugly!"
"Persons who describe themselves as Christian and who are unable to reach out to others, to go and meet them are not totally Christian!"
"A shepherd after the heart of God does not protect his own comfort zone; he is not worried about protecting his good name!"
"Accountant of the Spirit!"
"This is the anti-law, the wrong navigator!"
"Vanity – that all must speak well of me, making me feel important, making too much of a fuss…and I am convinced to be in the right, leads to perdition!”
"The opposite attitude always causes enmities and wars…lots of bad things that happen!"
"Mirror spirituality is a bad thing!”
"We have a very creative vocabulary for insulting others!"
"“How many times do we in the Church hear these things: how many times! ‘But that priest, that man or that woman from the Catholic Action, that bishop, or that Pope tell us we must do this this way!’ and then they do the opposite!"
"And Jesus said to them, ‘you have killed the prophets, you have persecuted the prophets: those who were bringing fresh air!’”
"The Church says to us: ‘this and that.’ ‘Strive for perfectionism: reconcile with your brother. Do not insult him!"
"Jesus always knows how to accompany us, he gives us the ideal, he accompanies us towards the ideal!"
"Jesus is a great person!"
"Jesus frees us from that idealism which is not Catholic!"
“Kept in enclosure – even a gilded one – or in islands of pietism or social welfare, so that they do not hold back the pace of a false well-being!"
"It is the pathology of sadness!"
"People used to pray for God to send the dictators of that period to hell!"
"It’s about feeling our Father looking at me, feeling that this word ‘Father’ is not a waste of time like the words in the prayers of pagans!"
"We can pray to all the Saints, the Angels, we can go on processions, pilgrimages…all of this is wonderful but we must always begin with ‘Father’!"
"Not harbouring feelings of rancour, resentment or a desire for revenge!"
"How does the Lord look at us then, when we do this? One word: 'hypocrite!"
"But never judge. Never! And this is hypocrisy, if we judge!"
"'But this fellow does this ... that fellow does that...' 'But, wait a minute ...' I look in the mirror and then think: on the contrary, I'll be a hypocrite if I put myself in the place of God and, also, my judgement is poor judgment.”
"A constant temptation for the Church, that of closing in on herself in the face of danger!"
"The account, which can seem comical, makes us perceive the climate of fear that led the Christian community to stay behind closed doors, but also closed to God’s surprises!"
“The temptation to reduce the light of faith to something from the past, something important but belonging to another age, as if the faith were a beautiful illuminated book to be kept in a museum!"
"The pride of life that belongs to the world!
"Such brooding is unworthy of our spiritual stature!"
"So you can see that not to accept ourselves, to live glumly, to be negative, means not to recognize our deepest identity!"
"People will try to block you, to make you think that God is distant, rigid and insensitive!"
"Don't waste time planning a secure future, lest they risk becoming isolated and gloomy!"
"Flee the satisfaction of being at the centre of things!"
"There are some Christians today, who live their lives of service as though they were mere functionaries – priests and lay people who boast of what they do!"
"This is the boast: 'I am proud of myself'. This reduces the Gospel to a function or even a source of pride: 'I go to preach the gospel and I’ve brought many people into the Church'!"
"To evangelize is not to proselytize!"
"That is, neither coast along, nor reduce the Gospel to rote work, nor to proselytize: none of these is really to evangelize!"
"The devil sows jealousy, ambitions, ideas, but to divide! Or greed!”
"Divisions make you see this part, this one against the other. Always against!"
"A lukewarm heart becomes self-absorbed in lazy living and it stifles the fire of love!"
"And this attachment to the Law ignores the Holy Spirit. It does not grant that the redemption of Christ goes forward with the Holy Spirit. It ignores that: there is only the Law!"
"Closed, closed in precepts: we have to do this, we have to do that. At times, it can happen that we fall into this temptation!”
"Not with the theology of the Law, but with the liberty of the Spirit, what we should do!”
'You are slaves because you have not accepted the justice that comes from God, the justice that Jesus has given us!'"
"They follow a “cosmetic” religion: (about) show, appearance and pretending to be something!"
"They seem good and polite but they have a dagger behind their backs!"
"Those who believe that by saying the things that everything is done. No. Things must be done not just said!"
"Children never ever tell a lie during confession; they never talk about abstract things. ‘I’ve done this, I’ve done that, I’ve done……’ Concrete things!"
"When a pastor during his life was attached to other things, rather than to the faithful - for example he was attached to power, money, being part of a clique, to many things - then at his death he won’t be alone, maybe his grandchildren (heirs) will be there waiting for him to die so they can see what possessions they can take away with them!”
"Behind an attitude of rigidity there is always something else in the life of a person!"
“It is not easy to walk within the Law of the Lord without falling into rigidity!”
"Those who think that by becoming rigid they are following the path of the Lord!"
“Perhaps the Kingdom of God is a very well-made structure, everything tidy, organization charts all done, everything and the person who does not enter (into this structure) is not in the Kingdom of God!"
“A rigid person only has masters and no father!"
“God became man in order to be able to weep, to weep over what His children had done!"
"Every time I enter a prison I ask myself ‘Why them and not I?’
"Those who say “I’m in charge here!”
"Those who play the ‘God’ card and the ‘world’ card at the same time!"
"Like fireworks that lit you up for a moment and then what is left behind? Nothing! No growth, there is no light, there’s nothing! Just an instant!"
"Whoever says that Christian love is something else is the antichrist! Who does not recognize that the Word became Flesh!"
"That is a really strong word, isn’t it? ….proagon, whoever walks beyond. And it’s from this that all the ideologies spring!"
‘Yes, I’m a Catholic, yes I’m a Christian, I love the whole world with a universal love’… But this is so ethereal. Love is always interior, concrete and does not go beyond the doctrine of the Incarnation of the Word!”
"That calm which deceives!"
"If, in the heart of the Church, of a family, of a community, of a person there is an ever-present calm, God is not there!”
"Christians who are not aware when the Lord knocks for whom every noise is the same!”
“So many weaknesses, so many sins by priests but they cannot forgive two of them: attachment to money!"
"The other things, the other weaknesses, the other sins ….. yes ok, it’s not right but the poor man is alone, it’s this…And they seek to justify (his sins)."
“It’s sad to see a priest who’s at the end of his life, he’s in agony, he’s in a coma and his relatives are there like vultures, looking to see what they can take away!"
"Little by little, differences turn into symptoms of hostility, threats and violence!"
"This epidemic of animosity and violence, which leaves its mark on the flesh of many of the defenceless!"
"Alienation,’ estrangement, the deception of superficial things that do not have transcendence!"
“There will be a surprise, because He is the Lord of surprises who does not stand still!”
"The doctors of the Law knew everything, all the dogmas of that time, all the morals of that time, everything!"
"They did not have faith, because their hearts were far from God!"
“The most ‘dangerous’ obstacles are the hidden ones because they do not show themselves!"
"The Doctors of the Law, “began to discuss, to murmur,” because they weren’t able to accept His authority!"
"This is a very ugly thing! It is like the venom of a serpent” that seeks “to destroy the other!
"He did not know the sweetness that comes of living without second ends with others!"
"When Judas hanged himself he had repented. I believe that the Lord will take that word [repentance] and bring it with Him!”
"He who does not allow himself to be caressed by the Lord is lost!”
"He will seek happiness in vaunting himself and making his “authority” felt!
They are rigid, [they are] those rigid ones that load upon the faithful so many things that they do not carry [themselves]!"
"‘This cannot be, this cannot be ...’. And so many people approaching, looking for a bit of consolation, a little understanding, are chased away with this rigidity!”
“About rigidity and worldliness, it was some time ago that an elderly monsignor of the curia came to me, who works, a normal man, a good man, in love with Jesus – and he told me that he had gone to buy a couple of shirts at Euroclero [the clerical clothing store] and saw a young fellow - he thinks he had not more than 25 years, or a young priest or about to become a priest - before the mirror, with a cape, large, wide, velvet, with a silver chain. He then took the Saturno [wide-brimmed clerical headgear], he put it on and looked himself over. A rigid and worldly one. And that priest – he is wise, that monsignor, very wise - was able to overcome the pain, with a line of healthy humor and added: ‘And it is said that the Church does not allow women priests!’"
"The intermediary has the dark eyes, very dark!"
"Judas was a traitor, he sinned gravely, eh! He sinned forcefully. But then the Gospel says, “He repented, and went to them to return the money.” And what did they do? “But you were our associate. Be calm… We have the power to forgive you for everything!” No! “Make whatever arrangement you can!” [they said.] “It’s your problem!”
"Those who had the power, who advanced the catechesis of the people with a morality composed by their own intelligence and not by the revelation!"
"A law scientifically constructed, because this people was wise, they understood well. They made all these nuances, no!?"
“Intellectuals of religion seduced by clericalism!”
"They have no time to hear the poor, the suffering, prisoners, the sick”!
"It is a new edition of these people. And the victim is the same: the poor and humble people that awaits the Lord!"
"But it is certain that if a pastor today said in the Sunday homily, “Among you there are some who are a race of vipers, and there are many adulterers,” certainly the Bishop would receive disconcerting letters: “But send away this pastor who insults us.”
"In fact, John began to doubt in prison, even though he had baptized Jesus, “because he was a Saviour that was not as he had imagined him.”
"No sterile nostalgia or empty recollection of an idealized and disembodied past!"
"The bewilderment lodged in the hearts of those who want to control everything and everyone!"
"A bewilderment born of fear and foreboding before anything that challenges us, calls into question our certainties and our truths, our ways of clinging to the world and this life!"
"This attitude of spiritual orphanhood is a cancer that silently eats away at and debases the soul!"
"These doctors of the law that the people…yes, they heard, they respected, but they didn’t feel that they had authority over them!"
"[Saying] ‘We are the masters, the princes, and we teach you. Not service: we command, you obey!"’
"Jesus was always the servant of all, and this is what gave Him authority!"
"They like to walk about the piazzas, in nice clothing!"
"Jesus was very close to the people, and this gave authority!"
"These doctors with a clericalist psychology!"
"They said one thing and did another. Incoherence! They were incoherent!"
"The Lord has met so many of these, who had closed their hearts!"
"Their life was not a journey: their life was a balcony!"
"A soul that is closed with bitterness and lack of hope!"
"Living so that everything stays the same!”
"Parked Christians!"
"For them the Church is a parking place that protects life, and they go forward with all the insurance possible!"
"Beware of still water, that which doesn’t flow, it is the first to go bad!”
"It is beautiful to go into retirement after many years of work, but, spending your whole life in retirement is ugly!”
"In the struggle of everyday, hope is a virtue of horizons, not of closure!"
“Those who go forward make mistakes, while those who are stationary seem to not make mistakes!”
"Parked Christians, stationary Christians, are selfish!"
“A Christian life without temptations is not Christian: it is ideological, it is Gnostic, but it is not Christian!"
"An egotistical mindset, focused on themselves: their hearts constantly condemned others!"
"When one goes along the street and an unexpected rain comes, and the garment is not so good and the fabric shrinks!"
"This is faintheartedness: this is the sin against memory, courage, patience, and hope!"
"The fainthearted, those “who always go backward, who guard themselves too much, who are afraid of everything!"
"It makes you forget so many graces received, it takes away memory, it takes away hope, because it doesn’t allow you to go forward!"
"The survival mentality!"
"The survival mentality makes us look back, to the glory days – days that are past!"
"The survial mentality makes us want to protect spaces, buildings and structures, rather than to encourage new initiatives!"
"The temptation of survival: An evil that can gradually take root within us and within our communities!"
"Reactionaries!"
"Crippling the prophecy that our young are called to proclaim and work to achieve!"
"Instead of opening their heart to the gift, they hid, have sought refuge in the rigidity of the Commandments, which they had multiplied up to 500 or more!"
The closed, sad prayer of the person who never knew how to receive a gift because he is afraid of freedom that always carries with it a gift!"
"Slaves of duty, but not love!"
"But that does not give joy, because they do not make you free!"
"Without the woman there is no harmony!"
"The man does not bring harmony!"
"Exploiting persons is a crime of ‘lèse-humanité’: it’s true. But exploiting a woman is even more serious!"
"Corruption begins in small things like this, with dialogue!"
"The speck of sawdust becomes a plank in the eye, your life revolves around it and it ends up destroying the bond of brotherhood; it destroys fraternity!”
“If you insult your brother, you have killed him in your heart!”
"The spirit of Cain which – for envy, jealousy, greed, and the desire to dominate – leads to war!”
‘I am in this diocese but look at how important that one is and I try to influence someone, or put pressure, to get somewhere…'
"Who is the greatest here? Who is the greatest in this parish? No, I am the most important here; not that person there because he did something…’ And that is the chain of sin.”
"‘I am very Catholic, I always go to Mass, I belong to this association and that one; but my life is not Christian!"
"And this happens every day, it’s enough to see the news on TV, or to read the papers!"
"But you will arrive in heaven and you will knock at the gate: ‘Here I am, Lord!’ – ‘But don’t you remember? I went to Church, I was close to you, I belong to this association, I did this..."
"That logic of casuistry!"
"‘Yes, you can; no, you can’t’… which then becomes more subtle, more diabolical!"
“But what is more important in God? Justice or mercy?’ This, too, is a sick thought!"
"The toxic pollution of empty and meaningless words!"
"An almsgiving that leaves us self-satisfied!"
"Harsh and hasty criticism, of simplistic analyses that fail to grasp the complexity of problems!"
"The asphyxia born of relationships that exclude!"
“A fasting that is ‘hypocritical’ that makes you see yourself as just, or makes you feel just, but in the meantime I have practiced iniquities!"
"And that is not authentic! That is hypocrisy!"
"Paul could say to the Church of today. ‘Brothers, in this I cannot praise you, because you are gathered together not for the better, but for the worse!’
“Each of them is thinking of themselves, they can see the other person but are not looking at him or her, they can hear that person but are not listening to him or her!”
"Crooks trample on the poor” with no concern or thought for the consequences of their actions!" "In the world today slave labor is a style of management!”
"The war is far away? No! It’s very close because the war touches everyone…war begins in the heart!"
"These people have done evil, but evil always has the same root, any evil: greed, vanity, and pride!"
"There are people like this – but there are also holy people! – who do this. This is vanity: You try to appear with a face like a pretty picture, and yet your truth is otherwise!"
"A lukewarm heart becomes self-absorbed in lazy living and it stifles the fire of love!"
"The lukewarm person allocates to God and others a percentage of their time and their own heart, never spending too much, but rather always trying to economize!"
"The one of thinking like masters, of giving oneself only in order to gain something or become someone. In such cases service becomes a means and not an end, because the end has become prestige; and then comes power, the desire to be great!"
"And this attachment to the Law ignores the Holy Spirit. It does not grant that the redemption of Christ goes forward with the Holy Spirit. It ignores that: there is only the Law!"
"But don’t reduce the Spirit and the Son to the Law!"
"Closed, closed in precepts: we have to do this, we have to do that. At times, it can happen that we fall into this temptation!”
"Those who preach with ideologies: It’s absolutely just! They bewitch!"
"It’s all clear. But look, the revelation is not clear, eh?"
"The revelation of God is discovered more and more each day, it is always on a journey. Is it clear? Yes! It is crystal clear! It is Him, but we have to discover it along the way!"
"Not with the theology of the Law, but with the liberty of the Spirit, what we should do!”
"Your interior is wicked, is not good and is not free!"
'You are slaves because you have not accepted the justice that comes from God, the justice that Jesus has given us!'"
"They seem good and polite but they have a dagger behind their backs!"
"Pretender!"
"A two-faced hypocrite!"
"Those who believe that by saying the things that everything is done. No. Things must be done not just said!"
"Nominalist hypocrite!"
“I remember that for Carnival, when we were children, our grandmother made biscuits and it was a very thin, thin, thin pastry that she made. Afterwards she placed it in the oil and that pastry swelled and swelled and when we began to eat it, it was empty. And our grandmother told us that in the dialect they were called lies – ‘these are like lies: they seem big but there’s nothing inside them, there’s nothing true there, there’s nothing of substance!’
"Praying with a spirit that becomes air?"
"Children never ever tell a lie during confession; they never talk about abstract things. ‘I’ve done this, I’ve done that, I’ve done……’ Concrete things!"
"Are you a loyal and transparent person or a hypocrite?”
"When a pastor during his life was attached to other things, rather than to the faithful - for example he was attached to power, money, being part of a clique, to many things - then at his death he won’t be alone, maybe his grandchildren (heirs) will be there waiting for him to die so they can see what possessions they can take away with them!”
"Behind an attitude of rigidity there is always something else in the life of a person!"
“It is not easy to walk within the Law of the Lord without falling into rigidity!”
"Those who think that by becoming rigid they are following the path of the Lord!"
“Perhaps the Kingdom of God is a very well-made structure, everything tidy, organization charts all done, everything and the person who does not enter (into this structure) is not in the Kingdom of God!"
“A rigid person only has masters and no father!"
“God became man in order to be able to weep, to weep over what His children had done!"
“Even nowadays in front of the calamities, the wars waged in order to worship the god of money, the many innocent people killed by the bombs launched by those who worship the idol of money, God still weeps and He also says: ‘Jerusalem, Jerusalem, my children, what are you doing?’
"Every time I enter a prison I ask myself ‘Why them and not I?’
"Those who say “I’m in charge here!”
"Duplicitous and playing one hand off against the other!"
"Those who play the ‘God’ card and the ‘world’ card at the same time!"
"In constant tension, concerned only about appearances and the worldly desires of fame and fortune!"
"This entertainment religion of seeking things that are extraneous to the revelation, to the meekness of the Kingdom of God that is among us and which grows! For this is not about hope, this is about the desire to have something in our hands!"
"Whoever says that Christian love is something else is the antichrist! Who does not recognize that the Word became Flesh!"
"That is a really strong word, isn’t it? ….proagon, whoever walks beyond. And it’s from this that all the ideologies spring!"
"The ideologies on love, the ideologies on the Church, the ideologies that strip the Flesh of Christ from the Church!"
‘Yes, I’m a Catholic, yes I’m a Christian, I love the whole world with a universal love’… But this is so ethereal. Love is always interior, concrete and does not go beyond the doctrine of the Incarnation of the Word!”
"That calm which deceives!"
"And I urge you to buy white clothes in which to dress, so that your shameful nakedness is not seen!
"Christians who are not aware when the Lord knocks for whom every noise is the same!”
"Renting their places, right? – from the priests… the priests were renting out those places and then received money!"
“So many weaknesses, so many sins by priests but they cannot forgive two of them: attachment to money!"
"When they see a priest attached to money, they do not forgive him, and mistreating people, because when a priest mistreats the faithful!"
"The other things, the other weaknesses, the other sins ….. yes ok, it’s not right but the poor man is alone, it’s this…And they seek to justify (his sins)."
“It’s sad to see a priest who’s at the end of his life, he’s in agony, he’s in a coma and his relatives are there like vultures, looking to see what they can take away!"
"Little by little, differences turn into symptoms of hostility, threats and violence!"
"This epidemic of animosity and violence, which leaves its mark on the flesh of many of the defenceless!"
"The pathology of indifference!"
"Those who suffer the deception of ‘living as though we never had to die!’
"The doctors of the Law knew everything, all the dogmas of that time, all the morals of that time, everything!"
"They did not have faith, because their hearts were far from God!"
 |
| Pope Francis in his Consistory Address to Cardinals in 2016 |
“The most ‘dangerous’ obstacles are the hidden ones because they do not show themselves!"
“Think of when there is a process of change in an institution or in a family. I hear you say: 'But, there are obstacles… (…) Those kinds of obstacles are put there by the devil, to stop the Lord from going ahead!”
And then, he said, there is the “obstacle of words that justify": that’s when a person constantly justifies himself – he always finds a reason to oppose.
"The obstacle of "accusatory words": when we accuse others so as not to look to ourselves. In this case too we are ‘resisting’ conversion and grace!
 |
| It started out little. |
"The Doctors of the Law, “began to discuss, to murmur,” because they weren’t able to accept His authority!"
"This is a very ugly thing! It is like the venom of a serpent” that seeks “to destroy the other!
“A man with a bitter heart, someone who always had something to criticize in others, he was always ‘detached’!"
"He did not know the sweetness that comes of living without second ends with others!"
"An unsatisfied man!”
"When Judas hanged himself he had repented. I believe that the Lord will take that word [repentance] and bring it with Him!”
"He who does not allow himself to be caressed by the Lord is lost!”
"He will seek happiness in vaunting himself and making his “authority” felt!
"Go-betweens who like to stroll the squares to be seen!"
They are rigid, [they are] those rigid ones that load upon the faithful so many things that they do not carry [themselves]!"
"Rigid Intermediaries!"
"‘This cannot be, this cannot be ...’. And so many people approaching, looking for a bit of consolation, a little understanding, are chased away with this rigidity!”
“About rigidity and worldliness, it was some time ago that an elderly monsignor of the curia came to me, who works, a normal man, a good man, in love with Jesus – and he told me that he had gone to buy a couple of shirts at Euroclero [the clerical clothing store] and saw a young fellow - he thinks he had not more than 25 years, or a young priest or about to become a priest - before the mirror, with a cape, large, wide, velvet, with a silver chain. He then took the Saturno [wide-brimmed clerical headgear], he put it on and looked himself over. A rigid and worldly one. And that priest – he is wise, that monsignor, very wise - was able to overcome the pain, with a line of healthy humor and added: ‘And it is said that the Church does not allow women priests!’"
"Judas was a traitor, he sinned gravely, eh! He sinned forcefully. But then the Gospel says, “He repented, and went to them to return the money.” And what did they do? “But you were our associate. Be calm… We have the power to forgive you for everything!” No! “Make whatever arrangement you can!” [they said.] “It’s your problem!”
"These people had forgotten what it was to be a pastor!
"A law that they have remade many times: so many times, to the point that they had arrived at 500 commandments. Everything was regulated, everything!"
"A law scientifically constructed, because this people was wise, they understood well. They made all these nuances, no!?"
"That clericalism that hurts the Church so much!" "Clerics feel they are superior, they are far from the people!"
"They have no time to hear the poor, the suffering, prisoners, the sick”!
"It is a new edition of these people. And the victim is the same: the poor and humble people that awaits the Lord!"
‘But this is not orthodox, this is heretical, this is not the Messiah I expected.’ The devil does this work, and some friend also helps, no?!"
"But it is certain that if a pastor today said in the Sunday homily, “Among you there are some who are a race of vipers, and there are many adulterers,” certainly the Bishop would receive disconcerting letters: “But send away this pastor who insults us.”
"In fact, John began to doubt in prison, even though he had baptized Jesus, “because he was a Saviour that was not as he had imagined him.”
"No sterile nostalgia or empty recollection of an idealized and disembodied past!"
"More interested in watching soap operas, in gossiping, in pursuing an ambition or talking about the lives of others!"
"A bewilderment born of fear and foreboding before anything that challenges us, calls into question our certainties and our truths, our ways of clinging to the world and this life!"
"For those are worldly categories, the paltry idols to which we pay homage: the cult of power, outward appearances and superiority!"
"This attitude of spiritual orphanhood is a cancer that silently eats away at and debases the soul!"
"The corrosive disease of being 'spiritual orphans'!"
"These doctors of the law that the people…yes, they heard, they respected, but they didn’t feel that they had authority over them!"
"[Saying] ‘We are the masters, the princes, and we teach you. Not service: we command, you obey!"’
"Jesus was always the servant of all, and this is what gave Him authority!"
"They like to walk about the piazzas, in nice clothing!"
"Detached from the people, they were not close!"
"Jesus was very close to the people, and this gave authority!"
"That’s where you find the authority of the Pope, closeness!"
"Open to the Lord, not closed, not hard, not hardened, not without faith, not perverted, not deceived by sin!"
"The Lord has met so many of these, who had closed their hearts!"
"The doctors of the law, all these people who persecuted him, put him to the test to convict him!"
"In their hearts they said: What ignorant people! What superstitious people! How often, when we see the piety of simple people!
“Following Jesus according to the rules of an insurance company!”
"Watching life with a soul that is static!"
"A soul that is closed with bitterness and lack of hope!"
"Living so that everything stays the same!”
"Christians who do not have the will to go forward!"
"Parked Christians!"
"For them the Church is a parking place that protects life, and they go forward with all the insurance possible!"
"Stationary Christians!"
"Beware of still water, that which doesn’t flow, it is the first to go bad!”
"It is beautiful to go into retirement after many years of work, but, spending your whole life in retirement is ugly!”
"In the struggle of everyday, hope is a virtue of horizons, not of closure!"
“Life does not come to any of us wrapped up like a gift!"
“Those who go forward make mistakes, while those who are stationary seem to not make mistakes!”
"They look only at themselves, they don’t raise their heads to look at Him!"
“A Christian life without temptations is not Christian: it is ideological, it is Gnostic, but it is not Christian!"
"An egotistical mindset, focused on themselves: their hearts constantly condemned others!"
"Doing the Lord’s will, but only superficially, like the doctors of the law that Jesus condemned because they were pretending!"
"When one goes along the street and an unexpected rain comes, and the garment is not so good and the fabric shrinks!"
"This is faintheartedness: this is the sin against memory, courage, patience, and hope!"
"It makes you forget so many graces received, it takes away memory, it takes away hope, because it doesn’t allow you to go forward!"
"Statisticians might have been inclined to publish: ‘Rabbi Jesus’ popularity is falling’. But he sought something else: he sought people! And the people sought him!"
"The survival mentality!"
"The survival mentality makes us look back, to the glory days – days that are past!"
"The temptation of survival: An evil that can gradually take root within us and within our communities!"
"Reactionaries!"
"Turning what the Lord presents as an opportunity for mission into something dangerous, threatening, potentially disastrous!"
"Religious activists”!"
"Instead of opening their heart to the gift, they hid, have sought refuge in the rigidity of the Commandments, which they had multiplied up to 500 or more!"
"Slaves of duty, but not love!"
"But that does not give joy, because they do not make you free!"
"No, no, no! The woman is there to bring harmony!"
"Without the woman there is no harmony!"
"The man does not bring harmony!"
"Exploiting persons is a crime of ‘lèse-humanité’: it’s true. But exploiting a woman is even more serious!"
“There are so many corrupt people, corrupt ‘big fish’ in the world, whose lives we read about in the papers!"
“If you insult your brother, you have killed him in your heart!”
“The Word of God cannot be given as a proposal – ‘well, if you like it…’ – or like good philosophical or moral idea – ‘well, you can live this way…’No!"
"No, you will say, yes, something interesting, something moral, something that will do you good, a good philanthropy, but this is not the Word of God!"
"The spirit of Cain which – for envy, jealousy, greed, and the desire to dominate – leads to war!”
‘I am in this diocese but look at how important that one is and I try to influence someone, or put pressure, to get somewhere…'
"‘I am very Catholic, I always go to Mass, I belong to this association and that one; but my life is not Christian!"
"And so many Christians are like this, and these people scandalize others! How many times have we heard – all of us, around the neighbourhood and elsewhere!"
"And this happens every day, it’s enough to see the news on TV, or to read the papers!"
"But you will arrive in heaven and you will knock at the gate: ‘Here I am, Lord!’ – ‘But don’t you remember? I went to Church, I was close to you, I belong to this association, I did this..."
"To be a Catholic like that; it’s better to be an atheist!’"
"‘Yes, you can; no, you can’t’… which then becomes more subtle, more diabolical!"
“But what is more important in God? Justice or mercy?’ This, too, is a sick thought!"
"A totally double life!"
"The toxic pollution of empty and meaningless words!"
"A prayer that soothes our conscience!"
"An almsgiving that leaves us self-satisfied!"
"A fasting that makes us feel good!"
"Harsh and hasty criticism, of simplistic analyses that fail to grasp the complexity of problems!"
"The asphyxia born of relationships that exclude!"
“A fasting that is ‘hypocritical’ that makes you see yourself as just, or makes you feel just, but in the meantime I have practiced iniquities!"
"'I am not just, I exploit the people'!"
“A love lived with hypocrisy is worse than hate: it is self-centeredness masked and dressed up as love.”
"It is a very grave sin to fire employees as a result of economic operations and unclear negotiations!”
"The sterility of those who rely only on themselves and the things they can control!"
"This man was not simply a sinner but a corrupt person!"
"There is nothing more treacherous than a hardened heart!" The Bones 11 comments:
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