Quotes of the Week April 3

“What happened yesterday was a shameful act. They most probably chased us for the money, but the danger lies in the repercussions of what could have happened.”

Catholic Maronite Bishop Simon Atallah of Baalbek-Deir El-Ahmar, Lebanon, speaks of an attempt to kidnap him on March 25.

 

“The continued attacks against Christians, including Armenian Apostolic Orthodox Christians and Armenian Catholics, in Syria are unacceptable.”

Canada’s Ambassador for Religious Freedom, Andrew Bennett, reacts to news of a militant attack on the Christian Syrian town of Kesab, in which the Christian community was driven out and churches desecrated.

 

“If there are fewer children, there is less development. There is more sadness, more violence. This is why families have the first responsibility to give life. They must understand that to give life means also to do so in fact! It’s not abstract – give it with children and not with theory. In this sense, the family safeguards creation also in the measure in which they obey that which the Lord said at the beginning: be fruitful and multiply, and safeguard the creation.”

Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, president of the Pontifical Council for the Family, speaking during a sponsored day of reflection on the family.

“The culture of death advances, in large part, because of a lack of attention and information among the general public. What is more, the thoroughly galvanised anti-life and anti-family agenda of the pervasive secular mass media confuses and corrupts minds and hearts, and dulls consciences to the law written by God upon every human heart.”

Cardinal Raymond Burke, prefect of the Apostolic Signatura, argues for a pro-life and pro-family media during an Alliance Defending Freedom’s Catholic Media Symposium in Rome.

 

"We are called to be one, and the Pope is coming to remind us of this and renew the spirit of unity and fraternal love.”

Latin Patriarch Fouad Twal of Jerusalem, speaking as the Vatican released the full schedule of Pope Francis’ official visit to the Holy Land this May 24-26.