Conclave Quotes

“My brothers and sisters, in the course of a long life in the service of our Mother the Church, let me tell you that the one sin I have come to fear more than any other is certainty. Certainty is the great enemy of unity. Certainty is the deadly enemy of tolerance. Even Christ was not certain at the end. 'Eli Eli, lama sabachtani?' He cried out in His agony at the ninth hour on the cross. 'My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?' Our faith is a living thing precisely because it walks hand in hand with doubt. If there was only certainty, and if there was no doubt, there would be no mystery, and therefore no need for faith.”
― Robert Harris, Conclave

“....let me tell you that the one sin I have come to fear more than any other is certainty. Certainty is the great enemy of unity. Certainty is the deadly enemy of tolerance. Even Christ was not certain at the end........Our faith is a living thing precisely because it walks hand in hand with doubt. If there was only certainty, and if there was no doubt, there would be no mystery, and therefore no need for faith.”
― Robert Harris, Conclave

“No one who ever follows their conscience ever does wrong. The consequences may not turn out as we intended; it may prove that we made a mistake. But that is not the same as being wrong.”
― Robert Harris, Conclave

“Any man who is truly worthy must consider himself unworthy.”
― Robert Harris, Conclave

“An excess of simplicity, after all, was just another form of ostentation, and pride in one’s humility a sin.”
― Robert Harris, Conclave

“Our faith is a living thing precisely because it walks hand in hand with doubt. If there was only certainty, and if there was no doubt, there would be no mystery, and therefore no need for faith.”
― Robert Harris, Conclave

“Truth, in other words, was a matter of perspective.”
― Robert Harris, Conclave

“Certainty is the deadly enemy of tolerance.”
― Robert Harris, Conclave

“I am what God made me”
― Robert Harris, Conclave

“From the Latin, con clavis: 'with a key'.”
― Robert Harris, Conclave

“Out of the crooked timber of humanity, no straight thing was ever made…”
― Robert Harris, Conclave

“No one who follows their conscience ever does wrong, Your Eminence. The consequences may not turn out as we intend; it may prove in time that we made a mistake. But that is not the same as being wrong. The only guide to a person’s actions can ever be their conscience, for it is in our conscience that we most clearly hear the voice of God.”
― Robert Harris, Conclave

“The vulgar always assumed it was best to try to know everything; in his experience it was often better to know as little as possible.”
― Robert Harris, Conclave

“We serve an ideal; we cannot always be ideal.”
― Robert Harris, Conclave

“What sin therefore did she have to confess? Where was her guilt? And yet carrying the burden of it had been the ruin of her life.”
― Robert Harris, Conclave

“In the United Kingdom – that godless isle of apostasy,”
― Robert Harris, Conclave

“We do not need a Church that will move with the world but a Church that will move the world.”
― Robert Harris, Conclave

“We are an ark.......surrounded by a rising flood of discord”
― Robert Harris, Conclave

“He was unable to get it out of his mind. Was it really possible that he had spent the past thirty years worshipping the church rather than God? Because that, in essence, was the accusation Benitez had leveled against him.”
― Robert Harris, Conclave

“He slipped his arms into the scarlet woollen cassock and fastened the thirty-three buttons that ran from his neck to his ankles—one button for each year of Christ’s life. Around his waist he tied the red watered-silk sash of the cincture, or fascia, designed to remind him of his vow of chastity, and checked to make sure its tasselled end hung to a point midway up his left calf. Then he pulled over his head the thin white linen rochet—the symbol, along with the mozzetta, of his judicial authority. The bottom two-thirds and the cuffs were of white lace with a floral pattern. He tied the tapes in a bow at his neck and tugged the rochet down so that it extended to just below his knees. Finally he put on his mozzetta, an elbow-length nine-buttoned scarlet cape.”
― Robert Harris, Conclave

“In my experience, the basest sins are often committed for the highest motives.”
― Robert Harris, Conclave

“I want a Church that is poor,” the Pope had complained more than once in Lomeli’s hearing. “I want a Church that is closer to the people. Guttuso has a good soul but he has”
― Robert Harris, Conclave

“The Filipino was fingering his rosary, entirely absorbed. Lomeli felt intrusive merely watching. Yet he found it hard to look away. He envied him. It was a long time since he had been able to muster the powers of concentration necessary to shut oneself off from the world. His own head these days was always full of noise.”
― Robert Harris, Conclave

“Francis George: I expect to die in my bed, my successor will die in prison, and his successor will die a martyr in the public square.”
― Robert Harris, Conclave

“Wir brauchen eine Kirche, die die Welt bewegt, keine, die sich mit der Welt bewegt”
― Robert Harris, Conclave

“• “Das ist eine außerordentliche Anschuldigung. Die Kirche ist nicht nur eine Institution, wie Sie sie nennen, sondern lebendige Verkörperung des Heiligen Geistes.” “Ah, da gehen unsere Meinungen wohl auseinander. Ich habe den Eindruck, der Verkörperung des Heiligen Geistes eher woanders zu begegnen- zum Beispiel in jenen zwei Millionen vergewaltigten Frauen, die der Militärpolitik in den Bürgerkriegen Zentralafrikas zum Opfer fielen.” Lomeli war sprachlos. Es dauerte einige Sekunden, bevor er antworten konnte. “Ich kann Ihnen versichern, dass ich nie meinen Eid vor Gott brechen würde” sagte er schließlich steif. “ Egal welche Konsequenzen das für die Kirche hätte”
― Robert Harris, Conclave

“Die Unfehlbarkeit des Papstes gilt für die Glaubenslehre. Nicht für die Ernennungen.” [von Kardinälen]”
― Robert Harris, Conclave

“We do not need a church that will move with the world, we need a church that will move the world!”
― Robert Harris, Conclave

“No one who follows their conscience ever does wrong. - Cardinal Vincent Benitez”
― Robert Harris, Conclave

“The vulgar always assumed it was best to try to know everything; in his experience it was often better to know as little as possible. “Before”
― Robert Harris, Conclave