The leaders that the world admires seem almost all to be people who haven't had things quite so smooth or easy in their lives.

[Pope Francis ] is taken a selfie!He's a tremendous breath of fresh air.

A person is a person through other persons; you can't be human in isolation; you are human only in relationships.

People are killed because they're gay. I don't think, "What do I want to do today? I want to speak up on gay rights." No. It's God catching me by my neck. I wish I could keep quiet about the plight of the Palestinians. I can't!

Your ordinary acts of love and hope point to the extraordinary promise that every human life is of inestimable value.

You might have thought that a world such as ours, so hard-nosed and cynical and brash, would have very little time for transcendence, spiritual values of goodness and compassion, gentleness, and caring, but we actually do experience them.

I have seen firsthand how injustice gets overlooked when the victims are powerless or vulnerable, when they have no one to speak up for them and no means of representing themselves to a higher authority. Animals are in precisely that position. Unless we are mindful of their interests and speak out loudly on their behalf, abuse and cruelty go unchallenged.