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Pope Benedict XVI

132 quotes

“Although the particular inclination of the homosexual person is not a sin, it is a more or less strong tendency ordered to an intrinsic moral evil, and thus the inclination itself must be seen as an objective disorder.”
Pope Benedict XVI (1927–2022) said by 2022 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It is deplorable that homosexual persons have been and are the object of violent malice in speech or in action. Such treatment deserves condemnation from the church's pastors wherever it occurs... The intrinsic dignity of each person must always be respected in work, in action and in law.”
Pope Benedict XVI (1927–2022) first seen 1986 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church on the Pastoral Care of Homosexual Persons (1986), as reported by National Catholic Reporter
“In Wladimir Solowjew's History of the Antichrist, the eschatological enemy of the Redeemer recommended himself to believers, among other things, by the fact that he had earned his doctorate in theology at Tübingen and had written an exegetical work which was recognized as pioneering in the field. The Antichrist, a famous exegete!”
Pope Benedict XVI (1927–2022) said by 2022 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Once the methodology has picked history to death by its dissection, who can reawaken it so that it can live and speak to me?”
Pope Benedict XVI (1927–2022) said by 2022 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In the end, one no longer learns what the text says, but what it should have said.”
Pope Benedict XVI (1927–2022) said by 2022 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“What we need might be called a criticism of criticism. By this I mean not some exterior analysis, but a criticism based on the inherent potential of all critical thought to analyze itself.”
Pope Benedict XVI (1927–2022) said by 2022 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Pure objectivity is an absurd abstraction. It is not the uninvolved who comes to knowledge; rather, interest itself is a requirement for the possibility of coming to know.”
Pope Benedict XVI (1927–2022) said by 2022 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Spiritual processes do not follow the rule of zoological genealogies.”
Pope Benedict XVI (1927–2022) said by 2022 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Modern exegesis...completely relegated God to the incomprehensible, the otherworldly, and the inexpressible in order to be able to treat the biblical text itself as an entirely worldly reality according to natural-scientific methods.”
Pope Benedict XVI (1927–2022) said by 2022 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A New Testament cut off from the Old is automatically abolished since it exists, as its very title suggests, because of the unity of both.”
Pope Benedict XVI (1927–2022) said by 2022 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If the divorced are remarried civilly, they find themselves in a situation that objectively contravenes God's law. Consequently, they cannot receive Holy Communion as long as this situation persists. This norm is not at all a punishment or a discrimination against the divorced and remarried, but rather expresses an objective situation that of itself renders impossible the reception of Holy Communion: '... If these people were admitted to the Eucharist, the faithful would be led into error and confusion regarding the Church's teaching about the indissolubility of marriage'.”
Pope Benedict XVI (1927–2022) first seen 1994 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to bishops, Sept. 14, 1994
“I think we must reflect more on what democracy in the exercise of authority would mean. Is truth determined by a majority vote, only for a new 'truth' to be 'discovered' by a new majority tomorrow?”
Pope Benedict XVI (1927–2022) first seen 1996 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Public Square, by Richard John Neuhaus, First Things 1996
“We have such difficulty understanding this renunciation today because the relationship to marriage and children has clearly shifted. To have to die without children was once synonymous with a useless life: The echoes of my own life die away, and I am completely dead. If I have children, then I continue to live in them; it's a sort of immortality through posterity. ...”
Pope Benedict XVI (1927–2022) said by 2022 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Also quoted by: Peter Seewald
“The renunciation of marriage and family is thus to be understood in terms of this vision: I renounce what, humanly speaking, is not only the most normal but also the most important thing. I forgo bringing forth further life on the tree of life, and I live in the faith that my land is really God - and so I make it easier for others, also, to believe that there is a kingdom of heaven. I bear witness to Jesus Christ, to the Gospel, not only with words, but also with this specific mode of existence, and I place my life in this form at his disposal.”
Pope Benedict XVI (1927–2022) first seen 1997 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Salt of the Earth: Christianity and the Catholic Church at the end of the Millennium: An interview with Peter Seewald (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1997)
Also quoted by: Peter Seewald
“Celibacy is not a matter of compulsion. Someone is accepted as a priest only when he does it of his own accord.”
Pope Benedict XVI (1927–2022) first seen 1997 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Salt of the Earth (1997)
Also quoted by: Peter Seewald
“Islam has a total organization of life that is completely different from ours; it embraces simply everything. There is a very marked subordination of woman to man; there is a very tightly knit criminal law, indeed, a law regulating all areas of life, that is opposed to our modern ideas about society. One has to have a clear understanding that it is not simply a denomination that can be included in the free realm of a pluralistic society.”
Pope Benedict XVI (1927–2022) first seen 1997 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 1997 interview with German journalist Peter Seewald, quoted in "Tough-talking pope has history with Muslims, refuses to give in", The Washington Times (20 September 2006)
Also quoted by: Peter Seewald
“Unlimited trust should only be placed in the real Word of the Revelation that we encounter in the faith transmitted by the Church.”
Pope Benedict XVI (1927–2022) first seen 1999 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: During interview by Niels Christian Hvidt in 1999
“The ecclesial communities which have not preserved the valid Episcopate and the genuine and integral substance of the Eucharistic mystery, are not Churches in the proper sense; however, those who are baptized in these communities are, by Baptism, incorporated in Christ and thus are in a certain communion, albeit imperfect, with the Church.”
Pope Benedict XVI (1927–2022) first seen 2000 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Dominus Jesus declaration, 2000
“That the Jews are connected with God in a special way and that God does not allow that bond to fail is entirely obvious. We wait for the instant in which Israel will say yes to Christ, but we know that it has a special mission in history now … which is significant for the world.”
Pope Benedict XVI (1927–2022) first seen 2000 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: God and the World, published October 2000, as reported by National Catholic Reporter.
“Our Christian conviction is that Christ is also the messiah of Israel. Certainly it is in the hands of God how and when the unification of Jews and Christians into the people of God will take place.”
Pope Benedict XVI (1927–2022) first seen 2000 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: God and the World, published October 2000, as reported by National Catholic Reporter
“Deeper understanding of the matter is bound to recognize that the Temple, as well as the synagogue, entered into Christian liturgy.”
Pope Benedict XVI (1927–2022) said by 2022 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Rock" [music]... is the expression of elemental passions, and at rock festivals it assumes a cultic character, a form of worship, in fact, in opposition to Christian worship. People are, so to speak, released from themselves by the experience of being part of a crowd and by the emotional shock of rhythm, noise, and special lighting effects. However, in the ecstasy of having all their defenses torn down, the participants sink, as it were, beneath the elemental force of the universe.”
Pope Benedict XVI (1927–2022) said by 2022 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“When human affairs are so ordered that there is no recognition of God, there is a belittling of man. That is why, in the final analysis, worship and law cannot be completely separated from each other. God has a right to a response from man, to man himself, and where that right of God totally disappears, the order of law among men is dissolved, because there is no cornerstone to keep the whole structure together.”
Pope Benedict XVI (1927–2022) said by 2022 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Wherever applause breaks out in the liturgy because of some human achievement, it is a sure sign that the essence of liturgy has totally disappeared and been replaced by a kind of religious entertainment. Such attraction fades quickly - it cannot compete in the market of leisure pursuits, incorporating as it increasingly does various forms of religious titillation.”
Pope Benedict XVI (1927–2022) said by 2022 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Unspontaneity is of their essence. In these rites I discover that something is approaching me here that I did not produce myself, that I am entering into something greater than myself, which ultimately derives from divine revelation. This is why the Christian East calls the liturgy the "Divine Liturgy", expressing thereby the liturgy's independence from human control.”
Pope Benedict XVI (1927–2022) said by 2022 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It is true that the Muslim world is not totally mistaken when it reproaches the West of Christian tradition of moral decadence and the manipulation of human life. … Islam has also had moments of great splendor and decadence in the course of its history.”
Pope Benedict XVI (1927–2022) first seen 2002 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: from "Ratzinger denies Christianity 'superior' to Islam," Zenit.org via Catholic News, March 6, 2002
“In the Church, priests also are sinners. But I am personally convinced that the constant presence in the press of the sins of Catholic priests, especially in the United States, is a planned campaign, as the percentage of these offenses among priests is not higher than in other categories, and perhaps it is even lower.”
Pope Benedict XVI (1927–2022) said by 2022 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In the United States, there is constant news on this topic, but less than 1 percent of priests are guilty of acts of this type. The constant presence of these news items does not correspond to the objectivity of the information nor to the statistical objectivity of the facts.”
Pope Benedict XVI (1927–2022) first seen 2002 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: from "Cardinal Ratzinger Sees a Media Campaign Against Church," Zenit.org, December 3, 2002
“I think the essential point is a weakness of faith.”
Pope Benedict XVI (1927–2022) first seen 2003 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: from an interview with EWTN news director Raymond Arroyo in August 2003 as reported by Zenit.org, Aug. 24, 2003
“A Catholic would be guilty of formal cooperation in evil, and so unworthy to present himself for holy Communion, if he were to deliberately vote for a candidate precisely because of the candidate's permissive stand on abortion and/or euthanasia. When a Catholic does not share a candidate's stand in favor of abortion and/or euthanasia, but votes for that candidate for other reasons, it is considered remote material cooperation, which can be permitted in the presence of proportionate reasons.”
Pope Benedict XVI (1927–2022) first seen 2004 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 2004 memorandum to Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick of Washington, D.C.
“The obscuring of the difference or duality of the sexes has enormous consequences on a variety of levels. This theory of the human person, intended to promote prospects for equality of women through liberation from biological determinism, has in reality inspired ideologies which, for example, call into question the family, in its natural two-parent structure of mother and father, and make homosexuality and heterosexuality virtually equivalent, in a new model of polymorphous sexuality.”
Pope Benedict XVI (1927–2022) said by 2022 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Men and women were created to be jointly the guarantee of the future of the humanity — not only a physical guarantee, but also a moral one.”
Pope Benedict XVI (1927–2022) said by 2022 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Above all, we must have great respect for these people who also suffer and who want to find their own way of correct living. On the other hand, to create a legal form of a kind of homosexual marriage, in reality, does not help these people.”
Pope Benedict XVI (1927–2022) said by 2022 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Because God loves us, because He wants us to grow into truth, He must necessarily make demands on us and must also correct us”
Pope Benedict XVI (1927–2022) first seen 2004 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Cardinal Ratzinger on Laicism and Sexual Ethics," Zenit.org, Nov. 19, 2004
“I would not like to use big words to apply generic labels. It certainly contains elements that can favor peace, it also has other elements: we must always seek the best elements.”
Pope Benedict XVI (1927–2022) said by 2022 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In the hour of its greatest success, Europe seems to have become empty inside, paralyzed by a life-threatening crisis to its health and dependent on transplants.”
Pope Benedict XVI (1927–2022) first seen 2005 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Values in Times of Upheaval (2005)
“How much filth there is in the Church, even among those who, in the priesthood, should belong entirely to Him. How much pride, how much self-sufficiency.”
Pope Benedict XVI (1927–2022) first seen 2005 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: At a Good Friday devotion, the Stations of the Cross, in 2005, seen by many as a statement about the clergy sex abuse scandal
“We can be sure our beloved pope is standing today at the window of the father's house, that he sees us and blesses us. Yes, bless us, Holy Father. We entrust your dear soul to the Mother of God, your Mother, who guided you each day and who will now guide you to the glory of her son, our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.Today we bury his remains in the earth as a seed of immortality. Our hearts are full of sadness, yet at the same time (full) of joyful hope and profound gratitude.”
Pope Benedict XVI (1927–2022) first seen 2005 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Homily during the Requiem Mass of the funeral of [Pope John Paul II], on April 8, 2005
“The fact that the church is convinced of not having the right to confer priestly ordination on women is now considered by some as irreconcilable with the European Constitution.”
Pope Benedict XVI (1927–2022) first seen 2005 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: from Zenit.org (11 April 2005)
“Having a clear faith, based on the creed of the church, is often labeled today as a fundamentalism. … Whereas relativism, which is letting oneself be tossed and "swept along by every wind of teaching," looks like the only attitude acceptable to today's standards.We are moving toward a dictatorship of relativism which does not recognize anything as definitive and has as its highest value one's own ego and one's own desires... The church needs to withstand the tides of trends and the latest novelties. ... We must become mature in this adult faith, we must guide the flock of Christ to this faith.”
Pope Benedict XVI (1927–2022) first seen 2005 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: In a Homily of His Eminence Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, Dean of the College of Cardinals, during a Mass at St. Peter's Basilica before the conclave of cardinals (18 April 2005)
“Dear brothers and sisters after the great Pope, John Paul II, the cardinals have elected me, a simple and humble worker in the Lord's vineyard. The fact that the Lord can work and act even with insufficient means consoles me, and above all I entrust myself to your prayers. In the joy of the resurrected Lord, we go on with his help. He is going to help us and Mary will be on our side. Thank you.”
Pope Benedict XVI (1927–2022) said by 2022 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“As the trend in the ballots slowly made me realize that — in a manner of speaking the guillotine would fall on me — I started to feel quite dizzy. I thought that I had done my life's work and could now hope to live out my days in peace. I told the Lord with deep conviction, 'Don't do this to me. You have younger and better (candidates) who could take up this great task with a totally different energy and with different strength.' Evidently, this time he didn't listen to me.”
Pope Benedict XVI (1927–2022) said by 2022 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The ways of the Lord are not comfortable, but we were not created for comfort, but for greatness, for good.”
Pope Benedict XVI (1927–2022) said by 2022 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Pray for me, that I may not flee for fear of the wolves.”
Pope Benedict XVI (1927–2022) first seen 2005 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Inauguration homily, April 24, 2005
“Relations between States and within States are correct to the extent that they respect the truth. When, instead, truth is violated, peace is threatened, law is endangered, then, as a logical consequence, forms of injustice are unleashed.”
Pope Benedict XVI (1927–2022) first seen 2006 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: In Address to the International Diplomats Address to the International Diplomats (18 March 2006)
“Truth draws strength from itself and not from the number of votes in its favour.”
Pope Benedict XVI (1927–2022) first seen 2006 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: In Address to the International Diplomats Address to the International Diplomats (18 March 2006)
“Islam has been reborn, in part because of the new material wealth acquired by the Islamic countries, but mainly because of people's conviction that Islam can provide a valid spiritual foundation to their lives. Such a foundation seems to have eluded old Europe, which, despite its enduring political and economic power, seems to be on the road to decline and fall.”
Pope Benedict XVI (1927–2022) said by 2022 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Multiculturalism, which is so constantly and passionately promoted, can sometimes amount to an abandonment and denial, a flight from one's own heritage.”
Pope Benedict XVI (1927–2022) said by 2022 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Unless we embrace our own heritage of the sacred, we will not only deny the identity of Europe, we will also fail in providing a service to others to which they are entitled. To other cultures of the world, there is something deeply alien about the absolute secularism that is developing in the West. They are convinced that a world without God has no future. Multiculturalism itself thus demands that we return once again to ourselves.”
Pope Benedict XVI (1927–2022) said by 2022 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Europe, unlike America, is on a collision course with its own history. Often it voices an almost visceral denial of any possible public dimension for Christian values.”
Pope Benedict XVI (1927–2022) said by 2022 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source