The discernment of a vocation is above all the fruit of an intimate dialogue between the Lord and his disciples. Young people, if they know how to pray, can be trusted to know what to do with God's call.
Pope Benedict XVIMaterial possessions, in themselves, are good. We would not survive for long without money, clothing and shelter. We must eat in order to stay alive. Yet if we are greedy, if we refuse to share what we have with the hungry and the poor, then we make our possessions into a false god. How many voices in our materialist society tell us that happiness is to be found by acquiring as many possessions and luxuries as we can! But this is to make possessions into a false god. Instead of bringing life, they bring death.
Pope Benedict XVIStandards of conduct appropriate to civil society or the workings of a democracy cannot be purely and simply applied to the Church.
Pope Benedict XVIThe Church is not a political power, nor a political party, but rather a moral reality, a moral force.
Pope Benedict XVI