During my visit to the Philippines, I wanted in a particular way to meet with young people, to listen to you and to talk to you. I want to express the love and the hopes of the Church for you. And I want to encourage you as Christian citizens of this country to offer yourselves passionately and honestly to the great work of renewing your society and helping to build a better world.

Peacemaking calls for courage, much more so than warfare.

An evangelizing community gets involved in word and deed in people’s daily lives; it bridges distances, it is willing to abase itself if necessary, and it embraces human life, touching the suffering flesh of Christ in others

It does not render justice to the victims, but rather fosters vengeance.

I had the habit of not accepting prizes or honors, but always, not out of humility, but because I don't like them.

Although the life of a person is in a land full of thorns and weeds, there is always a space in which the good seed can grow. You have to trust God.

The scourge of drug trafficking, that favors violence and sows the seeds of suffering and death, requires of society as a whole an act of courage.