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Faith was intended precisely for the simple, but the quest for certainty and simplicity becomes dangerous when it leads to fanaticism and narrow-mindedness. When reason as such becomes suspect, then faith itself becomes falsified.

Pope Benedict XVI

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Pope Benedict XVI
Age: 97
Born: 1927
Born: April 16
Philosopher
Pianist
Religious Writer
Roman Catholic Priest
Theologian
Transitional Deacon
University Teacher
Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger
Pope Benedict XVI
Josef Ratzinger
Benedetto XVI
Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI
Joseph Alois Ratzinger
Certainty
Fanaticism
Leads
Quests
Simplicity
Quest
Becomes
Suspect
Dangerous
Suspects
Simple
Intended
Faith
Narrow
Falsified
Reason
Precisely
Mindedness

More quotes by Pope Benedict XVI

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[Evangelization] is not something optional, but the very vocation of the People of God, a duty that corresponds to it by the command of the Lord Jesus Christ himself
Pope Benedict XVI
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...The baptized in their sense of mission, through prayer, the witness of life and Christian commitment in all its forms, so that all the faithful may become missionaries in the places where they live and that vocations will come forth to proclaim the Gospel to men who do not yet know it.
Pope Benedict XVI
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We ask the Blessed Virgin for the gift of conversion for all Christians, so that they may announce and give a faithful and coherent witness to the perennial evangelical message, which indicates to humanity the path to an authentic peace.
Pope Benedict XVI
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We will never forget that blessing. It was the most pained and moving blessing, which left us with the extreme testimony of his will to complete his ministry until the end.
Pope Benedict XVI
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Adoration outside Holy Mass prolongs and intensifies what has taken place in the liturgical celebration and makes a true and profound reception of Christ possible. I . . . warmly recommend, to Pastors and to all the faithful, the practice of Eucharistic adoration
Pope Benedict XVI
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The new evangelization ... begins in the confessional.
Pope Benedict XVI
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The closer a person is to God, the closer he is to people.
Pope Benedict XVI
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The Eucharistic sacrifice of the body and blood of Christ embraces in turn the mystery of our Lord's continuing passion in the members of his mystical body, the church in every age.
Pope Benedict XVI
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Anyone who has discovered Christ must lead others to him. A great joy cannot be kept to oneself. It has to be passed on.
Pope Benedict XVI
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Selfishness and fear are at the root of (pro-abortion) legislation...We in the Church have a great struggle to defend life...life is a gift not a threat.
Pope Benedict XVI
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Society today is being fragmented by a way of thinking that is inherently short-sighted because it disregards the full horizon of truth - the truth about God and about us. By its nature, relativism fails to see the whole picture. It ignores the very principles that enable us to live and flourish in unity, order and harmony.
Pope Benedict XVI
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Although the particular inclination of the homosexual person is not a sin, it is more or less strong tendency ordered to an intrinsic moral evil, and thus the inclination itself must be seen as an objective disorder.
Pope Benedict XVI
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Today, having a clear faith based on the Creed of the Church is often labeled today as fundamentalism. Whereas relativism, that is, letting oneself be tossed here and there, carried about by every wind of doctrine, seems the only attitude that can cope with modern times.
Pope Benedict XVI
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Art means: revealing God in everything that exists.
Pope Benedict XVI
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Celibacy is not a matter of compulsion. Someone is accepted as a priest only when he does it of his own accord.
Pope Benedict XVI
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Music, great music, distends the spirit, arouses profound emotions and almost naturally invites us to raise our minds and hearts to God in all situations of human existence, the joyful and the sad. Music can become prayer.
Pope Benedict XVI
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I thank you, dear Brothers, for preaching the love of Christ and exhorting your people to tolerance, respect and love of their brothers and sisters and of all persons. In this way you exercise the prophetic ministry that the Lord has entrusted to the Church, and in particular to the Successors of the Apostles (cf. Pastores Gregis, 26).
Pope Benedict XVI
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Standards of conduct appropriate to civil society or the workings of a democracy cannot be purely and simply applied to the Church.
Pope Benedict XVI
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For in this world, marked by sin, the gravitational pull of our lives is weighted by the chains of the I and the self. These chains must be broken to free us for a new love that places us in another gravitational field where we can enter new life.
Pope Benedict XVI
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In a world wounded by conflicts, where violence is justified in God's name, it's important to repeat that religion can never become a vehicle of hatred, it can never be used in God's name to justify violence.
Pope Benedict XVI