Let Us Learn From Christ How To

The Church Is Called To Draw Near To Every Person, Beginning With The Poorest And Those Who Suffer.

Accompanying The People In Their Growth Through Good Times And Also Through Their Difficulties, Accompanying People In Their Joy And In Their Bad Moments, In Their Difficulties When There Is No Work, Ill Health And The Challenge Of The Church.

There Is A Danger That Threatens Everyone In The Church, All Of Us. The Danger Of Worldliness. It Leads Us To Vanity, Arrogance And Pride.

We Could Also Say That There Is Only One Real Kind Of Poverty: Not Living As Children Of God And Brothers And Sisters Of Christ.

In This Case [the Charlemagne Prize], I Don't Say (i Was) Forced, But Convinced By The Holy And Theological Headstrongness Of Cardinal [walter] Kasper, Because He Was Chosen, Elected By Aachen To Convince Me. And I Said Yes, But In The Vatican. And I Said I Offer It For Europe, As A Co-decoration For Europe, A Prize So That Europe May Do What I Desired At Strasburg; That It May No Longer Be "grandmother Europe" But "mother Europe."