Christ’s love and friendship are no illusion. On the Cross Jesus showed how real they are.

If there is no humility, love remains blocked.

The culture of comfort, which makes us think only of ourselves, makes us insensitive to the cries of other people.

Despite our sins, we can say with Peter: Lord, you know everything, you know that I love you.

We Christians bring peace and grace as a treasure to be offered to the world, but these gifts can bear fruit only when Christians live and work together in harmony. This makes it easier to contribute to building relations of respect and peaceful coexistence with those who belong to other religious traditions, and with non-believers.

If, hypothetically, Western Catholicism were to review the issue of celibacy, I think it would do so for cultural reasons, not so much as a universal option.

A delicate balance is required to combat violence perpetrated in the name of a religion, an ideology or an economic system, while also safeguarding religious freedom, intellectual freedom and individual freedoms. But there is another temptation which we must especially guard against: the simplistic reductionism which sees only good or evil; or, if you will, the righteous and sinners.