St. Thomas Aquinas on the sacramental character of Christ (STh., III q.63 a.3 ad 1)

Catholics believe that baptism fully remits our sins. Not only does it wash away original sin, filling us with God's sanctifying grace, but it also washes away all personal sin and the temporal punishment due for it. All sins prior to baptism are completely cleansed, if you died immediately after baptism your soul would immediately enter heaven (no purgation needed).

(The Catholic Encyclopedia on Baptism)

"We are always tempted to start from ourselves rather than from God, to put our own agendas before the Gospel, to let ourselves be caught up in the winds of worldliness in order to chase after the fashions of the moment or to turn our back on the time that Providence has granted us, in order to retrace our steps. Yet let us be careful: both the “progressivism” that lines up behind the world and the “traditionalism” – or “looking backwards” – that longs for a bygone world are not evidence of love, but of infidelity. They are forms of a Pelagian selfishness that puts our own tastes and plans above the love that pleases God, the simple, humble and faithful love that Jesus asked of Peter."
- Pope Francis Homily on the 60th Anniversary of the Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican (Tuesday, October 11th, 2022)

Nostra aetate 4 (Declaration on the Relation of the Church to Non-Christian Religions, Vatican II)

St. Augustine of Hippo on the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist (Expositions of the Psalms 33–50, New City Press)

Pope Benedict XVI, then Cdl. Ratzinger, on the Falliblity of Conscience (On Conscience: Two Essays, Ignatius Press)

The difference between human faith and opinion (Faith Comes from What Is Heard, Lawrence Feingold)

Pope Benedict XVI, then Cdl. Ratzinger, on the necessity of God for morality and the Church as a guardian of humanity (On Conscience: Two Essays, Ignatius Press)

This is precisely why the nation is so important. The nation should draw us out from ourselves, keeping us from subjectivism by holding out a reality distinct from the individual. If our society, nations, get infected with subjective individualism they will undermine each individual within the society and thus undermine the society as a whole (On Conscience: Two Essays, Ignatius Press)

Thomas à Kempis on Avoiding Rash Judgment (The Imitation of Christ, Book One, Chapter 14)

As laymen, members of the Body of Christ, we are called to serve the Church with no less zeal than those first Christians recorded in the Holy Scriptures (Vatican II's Decree on the Apostolate of the Laity: Apostolicam Actuositatem)

Members of the Body of Christ who fail to properly contribute to the development of the Church are useless to both themselves and the Church (Vatican II's Decree on the Apostolate of the Laity: Apostolicam Actuositatem)

"On all Christians therefore is laid the preeminent responsibility of working to make the divine message of salvation known and accepted by all men throughout the world." (Vatican II's Decree on the Apostolate of the Laity: Apostolicam Actuositatem)

"...a true apostle looks for opportunities to announce Christ by words addressed either to non-believers with a view to leading them to faith, or to the faithful with a view to instructing, strengthening, and encouraging them to a more fervent life" (Vatican II's Decree on the Apostolate of the Laity: Apostolicam Actuositatem)

"Hence, we should not think of the devil as a myth, a representation, a symbol, a figure of speech or an idea" (Pope Francis, Gaudete et Exsultate)

Thursday, March 14th, 2013: the day after Cdl. Bergolio became Pope Francis

PASTORAL VISIT TO CASSANO ALL’JONIO

HOLY MASS

HOMILY OF POPE FRANCIS

Piana di Sibari (Calabria, Italy)

Saturday, 21 June 2014