This Christmas may we be consistent in living the Gospel, welcoming Jesus into the centre of our lives.

I do not know what might be the most fitting description.... I am a sinner. This is the most accurate definition. It is not a figure of speech, a literary genre. I am a sinner. And this is what I said when they asked me if I would accept my election as pontiff: I am a sinner, but I trust in the infinite mercy and patience of our Lord Jesus Christ, and I accept in a spirit of penance.

Holy Mother Church teaches us to end the year and also our days with an examination of conscience...to be grateful and to ask for forgiveness.

Terrorism is everywhere. You think of the tribal terrorism of some African countries.

My people are poor and I am one of them.

Today everything comes under the laws of competition and the survival of the fittest, where the powerful feed upon the powerless. As a consequence, masses of people find themselves excluded and marginalized: without work, without possibilities, without any means of escape.

It is better to have a Church that is wounded but out in the streets than a Church that is sick because it is closed in on itself.