The fight against evil is long and difficult. It is essential to pray constantly and to be patient.

This is precisely the reason for the dissatisfaction of some, who end up sad - sad priests - in some sense becoming collectors of antiques or novelties, instead of being shepherds living with 'the odor of the sheep.' This I ask you: Be shepherds, with the 'odor of the sheep,' make it real, as shepherds among your flock, fishers of men.

When a society lacks God, even prosperity is joined by a terrible spiritual poverty.

Holy Week challenges us to step outside ourselves so as to attend to the needs of others: those who long for a sympathetic ear, those in need of comfort or help. We should not simply remain in our own secure world, that of the ninety-nine sheep who never strayed from the fold, but we should go out, with Christ, in search of the one lost sheep, however far it may have wandered.

The charismatics confused the holy liturgy with a school of samba, but than I was converted when I got to know them better and saw the good they do.

We must overcome...all forms of racism. The problem of intolerance should be dealt with as a whole: every time a minority is persecuted and marginalized...the good of the whole society is in danger.

Dear young people, always be missionaries of the Gospel, every day and in every place.