It is necessary to broaden the opportunities for a stronger presence of women in the church.

Finding God in all things is not an 'empirical eureka.' When we desire to encounter God, we would like to verify him immediately by an empirical method. But you cannot meet God this way...A contemplative attitude is necessary: it is the feeling that you are moving along the good path of understanding and affection toward things and situations. Profound peace, spiritual consolation, love of God, and love of all things in God-this is the sign that you are on this right path.

The Sacraments are the manifestation of the Father’s tenderness and love towards each of us.

There is the tendency to place ourselves and our ambitions at the center of our lives. This is very human, but it is not Christian.

Our mission as Christians is to conform ourselves evermore to Jesus as the model of our lives.

Let us ask Mary to help us respond to violence, to conflict and to war, with the power of dialogue, reconciliation and love. She is our mother: may she help us to find peace; all of us are her children!

You may be asking yourselves, 'Who is this man standing before us?' i would like to reply to that question with something absolutely certain about my own life: The man standing before you is a man who has been forgiven. A man who was, and is, saved from his many sins.