A poverty learned with the humble, the poor, the sick and all those who are on the existential outskirts of life. A theoretical poverty is no use to us. Poverty is learned by touching the flesh of the poor Christ, in the humble, in the poor, in the sick and in children.

A way has to be found to enable everyone to benefit from the fruits of the earth, and not simply to close the gap between the affluent and those who must be satisfied with the crumbs falling from the table, but above all to satisfy the demands of justice, fairness and respect for every human being.

The one thing that the Catholic Church desires, and that I seek as Bishop of Rome, “the Church which presides in charity”, is communion with the Orthodox Churches.

The victims of problems of the family are the children. The children. Even of problems that neither husband nor wife have a say in.

May we learn to say “thank you” to God and to one another. We teach children to do it, and then we forget to do it ourselves!

Patriarch Kirill. I would prefer - because if I say one thing, I have to say another and another and another. I would prefer that what we spoke about, us, alone, will remain only what we said in public.

Lent comes providentially to reawaken us, to shake us from our lethargy.