The Pope Francis Little Book of Insults

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THE POPE FRANCIS 

LITTLE BOOK OF INSULTS

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THE FULL, UPDATED POPE FRANCIS LITTLE BOOK OF INSULTS IS NOW AT A NEW WEBSITE HERE 


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"Old maid!"

"Fomenter of coprophagia!" 

"Specialist of the Logos!"

"Rosary counter!"

"Functionary!"

"Self-absorbed, Promethean neo-Pelagian!"

"Restorationist!"

"Ideological Christians!"

"Pelagian!"

"Mr and Mrs Whiner!"

"Triumphalist!"

"Rigid Christians!"

"Modern gnostics!"

"Liquid Christian!" 

"Superficial Christians!"

"Slaves of superficiality!" 

"Museum mummy!"

"Renaissance prince!"

"Airport Bishop!" 

"Leprous courtier!"

"Idealogue!"

"Long-faced, mournful funeral Christian!"

"Gnostic!"

"Careerist Bishop!"

"Sourpuss!"

"Authoritarian!"

"Elitist!" 

"Querulous and disillusioned pessimist!" 

"Sad Christian!"

"Pickled pepper-faced Christian!"

"Children! Afraid to dance! To cry! Afraid of everything!"

"Asker for certainty in all things!"

"Christians allergic to preaching!"

"Closed, sad, trapped Christian who is not a free Christian!"

"Pagan Christian!"

"Little monster!" 

"Defeated Christian!"

"Creed-reciting, parrot Christian!"

"Watered-down faith, weak-hoped Christian!"

"Inquisitorial beater!"

"Seminarians who grit their teeth and wait to finish!"

"Those who follow rules and smile [who] reveal the hypocrisy of clericalism - one of the worst evils!" 

 "Abstract ideologue!" 

"Fundamentalist!" 

"Smarmy, idolator priest!"

"Worshiper of the god Narcissus!"

"Vain, butterfly-priest!"

"Priest-wheeler dealer!"

"Priest-tycoon!"

"Religious who have a heart as sour as vinegar!" 

"Promoter of the poison of immanence!" 

“Those closed in the formality of a prayer that is cold, stingy [who]

 might end up as Michal, in the sterility of her formality.”

"Older people nostalgic for structures and customs which are no longer life-giving in today’s world!"

"Young people addicted to fashion!" 

"Pastry-Shop Christians!" 

"Luscious cakes, sweet dainties. Delectable, but not real Christians!"

"Existential tourist!" 

"Anesthetised Christian!"

"Christian hypocrites only interested in their formalities!"

“They disguise themselves, they disguise themselves as good people! 

"They make themselves up like little holy cards, looking up at heaven as they pray, making sure they are seen!" 

"They believe they are more righteous than others, they despise others!"

 ‘Mah,’ they say, “I’m very Catholic, because my uncle was a great benefactor, my family is this, I’m that… I’ve learned... I know this bishop, this Cardinal, this priest... I am this or that...’ 

"They think they are better than others. This is hypocrisy!" 

"Sloth-diseased, acedic Christians!"

“Catholics, but without enthusiasm, even embittered!"

"People without light – real downers!"

"Selfish Christans, out for themselves!”

“Christians who do not leave space for the grace of God!"

"Christians with all the paperwork, all the certificates, in order!”

"The theologian satisfied that his thought is complete and conclusive is mediocre!”

 “The theologian who does not pray and does not adore God ends up drowning in 

the most disgusting narcissism.”

“This is an ecclesiastical sickness!"

The narcissism of theologians and thinkers does such harm; it’s disgusting!"

“Your institutions are not machines for producing theologians and philosophers!” 

"Christian bats who prefer the shadows to the light!”

"Starched Christians!"

"Christians who are too polite! 

"Christians who speak of theology calmly over tea!"   

"Catholics who work for personal profit! 

"Catholics who presented themselves as benefactors of the Church and made money on the side!”

"Climbers! People driven by ambition!" 

"If you like climbing go to the mountains and climb them: it is healthier! Do not come to Church to climb!"

"A simple numerary in this sect!"

"Weathervanes!"

"Rotting in the heart, weak, weak to the point of rottenness! Gloomy in the heart!"

"Weak-hearted Christians!"

"So much sterility within our Mother Church: when because of the weight of the hope in the Commandments, that pelagianism that all of us carry within our bones, she becomes sterile. She believes she is capable of giving birth… no, she can’t!"

"The Church is more like an entrepreneur than a mother!"

"A discouraged, anxious, sad Church!" 

"Church who is more spinster than mother! 

"This Church isn’t useful, such a Church is no more than a museum!"

"Christians in appearance! 

"Made-up Christians, because when the rain comes, the make-up runs off!"

“So many ‘apparent Christians,’ collapse at the first temptation!”

"Christians of appearance! They are dead!"

“Band of the chosen” in that “ecclesiastical microclimate!”

"Christians who prefer a spectacle to the silence of the Kingdom of God!"

“Vain, pageant Christians!"

"Christians without strength, without fertility"!

"A Christian out for himself, to serve himself!" 

"Christian with a sad life!"

"Christians enemies of the Cross of Christ!"

"Pagans with two strokes of Christian paint, so as to appear like Christians, but pagans nonetheless!"

“A pastor who opens the doors of the Church and stays there, waiting, is sad!”

"Dark Christians who lead a life of sin, a life distant from the Lord who belong to the evil one!"

"Christians who are neither light nor dark!"

"Christians of grey areas on one side first and then the other!" 

'Is this person with God or the devil?' Always in the grey area! They are lukewarm! They are neither light nor dark! And God does not love these!"

"Christians who live for appearances, for vanity!"

 "Peacocks Christians! They strut about like peacocks!”

"Soap bubble Christian! The soap bubble is beautiful, with all its colours!"

"Moralistic quibbler!"

"Faraway contemplative!"

"Corrupt politicians, corrupt businessmen and corrupt clergymen everywhere!"

"The “uniformists”, whose manner is to “‘uniformize’ everything: everyone as equals!"

"They call themselves Christians, they call themselves Catholics, but their rigid attitude distances them from the Church!”

“Uniformists, alternativists and advantagists!”

"Swindlers! We’ve seen many of them, he said, essentially “parading about as benefactors and in the end, under the table, running their scams!”

"Proud, self-sufficient, detached from the people!"

"Intellectual aristocrats!" 

"They closed their doors and resist the Holy Spirit!"

"A Europe which is now a “grandmother”, no longer fertile and vibrant."

“A Curia that doesn’t criticise itself, that doesn’t update itself, that doesn’t seek to improve itself is a sick body!”

“Rest for those who have done their work is necessary, good and should be taken seriously.”

“It’s dangerous to lose that human sensibility that lets you cry with those who are crying, and celebrate those who are joyful!”

"The temptation of trying to close or direct the freedom of the Holy Spirit, which is bigger and more generous than any human plan!”

Working without coordination, like an orchestra that produces noise. “When the foot tells the hand, ‘I don’t need you’ or the hand tells the head ‘I’m in charge.’”

"They have spiritual Alzheimer's”. 

“We see it in the people who have forgotten their encounter with the Lord ... in those who depend completely on their here and now, on their passions, whims and manias!"

"Those who build walls around themselves and become enslaved to the idols that they have built with their own hands!”

“When one’s appearance, the colour of one’s vestments or honorific titles become the primary objective of life!”

"Existential schizophrenics”! 

“It’s the sickness of those who live a double life, fruit of hypocrisy that is typical of mediocre and progressive spiritual emptiness that academic degrees cannot fill!" 

"It’s a sickness that often affects those who, abandoning pastoral service, limit themselves to bureaucratic work, losing contact with reality and concrete people!”

Committing the “terrorism of gossip”!

“It’s the sickness of cowardly people who, not having the courage to speak directly, talk behind people’s backs!”

“It’s the sickness of those who court their superiors, hoping for their benevolence. They are victims of careerism and opportunism, they honour people who aren’t God!”

“When, out of jealousy or cunning, one finds joy in seeing another fall rather than helping him up and encouraging him!”

"They have a funereal face"”

“In reality, theatrical severity and sterile pessimism are often symptoms of fear and insecurity!"

“When the apostle tries to fill an existential emptiness in his heart by accumulating material goods, not because he needs them but because he’ll feel more secure!”

“This sickness always starts with good intentions but as time goes by, it enslaves its members by becoming a cancer that threatens the harmony of the body and causes so much bad scandals, especially to our younger brothers!”

“Those who insatiably try to multiply their powers and to do so are capable of calumny, defamation and discrediting others, even in newspapers and magazines, naturally to show themselves as being more capable than other!”

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"Jesus Christ did not come down from Heaven like a hero that comes to save us. No, Jesus Christ has a history!"

"A Christian without a people, a Christian without the Church is incomprehensible! it is something invented in a lab, something artificial, something lifeless!”

"It’s not being a religious fraud or something of that sort…No!"

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"A lukewarm heart becomes self-absorbed in lazy living and it stifles the fire of love!"


"The lukewarm person lives to satisfy his or her own convenience, which is never enough, and in that way is never satisfied; gradually such a Christian ends up being content with a mediocre life!"


"The lukewarm person allocates to God and others a “percentage” of their time and their own heart, never spending too much, but rather always trying to economize!"

"And so, he or she can lose the zest for life: rather like a cup of truly fine tea, which is unbearable to taste when it gets cold!"


"The one of thinking like masters, of giving oneself only in order to gain something or become someone. In such cases service becomes a means and not an end, because the end has become prestige; and then comes power, the desire to be great!"


"And this attachment to the Law ignores the Holy Spirit. It does not grant that the redemption of Christ goes forward with the Holy Spirit. It ignores that: there is only the Law!"

"It is true that there are the Commandments and we have to follow the Commandments; but always through the grace of this great gift that the Father has given us, His Son, and the gift of the Holy Spirit. And so the Law is understood!"


"But don’t reduce the Spirit and the Son to the Law. This was the problem of these people: they ignored the Holy Spirit, and they did not know to go forward!"

"Closed, closed in precepts: we have to do this, we have to do that. At times, it can happen that we fall into this temptation!”


"Those who preach with ideologies: It’s absolutely just! They bewitch: It’s all clear. But look, the revelation is not clear, eh? The revelation of God is discovered more and more each day, it is always on a journey. Is it clear? Yes! It is crystal clear! It is Him, but we have to discover it along the way!"

"And those who believe they have the whole truth in their hands are not [just] ignorant but bewitched!”

"Let Him tell us, not with the theology of the Law, but with the liberty of the Spirit, what we should do!”

"Christian mediocrities!"


“Shut up within our forms of material security, intellectual security, the security of our plans!”


"Your interior is wicked, is not good and is not free!" 

'You are slaves because you have not accepted the justice that comes from God, the justice that Jesus has given us!'"

“That inner freedom, that freedom to do good deeds in secret without blowing our trumpets!"

"Egoism, cupidity, arrogance, vanity and worldliness!"

"They follow a “cosmetic” religion: (about) show, appearance and pretending to be something!"

“Hypocrisy is an internal division!" 

"Spiritual schizophrenic!"

"Hypocrisy is a dissembler!"

"They seem good and polite but they have a dagger behind their backs!"

"A two-faced hypocrite!"

"Pretender!"

"Existential nominalist!" 

"Those who believe that by saying the things that everything is done. No. Things must be done not just said!"

"Nominalist hypocrite!"

"The hypocrite is unable to accuse him or herself!" 

"They never find a stain on themselves, they accuse others!" 

"Think about the splinter and the log right? And it’s in this way that we can describe that leaven which is hypocrisy!”

“I remember that for Carnival, when we were children, our grandmother made biscuits and it was a very thin, thin, thin pastry that she made. Afterwards she placed it in the oil and that pastry swelled and swelled and when we began to eat it, it was empty. And our grandmother told us that in the dialect they were called lies – ‘these are like lies: they seem big but there’s nothing inside them, there’s nothing true there, there’s nothing of substance!’

"With what spirit am I praying? With what spirit do I turn to others? With a spirit that builds? Or with a spirit that becomes air?"


"Children never ever tell a lie during confession; they never talk about abstract things. ‘I’ve done this, I’ve done that, I’ve done……’ Concrete things!"

"A loyal and transparent person or a hypocrite?”

"Studying the catechism teaches us who Christ is. But this is not enough!"


"When a pastor during his life was attached to other things, rather than to the faithful - for example he was attached to power, money, being part of a clique, to many things - then at his death he won’t be alone, maybe his grandchildren (heirs) will be there waiting for him to die so they can see what possessions they can take away with them!”

"Behind an attitude of rigidity there is always something else in the life of a person!"

"Rigidity is not a gift of God!

"Rigidity conceals the leading of a double life, something pathological!"

“They appear good because they follow the Law; but they are concealing something else!" 

"Either they are hypocritical or they are sick! And they suffer!”

“It is not easy to walk within the Law of the Lord without falling into rigidity!”

"Those who think that by becoming rigid they are following the path of the Lord!"

“Perhaps the Kingdom of God is a very well-made structure, everything tidy, organization charts all done, everything and the person who does not enter (into this structure) is not in the Kingdom of God!"

"Unchanging, rigidity…the Law is about moving forward, the Kingdom of God is moving forward, it is not standing still!"

“A rigid person only has masters and no father!"

“God became man in order to be able to weep, to weep over what His children had done!"

“Even nowadays in front of the calamities, the wars waged in order to worship the god of money, the many innocent people killed by the bombs launched by those who worship the idol of money, God still weeps and He also says: ‘Jerusalem, Jerusalem, my children, what are you doing?’

"Every time I enter a prison I ask myself ‘Why them and not I?’

"Those who say “I’m in charge here?”

"Duplicitous and playing one hand off against the other!" 

"Those who play the ‘God’ card and the ‘world’ card at the same time!"

"These obstacles of dishonesty and the pursuit of power leave us with an ‘itch’ in our hearts!"

"In constant tension, concerned only about appearances and the worldly desires of fame and fortune!"

“A ‘show’ religion: one that is always seeking new things, revelations, messages!"

"Like fireworks that lit you up for a moment and then what is left behind? Nothing! No growth, there is no light, there’s nothing! Just an instant!"

"This entertainment religion of seeking things that are extraneous to the revelation, to the meekness of the Kingdom of God that is among us and which grows! For this is not about hope, this is about the desire to have something in our hands!"

"This artificial brightness only lasts an instant and then it dies away, like fireworks: they are not needed for giving light to a house. It’s just a show!”

"Whoever says that Christian love is something else is the antichrist! Who does not recognize that the Word became Flesh!"

“A love that does not recognize that Jesus came in the Flesh is not the love that God is asking of us. This is a worldly love, a philosophical love, an abstract love, a love that has flagged, a ‘soft’ or weak love. No!"

"That is a really strong word, isn’t it? ….proagon, whoever walks beyond. And it’s from this that all the ideologies spring: the ideologies on love, the ideologies on the Church, the ideologies that strip the Flesh of Christ from the Church. These ideologies strip away the Flesh of the Church!"

‘Yes, I’m a Catholic, yes I’m a Christian, I love the whole world with a universal love’… But this is so ethereal. Love is always interior, concrete and does not go beyond the doctrine of the Incarnation of the Word!”

"And let’s not arrive at the sad spectacle of a God without Christ, of a Christ without the Church and a Church without its people!”

“Those with anaesthetized consciences!"

"There is no peace in the homes of the prosperous as long as justice is lacking in the home of everyone!”

"That calm which deceives!"

“Sufferers of spiritual sclerosis!"

"If, in the heart of the Church, of a family, of a community, of a person there is an ever-present calm, God is not there!”

"And I urge you to buy white clothes in which to dress, so that your shameful nakedness is not seen! 

"The lukewarm are not aware they are naked!”

"The lukewarm lose the capacity to contemplate, the capacity to see the great and beautiful things of God!"

"Christians who are not aware when the Lord knocks for whom every noise is the same!”

"And the money-lord that enters into the house of God, is constantly seeking to enter inside!"

"Renting their places, right? – from the priests… the priests were renting out those places and then received money!"

"Those who are attached to money!”

“So many weaknesses, so many sins by priests but they cannot forgive two of them: attachment to money!" 

"When they see a priest attached to money, they do not forgive him, and mistreating people, because when a priest mistreats the faithful!" 

"The people of God can’t accept this and they do not forgive him!"

"The other things, the other weaknesses, the other sins ….. yes ok, it’s not right but the poor man is alone, it’s this…And they seek to justify (his sins)."

 Following the lord of money leads a priest to be the head of a firm or be a prince or we can go even higher!”

“It’s sad to see a priest who’s at the end of his life, he’s in agony, he’s in a coma and his relatives are there like vultures, looking to see what they can take away!"

‘These teraphims hidden in the heart, this idol of money!’

"Little by little, differences turn into symptoms of hostility, threats and violence!"

"This epidemic of animosity and violence, which leaves its mark on the flesh of many of the defenceless!" 

"This pathology of indifference!"

"The pathology of indifference which is tangibly evident in the College of Cardinals!"

"Alienation,’ estrangement, the deception of superficial things that do not have transcendence!" 

Those who suffer "the deception of ‘living as though we never had to die!’

"Not theatrical humility: no, not that!"


“There will be a surprise, because He is the Lord of surprises who does not stand still!”


"The doctors of the Law knew everything, all the dogmas of that time, all the morals of that time, everything!" 

"They did not have faith, because their hearts were far from God!"

Pope Francis in his Consistory Address to Cardinals in 2016

“The most ‘dangerous’ obstacles are the hidden ones because they do not show themselves!"

"The type of obstacle that Stephen accused the Doctors of Law of concealing whilst they wanted to appear as though they were in search of the glory of God!"

“Think of when there is a process of change in an institution or in a family. I hear you say: 'But, there are obstacles… (…) Those kinds of obstacles are put there by the devil, to stop the Lord from going ahead!”

The obstacle of ‘empty words’ which he illustrated with the example provided by the Gospel reading of the day! “Saying yes, yes, diplomatically; but then it is 'no, no, no'. So many words” he said. Saying yes – the Pope continued – so as not change anything is the ‘resistance of empty words.’

And then, he said, there is the “obstacle of words that justify": that’s when a person constantly justifies himself – he always finds a reason to oppose.

Too many excuses do not exude the good “aroma of God” but the “bad stink of the devil!”

"The resistance of words which I use “to attempt to justify my position when I do not follow what the Lord is indicating”.

"The obstacle of "accusatory words": when we accuse others so as not to look to ourselves. In this case too we are ‘resisting’ conversion and grace!

"The Doctors of the Law, “began to discuss, to murmur,” because they weren’t able to accept His authority!"

"Only two coats of paint, and we believe that with this the story’s over. No!"


"This is a very ugly thing! It is like the venom of a serpent” that seeks “to destroy the other!

“A man with a bitter heart, someone who always had something to criticize in others, he was always ‘detached’!" 

"He did not know the sweetness that comes of living without second ends with others!" 

"An unsatisfied man!”

"That darkness can lead to living a double life: a double life that, perhaps painfully, many Christians, even priests and bishops lead!”

"When Judas hanged himself he had repented. I believe that the Lord will take that word [repentance] and bring it with Him!” 

"He who does not know the caresses of the Lord does not know Christian doctrine!"

"He who does not allow himself to be caressed by the Lord is lost!”

The priest who abandons the task of being a mediator and instead prefers to be an intermediary is unhappy, and soon becomes sad!" 

"He will seek happiness in vaunting himself and making his “authority” felt!

"Go-betweens who like to stroll the squares to be seen!"

“But to make themselves important, intermediary priests must take the path of rigidity!" 

"Disconnected from the people, they do not know what human suffering is!"

They are rigid, [they are] those rigid ones that load upon the faithful so many things that they do not carry [themselves]!" 

"Rigid Intermediaries!"

"They face the people of God with a switch in their hand!"

"‘This cannot be, this cannot be ...’. And so many people approaching, looking for a bit of consolation, a little understanding, are chased away with this rigidity!”

"Rigidity – which wrecks one’s interior life and even psychic balance – goes hand-in-glove with worldliness!"

“About rigidity and worldliness, it was some time ago that an elderly monsignor of the curia came to me, who works, a normal man, a good man, in love with Jesus – and he told me that he had gone to buy a couple of shirts at Euroclero [the clerical clothing store] and saw a young fellow - he thinks he had not more than 25 years, or a young priest or about to become a priest - before the mirror, with a cape, large, wide, velvet, with a silver chain. He then took the Saturno [wide-brimmed clerical headgear], he put it on and looked himself over. A rigid and worldly one. And that priest – he is wise, that monsignor, very wise - was able to overcome the pain, with a line of healthy humor and added: ‘And it is said that the Church does not allow women priests!’. Thus, does the work that the priest does when he becomes a functionary ends in the ridiculous, always!”

"The go-between is sad, always with that sad face or the too serious, dark face!" 

"The intermediary has the dark eyes, very dark!" 

"Intermediaries!”

"Judas was a traitor, he sinned gravely, eh! He sinned forcefully. But then the Gospel says, “He repented, and went to them to return the money.” And what did they do? “But you were our associate. Be calm… We have the power to forgive you for everything!” No! “Make whatever arrangement you can!” [they said.] “It’s your problem!”

"These people had forgotten what it was to be a pastor! 

"Intellectuals of religion!" 

"Those who had the power, who advanced the catechesis of the people with a morality composed by their own intelligence and not by the revelation!"

"A law that they have remade many times: so many times, to the point that they had arrived at 500 commandments. Everything was regulated, everything!"

"A law scientifically constructed, because this people was wise, they understood well. They made all these nuances, no!?"

"They had juridical, moral, religious authority, they decided everything!"

“Intellectualistic, sophisticated, casuistic – they cancelled the law the Lord had made!"

“Intellectuals of religion seduced by clericalism!”

"Clerics feel they are superior, they are far from the people!" 

"They have no time to hear the poor, the suffering, prisoners, the sick”!

"The evil of clericalism is a very ugly thing!" 

"It is a new edition of these people. And the victim is the same: the poor and humble people that awaits the Lord!"

‘But this is not orthodox, this is heretical, this is not the Messiah I expected.’ The devil does this work, and some friend also helps, no?!"

"But it is certain that if a pastor today said in the Sunday homily, “Among you there are some who are a race of vipers, and there are many adulterers,” certainly the Bishop would receive disconcerting letters: “But send away this pastor who insults us.”

Although John was great, strong, secure in his vocation, “he still had dark moments, he had his doubts.”

"In fact, John began to doubt in prison, even though he had baptized Jesus, “because he was a Saviour that was not as he had imagined him.”

"No sterile nostalgia or empty recollection of an idealized and disembodied past!"


"More interested in watching soap operas, in gossiping, in pursuing an ambition or talking about the lives of others!"

"The bewilderment of one who sits atop his wealth yet cannot see beyond it!" 

"The bewilderment lodged in the hearts of those who want to control everything and everyone!"

"The bewilderment of those immersed in the culture of winning at any cost, in that culture where there is only room for “winners”, whatever the price!"

"A bewilderment born of fear and foreboding before anything that challenges us, calls into question our certainties and our truths, our ways of clinging to the world and this life!"

"For those are worldly categories, the paltry idols to which we pay homage: the cult of power, outward appearances and superiority!"

"This sense of being orphaned lodges in a narcissistic heart capable of looking only to itself and its own interests!"

"This attitude of spiritual orphanhood is a cancer that silently eats away at and debases the soul!"

"The corrosive disease of being 'spiritual orphans'!"

"These doctors of the law that the people…yes, they heard, they respected, but they didn’t feel that they had authority over them!" 

"A psychology of princes!"

"[Saying] ‘We are the masters, the princes, and we teach you. Not service: we command, you obey!"’ 

"And Jesus never passed Himself off like a prince!" 

"Jesus was always the servant of all, and this is what gave Him authority!"

"They despised “the poor people, the ignorant!” 

"They like to walk about the piazzas, in nice clothing!"

"Detached from the people, they were not close!" 

"Jesus was very close to the people, and this gave authority!"

"Those detached people!"

"These doctors with a clericalist psychology!"

"They taught with a clericalist authority – that’s clericalism!"

"That’s where you find the authority of the Pope, closeness!" 

"The head is the one who serves, who turns everything upside down, like an iceberg!"

"They said one thing and did another. Incoherence. They were incoherent!"


"One who considers himself a prince who has a clericalist attitude, who is a hypocrite, doesn’t have authority!" 

"He speaks the truth, but without authority!"

"Open to the Lord, not closed, not hard, not hardened, not without faith, not perverted, not deceived by sin!"


"The Lord has met so many of these, who had closed their hearts!" 

"The doctors of the law, all these people who persecuted him, put him to the test to convict him!"

"There were other times when people wanted to make Jesus King, thinking He was “the perfect politician!”

“Those who didn’t move…and watched. They were sitting down…watching from the balcony!" 

"Their life was not a journey: their life was a balcony!"

"From their balconies they never took risks. They just judged. They were pure and wouldn’t get involved. But their judgements were severe!"


"In their hearts they said: What ignorant people! What superstitious people! How often, when we see the piety of simple people! 

"That clericalism that hurts the Church so much!"

The man who “sat beside the pool for 38 years, without moving, embittered by life, without hope…someone else who failed to follow Jesus and had no hope!”

“Following Jesus according to the rules of an insurance company!” 

"That’s not the way to follow Jesus. That way you don’t move, like those who judge!”

"Watching life with a soul that is static!"

"A soul that is closed with bitterness and lack of hope?"


“Living in the fridge! So that everything stays the same!”

“Lazy Christians!"

"Christians who do not have the will to go forward!"

"Christians who don’t fight to make things change, new things, the things that would do good for everyone, if these things would change!"

"Lazy, “parked” Christians!" 

"They have found in the Church a good place to park!"

"And when I say Christians, I’m talking about laity, priests, bishops…Everyone. But there are parked Christians!"

"For them the Church is a parking place that protects life, and they go forward with all the insurance possible!"

"Stationary Christians!"

"Beware of still water, that which doesn’t flow, it is the first to go bad!”

“Lazy Christians don’t have hope, they are in retirement!" 

"It is beautiful to go into retirement after many years of work, but, spending your whole life in retirement is ugly!”

"In the struggle of everyday, hope is a virtue of horizons, not of closure!"

“Life does not come to any of us wrapped up like a gift!"

“Those who go forward make mistakes, while those who are stationary seem to not make mistakes!”

“You can’t walk because everything is dark, everything is closed!”

"Parked Christians, stationary Christians, are selfish!" 

"They look only at themselves, they don’t raise their heads to look at Him!"

“A Christian life without temptations is not Christian: it is ideological, it is Gnostic, but it is not Christian!"


“I like to think about joking with the Lord: ‘You don’t have a good memory!’ This is the weakness of God: when God forgives, He forgets!”

"An egotistical mindset, focused on themselves: their hearts constantly condemned others!"


“Often people tell me that when they pray they get angry with the Lord...this too is prayer!"

"Doing the Lord’s will, but only superficially, like the doctors of the law that Jesus condemned because they were pretending!"


"When one goes along the street and an unexpected rain comes, and the garment is not so good and the fabric shrinks!"

"Confined souls!" 

"This is faintheartedness: this is the sin against memory, courage, patience, and hope!"

"Afraid of everything… Confined souls in order to save ourselves!"

"The fainthearted, those “who always go backward, who guard themselves too much, who are afraid of everything!"

‘Not taking risks, please, no… prudence…’ All the commandments, all of them… Yes, it’s true, but this paralyzes you too! 

"It makes you forget so many graces received, it takes away memory, it takes away hope, because it doesn’t allow you to go forward!"

"Statisticians might have been inclined to publish: ‘Rabbi Jesus’ popularity is falling’. But he sought something else: he sought people! And the people sought him!"

"The survival mentality!"

"The survival mentality makes us look back, to the glory days – days that are past!"

"Rather than rekindling the prophetic creativity born of our founders’ dreams, it looks for shortcuts in order to evade the challenges knocking on our doors today!"

"The survial mentality makes us want to protect spaces, buildings and structures, rather than to encourage new initiatives!" 

"The temptation of survival makes us forget grace!"

"A survival mentality robs our charisms of power, because it leads us to “domesticate” them, to make them “user-friendly”, robbing them of their original creative force!"

"The temptation of survival: An evil that can gradually take root within us and within our communities!"

"Professionals of the sacred!"

"Reactionaries!" 

"Fearful, slowly and silently shutting ourselves up in our houses and in our own preconceived notions!"

"An environment of survival withers the hearts of our elderly, taking away their ability to dream!"

"Crippling the prophecy that our young are called to proclaim and work to achieve!"

"Turning what the Lord presents as an opportunity for mission into something dangerous, threatening, potentially disastrous." 

"This attitude is not limited to the consecrated life, but we in particular are urged not to fall into it!"

"Religious activists”!"

"Those who don't receive the things of God as a gift! Only as Justice: ‘These are the Commandments: but they are few, let’s make more!"

"Instead of opening their heart to the gift, they hid, have sought refuge in the rigidity of the Commandments, which they had multiplied up to 500 or more!"

"These rigid characters were afraid of the freedom that God gives us: they were afraid of love!”

The closed, sad prayer of the person who never knew how to receive a gift because he is afraid of freedom that always carries with it a gift.

"Such a one knows only how to do duty, but closed duty!" 

"Slaves of duty, but not love!" 

"When you become a slave of love, you are free!" 

"It is a beautiful bondage that, but such men did not understand that!”

"The rigidity of the closed Commandments, that are more and more “safe” – with emphasis on the scare-quotes!"

"But that does not give joy, because they do not make you free!"

"In order to understand a woman, it is necessary first to dream of her.”

"No, no, no! The woman is there to bring harmony!" 

"Without the woman there is no harmony!"

"They are not equal; one is not superior to the other!"

 "The man does not bring harmony!"

"Functionality is not the purpose of women!"

"Exploiting persons is a crime of ‘lèse-humanité’: it’s true. But exploiting a woman is even more serious!" 

"It is destroying the harmony that God has chosen to give to the world. It is to destroy!”

“There are so many corrupt people, corrupt ‘big fish’ in the world, whose lives we read about in the papers!" 

"Perhaps they began with a small thing, I don’t know, maybe not adjusting the scales well!"

"Corruption begins in small things like this, with dialogue!" 

"No, it’s not true that this fruit will harm you. Eat it, it’s good! It’s a little thing, no one will notice. Do it! Do it!’ And little by little, little by little, you fall into sin, you fall into corruption.”

"The speck of sawdust becomes a plank in the eye, your life revolves around it and it ends up destroying the bond of brotherhood; it destroys fraternity!”

“Even within our episcopal colleagues there are small cracks and rifts that can lead to the destruction of brotherhood!"

“If you insult your brother, you have killed him in your heart!”

“The Word of God cannot be given as a proposal – ‘well, if you like it…’ – or like good philosophical or moral idea – ‘well, you can live this way…’No!"

"No, you will say, yes, something interesting, something moral, something that will do you good, a good philanthropy, but this is not the Word of God!"

"The spirit of Cain which – for envy, jealousy, greed, and the desire to dominate – leads to war!”

‘I am in this diocese but look at how important that one is and I try to influence someone, or put pressure, to get somewhere…'

"Infighting in a parish: ‘I want to be the president of this association, in order to climb the ladder!" 

"Who is the greatest here? Who is the greatest in this parish? No, I am the most important here; not that person there because he did something…’ And that is the chain of sin.”

"‘I am very Catholic, I always go to Mass, I belong to this association and that one; but my life is not Christian!" 

"'I don’t pay my workers a just wage, I exploit people, I am dirty in my business, I launder money…’ A double life!"

"And so many Christians are like this, and these people scandalize others!"

"How many times have we heard – all of us, around the neighbourhood and elsewhere!" 

"To be a Catholic like that; it’s better to be an atheist!’"

"It is that, scandal! You destroy! You beat down!"

"And this happens every day, it’s enough to see the news on TV, or to read the papers!"

"In the papers there are so many scandals, and there is also the great publicity of the scandals. And with the scandals there is destruction!”

"But you will arrive in heaven and you will knock at the gate: ‘Here I am, Lord!’ – ‘But don’t you remember? I went to Church, I was close to you, I belong to this association, I did this..." 

"Don’t you remember all the offerings I made?’ ‘Yes, I remember. The offerings, I remember them: All dirty. All stolen from the poor! I don’t know you!’ That will be Jesus’ response to these scandalous people who live a double life!"

"They think of the faith only in terms of ‘Yes, you can,” or “No, you can’t” – to the limits of what you can do, the limits of what you can’t do!"

"That logic of casuistry!"

"Even with the fourth commandment these people refused to assist their parents with the excuse that they had given a good offering to the Church. Hypocrites!"

"Casuistry is hypocritical. It is a hypocritical thought!"

"‘Yes, you can; no, you can’t’… which then becomes more subtle, more diabolical!"

"But what is the limit for those who can? But from here to here I can’t!"

"It is the deception of casuistry!"

“But what is more important in God? Justice or mercy?’ This, too, is a sick thought!"

"Scandal is saying one thing and doing another; it is a double life, a double life!"

"A totally double life!" 

"We see Peter asking the Lord what will happen to them, as they have given up everything to follow him. “It’s almost as if Peter is passing Jesus the bill!”

"The toxic pollution of empty and meaningless words!"

"Spiritual asphyxia!" 

"Spiritual asphyxia born of the pollution caused by indifference!”

"A prayer that soothes our conscience!" 

"An almsgiving that leaves us self-satisfied!" 

"A fasting that makes us feel good!" 

"No to all forms of exclusion!”

"The toxic pollution of empty and meaningless words, of harsh and hasty criticism, of simplistic analyses that fail to grasp the complexity of problems!"

"The asphyxia born of relationships that exclude!"

"Those forms of spirituality that reduce the faith to a ghetto culture!" 

"A culture of exclusion!"

“A fasting that is ‘hypocritical’ that makes you see yourself as just, or makes you feel just, but in the meantime I have practiced iniquities!" 

"'I am not just, I exploit the people'!"

"Those who take a bribe: the bribe of vanity, the bribe of being seen!" 

"And that is not authentic! That is hypocrisy!"

“They do not know concreteness! If there is no concreteness, there can be no conversion!”