When you think of the KKK, they actually have as their emblem a fiery cross. And they don't see any contradiction between the cross, an instrument of suffering that procured our reconciliation with God, and its use as a symbol for nefarious attacks on black people. But they believe that they are being obedient to God because they can read things that they see.

All the United States, it is a society that is split like to the bottom, that had very poor people in the country that is one of the wealthiest countries.

There will be no future without forgiveness. Any process of peace is bound to collapse if this is missing. There is no way peace and stability can come through the gun of vengeance.

I have struggled against tyranny. I didn't do that in order to substitute another.

True forgiveness deals with the past, all of the past, to make the future possible. We cannot go on nursing grudges even vicariously for those who cannot speak for themselves any longer. We have to accept that we do what we do for generations past, present and yet to come. That is what makes a community a community or a people a people-for better or for worse.

I'm so, so thrilled that [Pope Francis] is there at this crucial moment in the history of our world.

Without forgiveness, there's no future.