Quotes from Pope Francis

Oh, how I would like a poor Church, and for the poor.

These days there is a lot of poverty in the world, and that's a scandal when we have so many riches and resources to give to everyone. We all have to think about how we can become a little poorer.

In Europe first and now in America, elected men have taken it upon themselves to indebt their people to create an atmosphere of dependency. And why? For their own selfish need to increase their own personal power.

Abortion isn't a lesser evil, it's a crime. Taking one life to save another, that's what the Mafia does. It's a crime. It's an absolute evil.

A man who does not know how to have a relationship of friendship with a woman - I'm not talking about misogynists, who are sick - well, he's a man who is missing something.

Every religion has its dignity ... in freedom of expression there are limits.

One cannot offend, make war, kill in the name of one's own religion, that is, in the name of God.

All political activity must serve and promote the good of the human person and be based on respect for his or her dignity.

Auschwitz cries out with the pain of immense suffering and pleads for a future of respect, peace and encounter among peoples.

Be sanctuaries of respect for life, proclaiming the sacredness of every human life from conception to natural death

It is God who gives life. Let us respect and love human life, especially vulnerable life in a mother's womb.

A friendship with a woman is not a sin. (It's) a friendship. A romantic relationship with a woman who is not your wife, that is a sin.

Proselytism is solemn nonsense, it makes no sense. We need to get to know each other, listen to each other and improve our knowledge of the world around us.

You tell me: Can you live crushed under the weight of the present? Without a memory of the past and without the desire to look ahead to the future by building something, a future, a family? Can you go on like this? This, to me, is the most urgent problem that the Church is facing.

Instead of being just a church that welcomes and receives by keeping the doors open, let us try also to be a church that finds new roads, that is able to step outside itself and go to those who do not attend Mass, to those who have quit or are indifferent.

If, hypothetically, Western Catholicism were to review the issue of celibacy, I think it would do so for cultural reasons, not so much as a universal option.

In the Western Church to which I belong, priests cannot be married as in the Byzantine, Ukrainian, Russian or Greek Catholic Churches. In those churches, the priests can be married, but the bishops have to be celibate. They are very good priests.

He who doesn't pray to the Lord prays to the devil.

A Christian who does not pray for those who govern is not a good Christian.

I believe in God - not in a Catholic God; there is no Catholic God. There is God, and I believe in Jesus Christ, his incarnation. Jesus is my teacher and my pastor, but God, the Father, Abba, is the light and the Creator. This is my Being.

Dear young people, Jesus gives us life, life in abundance. If we are close to him we will have joy in our hearts and a smile on our face.

I cannot imagine a Christian who does not know how to smile. May we joyfully witness to our faith.

It makes me sad when I find sisters who aren't joyful. They might smile, but with just a smile they could be flight attendants!

The measure of the greatness of a society is found in the way it treats those most in need, those who have nothing apart from their poverty!