Pope Francis quotes

Human rights are not only violated by terrorism, repression or assassination, but also by unfair economic structures that creates huge inequalities. (Pope Francis)
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. View quote
Pope Francis
The Son of God became incarnate to infuse into the human soul the feeling of brotherhood. All are brothers and all children of God. View quote
Pope Francis
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. View quote
Pope Francis
The earth, our home, is beginning to look more and more like an immense pile of filth. View quote
Pope Francis
Some people continue to defend trickle-down theories which assume that economic growth, encouraged by a free market, will inevitably succeed in bringing about greater justice and inclusiveness in the world. This opinion, which has never been confirmed by the facts, expresses a crude and naïve trust in the goodness of those wielding economic power and in the sacralized workings of the prevailing economic system. View quote
Pope Francis
I say that politics is the most important of the civil activities and has its own field of action, which is not that of religion. View quote
Pope Francis
Oh, how I would like a poor Church, and for the poor. View quote
Pope Francis
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. View quote
Pope Francis
The Internet, in particular, offers immense possibilities for encounter and solidarity, this is something truly good, a gift from God. View quote
Pope Francis
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)
I [[love the mystics...The mystic manages to strip himself of action, of facts, objectives and even the pastoral mission and rises until he reaches communion with the Beatitudes. Brief moments but which fill an entire life. ]] [Mystics] have been fundamental [to the church]. A religion without mystics is a philosophy. View quote
Pope Francis
Today, I don't think that there is a fear of Islam as such but of ISIS and its war of conquest, which is partly drawn from Islam. It is true that the idea of conquest is inherent in the soul of Islam. However, it is also possible to interpret the objective in Matthew's Gospel, where Jesus sends his disciples to all nations, in terms of the same idea of conquest. View quote
Pope Francis
The Synod Fathers spoke of the importance of respect for religious freedom, viewed as a fundamental human right. [202] This includes "the freedom to choose the religion which one judges to be true and to manifest one's beliefs in public”. [203] A healthy pluralism, one which genuinely respects differences and values them as such, does not entail privatizing religions in an attempt to reduce them to the quiet obscurity of the individual's conscience or to relegate them to the enclosed precincts of churches, synagogues or mosques. This would represent, in effect, a new form of discrimination and authoritarianism. The respect due to the agnostic or non-believing minority should not be arbitrarily imposed in a way that silences the convictions of the believing majority or ignores the wealth of religious traditions. In the long run, this would feed resentment rather than tolerance and peace. View quote
Pope Francis
Inside every Christian is a Jew. View quote
Pope Francis
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. View quote
Pope Francis
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. View quote
Pope Francis
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. View quote
Pope Francis
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. View quote
Pope Francis
The unjust distribution of goods persists, creating a situation of social sin that cries out to Heaven and limits the possibilities of a fuller life for so many of our brothers. View quote
Pope Francis
Transcendence remains because that light, all in everything, transcends the universe and the species it inhabits at this stage. (Pope Francis)
Eugenio Scalfari: Your Holiness, in our previous meeting you told me that our species will disappear in a certain moment and that God, still out of his creative force, will create new species. You have never spoken to me about the souls who died in sin and will go to hell to suffer it for eternity. You have however spoken to me of good souls, admitted to the contemplation of God. But what about bad souls? Where are they punished? Pope Francis: They are not punished, those who repent obtain the forgiveness of God and enter the rank of souls who contemplate him, but those who do not repent and cannot therefore be forgiven disappear. There is no hell, there is the disappearance of sinful souls. View quote
Pope Francis
I encourage you to welcome refugees into your homes and communities, so that their first experience of Europe is not the traumatic experience of sleeping cold on the streets, but one of warm welcome. View quote
Pope Francis
Dear Brothers and Sisters, In a few moments I will have the joy of opening the Holy Door of Mercy. We carry out this act, so simple yet so highly symbolic, in the light of the word of God which we have just heard. That word highlights the primacy of grace. View quote
Pope Francis
This Jubilee is a privileged moment for the Church to learn to choose only ‘what pleases God most.' And what is it that ‘pleases God most'? To forgive his children, to have mercy on them, so that they too might forgive their brothers and sisters, and become shining like torches of God's mercy in the world. View quote
Pope Francis