Benedikt XVI. citáty

„Kdo věří, není nikdy sám.“

—  Benedikt XVI.

„Pravou křesťanskou bohoslužbou je láska.“

—  Benedikt XVI.

Zdroj: MÜHS, Wilhelm.: Slovom srdca, 365 myšlienok o láske. Bratislava: Nové Mesto, 2000, s. 134. ISBN 80-85487-61-6

„Církev není vězněm politických, rasových nebo kulturních dělících čar. Není možné ji porovnávat se státy nebo národními svazky.“

—  Benedikt XVI.

Zdroj: [Pápež v kázni na sviatok Turíc: Cirkev je útočiskom v rozštiepenom svete, SME.sk, 2010-05-23, 2010-05-23, http://www.sme.sk/c/5388496/papez-v-kazni-na-sviatok-turic-cirkev-je-utociskom-v-rozstiepenom-svete.html]

„(na adresu kněží v celibátu) Zřeknutí se manželství a rodiny se musí chápat takto: Vzdávám se toho, co je lidsky vlastně nejnormálnější a také nejdůležitější. Vzdávám se toho, že sám rozšířím strom života dalším životem, že budu mít vlastní zemi života, a žiji ve víře, že mou zemí je Bůh. Tím pro druhé svědčím o nebeském království, činím tuto víru hodnověrnější. Nejen slovy, ale zvláštním způsobem existence tedy svědčím o Ježíši, o evangeliu, a touto formou svého života se mu dávám k dispozici.“

—  Benedikt XVI.

Zdroj: Celibát, J. Ratzinger, Pastorace.cz http://www.pastorace.cz/Tematicke-texty/Celibat-Joseph-kardinal-Ratzinger.html

„Etické hodnocení církve ohledně rozvodu a potratu je jasné a dobře známé: jedná se o vážná pochybení, která porušují lidskou důstojnost, vyvolávají hlubokou nespravedlnost v lidských a sociálních vztazích a urážejí samotného Boha, který je garantem manželského svazku a autorem života.“

—  Benedikt XVI.

Zdroj: http://www.christnet.cz/magazin/zprava.asp?zprava=15465 Papež označil rozvody a potraty za vážná pochybení

„V době největšího úspěchu se Evropa stává vnitřně prázdnou, je paralyzována ohrožující krizí, která ohrožuje její zdraví, je závislá na transplantacích.“

—  Benedikt XVI.

Zdroj: Values in Times of Upheaval, 2005

„Pokrok je možný pouze ve společnosti, v níž existují morální hodnoty a silná přesvědčení.“

—  Benedikt XVI.

Přisuzované

„Nedoložené, nebo nedostatečně doložené výroky, v budoucnosti mohou být smazány“

—  Benedikt XVI.

Přisuzované

„Statistika není mým bohem.“

—  Benedikt XVI.

„It is true that the Muslim world is not totally mistaken when it reproaches the West of Christian tradition of moral decadence and the manipulation of human life. … Islam has also had moments of great splendor and decadence in the course of its history.“

—  Pope Benedict XVI

from "Ratzinger denies Christianity 'superior' to Islam," Zenit.org via Catholic News, March 6, 2002
2002

„Life is not governed by chance; it is not random. Your very existence has been willed by God, blessed and given a purpose! Life is not just a succession of events or experiences. It is a search for the true, the good and the beautiful. It is to this end that we make our choices; it is for this that we exercise our freedom; it is in this - in truth, in goodness, and in beauty - that we find happiness and joy.“

—  Pope Benedict XVI

2008, Papal Welcome (17 July 2008)

„If the Church were to start transforming herself into a directly political subject, … she would do less, not more, for the poor and for justice, because she would lose her independence and her moral authority, identifying herself with a single political path and with debatable partisan positions. The Church is the advocate of justice and of the poor, precisely because she does not identify with politicians nor with partisan interests. Only by remaining independent can she teach the great criteria and inalienable values, guide consciences and offer a life choice that goes beyond the political sphere. To form consciences, to be the advocate of justice and truth, to educate in individual and political virtues: that is the fundamental vocation of the Church in this area. And lay Catholics must be aware of their responsibilities in public life; they must be present in the formation of the necessary consensus and in opposition to injustice.“

—  Pope Benedict XVI

in Origins, published by National Catholic News Service, vol. 37, p. 22

„In the United States, there is constant news on this topic, but less than 1 percent of priests are guilty of acts of this type. The constant presence of these news items does not correspond to the objectivity of the information nor to the statistical objectivity of the facts.“

—  Pope Benedict XVI

from "Cardinal Ratzinger Sees a Media Campaign Against Church," Zenit.org, December 3, 2002
2002

„Having a clear faith, based on the creed of the church, is often labeled today as a fundamentalism. … Whereas relativism, which is letting oneself be tossed and "swept along by every wind of teaching," looks like the only attitude acceptable to today's standards.We are moving toward a dictatorship of relativism which does not recognize anything as definitive and has as its highest value one's own ego and one's own desires… The church needs to withstand the tides of trends and the latest novelties. … We must become mature in this adult faith, we must guide the flock of Christ to this faith.“

—  Pope Benedict XVI

In a Homily of His Eminence Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, Dean of the College of Cardinals http://www.vatican.va/gpII/documents/homily-pro-eligendo-pontifice_20050418_en.html, during a Mass at St. Peter's Basilica before the conclave of cardinals (18 April 2005)
2005

„Is the conviction that acting unreasonably contradicts God's nature merely a Greek idea, or is it always and intrinsically true? I believe that here we can see the profound harmony between what is Greek in the best sense of the word and the biblical understanding of faith in God. Modifying the first verse of the Book of Genesis, the first verse of the whole Bible, John began the prologue of his Gospel with the words: "In the beginning was the λόγος". This is the very word used by the emperor: God acts, σὺν λόγω, with logos. Logos means both reason and word - a reason which is creative and capable of self-communication, precisely as reason. John thus spoke the final word on the biblical concept of God, and in this word all the often toilsome and tortuous threads of biblical faith find their culmination and synthesis. In the beginning was the logos, and the logos is God, says the Evangelist. The encounter between the Biblical message and Greek thought did not happen by chance.“

—  Pope Benedict XVI

2006, Faith, Reason and the University — Memories and Reflections (2006)

„There really is an ideological, secular aggressiveness that gives cause to worry. Recently in Sweden a Protestant parson was put into jail for one month because - referring to biblical texts - he preached about homosexuality. Laicism is not any longer that element of neutrality that opens fields of freedom for everybody. It’s now turning into an ideology, which – with the help of politics – forces itself into the public and leaves no space for the Christian and Catholic conception – thereby turning it into a merely private and essentially mutilated concern. In this sense a fight has really begun in which we have to defend the religious freedom against the pretension of an ideology, that acts as if it were the only voice of reason – whereas it is only the expression of “a certain” rationalism…. A society that is not at all concerned with God destroys itself. We saw that in the totalitarian experiments of the last century.“

—  Pope Benedict XVI

in an interview in the German newspaper Die Welt, April 20, 2005
2005

„Too often, though, the beauty that is thrust upon us is illusory and deceitful, superficial and blinding, leaving the onlooker dazed; instead of bringing him out of himself and opening him up to horizons of true freedom as it draws him aloft, it imprisons him within himself and further enslaves him, depriving him of hope and joy. It is a seductive but hypocritical beauty that rekindles desire, the will to power, to possess, and to dominate others, it is a beauty which soon turns into its opposite, taking on the guise of indecency, transgression or gratuitous provocation. Authentic beauty, however, unlocks the yearning of the human heart, the profound desire to know, to love, to go towards the Other, to reach for the Beyond.“

—  Pope Benedict XVI

in Meeting with Artists http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/speeches/2009/november/documents/hf_ben-xvi_spe_20091121_artisti_en.html (21 November 2009)
2009

„Show me just what Muhammad brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached. God is not pleased by blood - and not acting reasonably is contrary to God's nature. Faith is born of the soul, not the body. Whoever would lead someone to faith needs the ability to speak well and to reason properly, without violence and threats… To convince a reasonable soul, one does not need a strong arm, or weapons of any kind, or any other means of threatening a person with death.“

—  Pope Benedict XVI

Manuel II Palaiologos, in the 7th of the 26 Dialogues Held With A Certain Persian, the Worthy Mouterizes, in Anakara of Galatia (1391), this quote became the subject of controversy when it was used by Benedict XIV in his lecture "Faith, Reason and the University — Memories and Reflections" (12 September 2006)
Misattributed

„The mysterious name of God, revealed from the burning bush, a name which separates this God from all other divinities with their many names and simply asserts being, "I am", already presents a challenge to the notion of myth, to which Socrates' attempt to vanquish and transcend myth stands in close analogy. Within the Old Testament, the process which started at the burning bush came to new maturity at the time of the Exile, when the God of Israel, an Israel now deprived of its land and worship, was proclaimed as the God of heaven and earth and described in a simple formula which echoes the words uttered at the burning bush: "I am". This new understanding of God is accompanied by a kind of enlightenment, which finds stark expression in the mockery of gods who are merely the work of human hands (cf. Ps 115). Thus, despite the bitter conflict with those Hellenistic rulers who sought to accommodate it forcibly to the customs and idolatrous cult of the Greeks, biblical faith, in the Hellenistic period, encountered the best of Greek thought at a deep level, resulting in a mutual enrichment evident especially in the later wisdom literature. Today we know that the Greek translation of the Old Testament produced at Alexandria - the Septuagint - is more than a simple (and in that sense really less than satisfactory) translation of the Hebrew text: it is an independent textual witness and a distinct and important step in the history of revelation, one which brought about this encounter in a way that was decisive for the birth and spread of Christianity. A profound encounter of faith and reason is taking place here, an encounter between genuine enlightenment and religion. From the very heart of Christian faith and, at the same time, the heart of Greek thought now joined to faith, Manuel II was able to say: Not to act "with logos" is contrary to God's nature.“

—  Pope Benedict XVI

2006, Faith, Reason and the University — Memories and Reflections (2006)