Celibacy is always, shall we say, an affront to what man normally thinks. It is something that can be done, and is only credible, if there is a God and if celibacy is my doorway into the kingdom of God.
Those who with God's help have welcomed Christ's call and freely responded to it are urged on by love of Christ to proclaim the Good News everywhere in the world.
To live without faith, without a patrimony to defend, without a steady struggle for truth – that is not living, but existing.
That Christianity gives joy and breadth is also a thread that runs through my whole life. Ultimately someone who is always only in opposition could not endure life at all.
For many people today, practical atheism is the normal rule of life...If this attitude becomes a general existential position, then freedom no longer has any standards, then everyting is possible and permissible.
There really is never good news whenever one of the prince-of-heresy Cardinal Mars opens his rather evil mouth, or so it seems. I am not the only one to have discovered this, obviously:
Wise words from the future Pope Benedict XVI on fasting, reflecting on a conversation he had previously had with an Orthodox patriarch:
Distinctions Matter
Distinctions Matter Forward
Missale Romanum
Pre-1951 Calendar