Pope John Paul II (2005) quotes

56 total quotes

Karol Wojtyła/Pope John Paul II

View Quote [arriving in Warsaw, Poland]
Pope John Paul II: Your advice?
Agostino Cardinal Casaroli: You're a pope who cannot help his nature. You will tell the truth, and I will support you.
[Cardinal Wyszyński walks up the platform, embraces the pope and kisses his hand]
Stefan Cardinal Wyszyński: Welcome home, Father Karol. Holiness, your people are in the streets waiting to greet you.

View Quote [Cardinals Felici and Konig walk out onto the Basilica balcony]
Cardinal Felici: I announce to you a great joy, we have a new Pope!
[the crowd of people cheer]
Cardinal Felici: Cardinal Woj-ty-la!
[Karol, now Pope John Paul II, walks up the stairs ready to step out onto the loggia]
Master of Ceremonies: Your Holiness, at this time. It is customary to give only the apostolic blessing.

View Quote [Karol has just witnessed Marek killing two German soldiers with a switchblade. He runs over to one of the soldiers who is wounded, slowly dying. The German soldier points his gun at Karol's head]
Karol Wojtyła: Lord, most merciful God. Welcome this man's soul. [the soldier moves his gun away, dies] Forgive him his sins.
Marek: Let's go. [aggressively] Let's go! Stubborn. You are a fool, do you know that? You could've killed us both.
Karol Wojtyła: You didn't have to take their lives.
Marek: They were German.
Karol Wojtyła: They were human beings, Marek!
Marek: Not for what they do to us! They do not deserve to live!
Karol Wojtyła: God decides that. Not you!

View Quote [after his last public appearance] We will try again tomorrow...

View Quote [First Encyclical 'Redemptor Hominis'] Man cannot live without love. He remains a being that is comprehensible for himself. His life is senseless. If love is not revealed to him. If he does not encounter love. If he does not experience it, make it his own. If he does not participate intimately in it...

View Quote [learning about his illness] Let's get to it. I have work to do.

View Quote [now the new Pope, speaking in Italian] Praised be Jesus Christ. ["Always be praised"] Dear Brothers and Sisters, the eminent Cardinals have called a new bishop of Rome. They have called him from a far country... Also I don't know if... if I can make myself clear in your, in our Italian language. If I make a mistake, I know you will correct me.

View Quote [praying] Is this what you always intended to guide me? Like me, perhaps Peter felt great trepidation. Perhaps he would prefer to remain by his lake, with his boat and his nets, like me. In you, there must be suffering ahead. The pope needs to be intimate with suffering. So, guided by you, he arrived here. And now you ask me... to leave Kraków, and my people, my friends, my beloved mountains. If this... is real. So be it. Mary, Totus Tuus. I am all yours.

View Quote [seeing Roman for the first time after years] Praise God's mercy.

View Quote [struggling to walk] I'm a sportsman! I've always been a sportsman! Now every step I take, is like a knife.

View Quote [to Cardinal Ratzinger] It's worth suffering for the truth. Without such will, we should not undertake that path. These words are yours, aren't they?

View Quote [to his friends on sexuality] Listen, sexuality is dear to God. As long as it is an expression of true love. It is the matter we use to give ourselves to another person. Not for fun or for a moment. But completely. Sexuality expressed in an irresponsible moment is only another way that we can dehumanise each other.

View Quote [when being asked about the Soviets removing their cross from Nowa Huta] Next Christmas, we shall put it back. We will put it back until it stays.

View Quote Always remember, you are polish. And music is in your soul. Let me tell you one or two things. First, I love you all. [the crowd of people clap and cheer] Second, second, allow Christ to find you. Third, I wish I could stay with you here, and climb the Tatras. [the people start chanting "Stay with us!"] Too late. It's too late! Where were you last October when I was elected? [the people laugh]

View Quote Faced with this abyss of evil. I can only respond with an abyss of love.