Love makes us similar, it creates equality, it breaks down walls and eliminates distances. God did this with us.

The Pope doesn't get mixed up in Italian politics.

How many kinds of moral and material poverty we face today as a result of denying God and putting so many idols in his place!

Today too, amid so much darkness, we need to see the light of hope and to be men and women who bring hope to others.

Imagine, to become a priest there are eight years of study and preparation, and then if after a while you can't do it, you can ask for a dispensation, you leave, and everything is OK. On the other hand, to make a sacrament (marriage), which is for your whole life, three to four conferences...Preparation for marriage is very important. It's very, very important because I believe it is something that in the Church, in common pastoral ministry, at least in my country, in South America, the Church has not valued much.

Sometimes it is possible to live without knowing our neighbours: this is not Christian

I would like to ask all those who have positions of responsibility in economic, political and social life, and all men and women of goodwill: let us be 'protectors' of creation, protectors of God's plan inscribed in nature, protectors of one another and of the environment.