Saving Power of Christ
"Brothers and sisters, do not be afraid to welcome Christ and accept his power ... Open wide the doors for Christ. To his saving power open the boundaries of states, economic and political systems, the vast fields of culture, civilization and development." - Mass homily during installation as pope, Oct. 22, 1978.
Violence and Terrorism
"On my knees I beg you to turn away from the paths of violence and return to the ways of peace. You may claim to seek justice. I too believe in justice and seek justice. But violence only delays the day of justice. Violence destroys the work of justice." - Addressing "all men and women engaged in violence," Drogheda, Ireland, Sept. 29, 1979.
Faith in Poland
"Never lose your trust, do not be defeated, do not be discouraged, do not cut yourselves off from the roots from which we had our origins." - Farewell Mass, Krakow, Poland, June 10, 1979.
Dissent in the Church
"It is sometimes claimed that dissent from the magisterium (church teaching) is totally compatible with being a 'good Catholic' and poses no obstacle to the reception of the sacraments. This is a grave error." - Speech to U.S. bishops in Los Angeles, Sept. 16, 1987.
Evil of War
"War is an adventure without return." - Christmas Day speech in 1990 on eve of Gulf War I.
Evil of Abortion
"What human institution, what parliament, has the right to legalize the killing of an innocent and defenseless human being? What parliament has the right to say 'You are free to kill,' or even 'killing is in order,' where the greatest efforts should be made to protect and help life in the first place?" - Mass at Radom, Poland, June 4, 1991.
Widespread Dissent in the Church
"It is no longer a matter of limited and occasional dissent, but of an overall and systematic calling into question of traditional moral doctrine on the basis of anthropological and ethical presuppositions." - From encyclical "Veritatis Splendor" (The Splendor of the Truth), Oct. 5, 1993.
Ordination of Women
The church "has no authority whatsoever to confer priestly ordination on women and that this judgment is to be definitively held by all the church's faithful." - Letter to bishops, May 30, 1994.
Scandal in the Church of the USA
"The abuse which has caused this crisis is by every standard wrong and rightly considered a crime by society; it is also an appalling sin in the eyes of God." - To American cardinals summoned to Vatican during church sex abuse scandal, April 23, 2002.
New Evangelization
“I, Bishop of Rome and Shepherd of the Universal Church, from Santiago, utter to you, Europe of the ages, a cry full of love: Find yourself again. Be yourself. Discover your origins, revive your roots. Return to those authentic values which made your history a glorious one and your presence so beneficial in the other continents. Santiago de Compostela
9 November 1982:
The Joy of a Good Confession
(…every contrite Confession is “a drawing near to the holiness of God, a rediscovery of one’s true identity, which has been upset and disturbed by sin, a liberation in the very depths of one’s self and thus a regaining of lost joy, the joy of being saved, which the majority of people in our time are no longer capable of experiencing.” Pope John Paul in his Apostolic Exhortation, Reconciliation and Penance, 2 December, 1984, 31, III
Eucharistic Adoration
“During this year Eucharistic adoration outside Mass should become a particular commitment for individual and religious communities. Let us take the time to kneel before Jesus present in the Eucharist, in order to make reparation by our faith and love for the acts of carelessness and neglect, and even insults which our Saviour must endure in many parts of the world. Let us deepen through adoration our personal and communal contemplation, drawing upon aids to prayer inspired by the word of God and the experience of so many mystics, old and new. The Rosary itself, when it is profoundly understood in the biblical and christocentric form which I recommended in the Apostolic Letter Rosarium Virginis Mariae, will prove a particularly fitting introduction to Eucharistic contemplation, a contemplation carried out with Mary as our companion and guide.” Apostolic Letter, Mane Nobiscum Domine (Innaugurating the Year of the Eucharist, 2004-5)
Dignity of all men in Christ
“Remembering that ‘the Word became flesh’, that is, that the Son of God became man, we must become conscious of how great each man has become through this mystery, through the Incarnation of the Son of God! Christ, in fact, was conceived in the womb of Mary and became man to reveal the eternal love of the Creator and Father and to make known the dignity of each one of us.” (Angelus Address, Jasna Gora Shrine, 5 June, 1979)
Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church
“May the Virgin Mary, who is the Mother of the Church, also be the Mother of ‘Church at home’. Thanks to her motherly aid, may each Christian family really become a ‘little Church’ in which the mystery of the Church of Christ is mirrored and given new life. May she, the Handmaid of the Lord, be an example of humble and generous acceptance of the will of God. May she, the Sorrowful Mother at the foot of the Cross, comfort the sufferings and dry the tears of those in distress because of the difficulties of their family life. May Christ the Lord, the Universal King, the King of Families, be present in every Christian home as he was at Cana, bestowing light, joy, serenity, and strength.” Apostolic Exhortation, Familiaris consortio, 86
The Need for Prayer
“…we must pray too because we are fragile and culpable. We need to admit humbly and truly that we are poor creatures, with confused ideas…We are fragile and weak, and in constant need of interior strength and consolation. Prayer gives us strength for great ideals, for keeping up our faith, charity, purity, generosity; prayer gives us strength to rise up from indifference and guilt, if we have had the misfortune to give into temptation and weakness. Prayer gives light by which to see and to judge from God’s perspective and from eternity. That is why you must not give up praying! Don’t let a day go by without praying a little! Prayer is a duty, but it is also a joy because it is a dialogue with God through Jesus Christ.” Audience with Young People, 14 March 1979
Virginity
“…virginity keeps alive in the Church the awareness of the mystery of marriage and defends it against all attempts to impoverish it or reduce its importance. It frees the heart of man in a special way… bearing witness to the fact that the Kingdom of God and its justice is a pearl of great price to be preferred to any other treasure however great its value may be. Moreover, virginity should be sought as the only real object of value. The Church, therefore, throughout its history, has defended the superiority of this divine gift over matrimony, because of its particular link with the Kingdom of God.
Even though a person has renounced physical parenthood, as a virgin he or she can assume a spiritual parenthood towards many by co-operating in the development of the family according to God’s plan.” Apostolic Exhortation, Familiaris Consortio.
Contraception
“Contraception is so intrinsically evil that it cannot be practiced for any reason whatsoever.”
“Let us learn this from Mary our Mother. In England, ‘the Dowry of Mary’, the faithful, for centuries, have made pilgrimage to her shrine at Walsingham. Today Walsingham comes to Wembley, and the statue of Our Lady of Walsingham, present here, lifts our minds to meditate on our Mother. She obeyed the will of God fearlessly and gave birth to the Son of God by the power of the Holy Spirit. Faithful at the foot of the Cross, she then waited in prayer for the Holy Spirit to descent on the infant Church. It is Mary who will teach us how to be silent, how to listen to the voice of God in the midst of a busy and noisy world. It is Mary who will help us to find time for prayer. Through the Rosary, that great Gospel prayer, she will help us to know Christ. We need to live as she did, in the presence of God, raising our minds and hearts to Him in our daily activities and worries.” Homily at Wembley Stadium, May 30, 1982 (The Pope in Britain)
All Yours, O Mary
“I am always Totus Tuus—I am completely in your hands.” Words (from his coat of arms) for the Blessed Virgin Mary after his tracheotomy, Feb. 24, 2005 as quoted in the Sunday Telegraph
Draw near to Christ
In his encyclical Veritatis Splendor (The Splendor of Truth) John Paul wrote "the man who wishes to understand himself thoroughly — and not just in accordance with immediate, partial, often superficial, and even illusory standards and measures of his being — must with his unrest, uncertainty and even his weakness and sinfulness, with his life and death, draw near to Christ. He must, so to speak, enter him with all his own self; he must 'appropriate' and assimilate the whole of the reality of the Incarnation and Redemption in order to find himself. If this profound process takes place within him, he then bears fruit not only of adoration of God but also of deeper wonder at himself."
Vocations for the Third Millennium
Put out into the deep…” Lk. 5:4
In the beginning of Pope John Paul II’s Apostolic Letter, Novo millennio ieunte, (At the beginning of the New Milennium), he says, “…our hearts ring out with the words of Jesus when one day, after speaking to the crowds from Simon’s boat, he invited the Apostle to ‘put out into the deep’ for a catch (Lk. 5:4) Peter and his first companions trusted Christ’s words, and cast the nets. ‘When they had done this, they caught a great number of fish.’” (1) The Holy Father then goes on to tell of the needs of the Church in the Third Millennium. In (46) he says: “Therefore the Church of the Third Millennium will need to encourage all the baptized and confirmed to be aware of their active responsibility in the Church’s life. Together with the ordained ministry, other ministries, whether formally instituted or simple recognized, can flourish for the good of the whole community, sustaining it in all its many needs: from catechesis to liturgy, from the education of the young to widest array of charitable works.
“Certainly, a generous commitment is needed– above all through insistent prayer to the Lord of the harvest (cf. Mt. 9:38) –in promoting vocations to the priesthood and consecrated life. This is question of great relevance for the life of the Church in every part of the world…”