““This life of ours . . . is a gift from God. It is not of our choosing. It comes to us by his choice. Since it is of his choosing, it is of his designing. We neither made ourselves nor can we manage ourselves as we like, nor manage the life that comes to us. For that reason we can take a most hopeful view of life. . . . [For] the thought that it is his gift and after his design gives us courage.””
![“But ripped out of context, ["Who am I to judge?" phrase] has become an all-purpose filter through which everything else - including the pope's multiple reaffirmations of Humanae Vitae, Paul VI's encyclical on the morally appropriate means of family planning - gets airbrushed out of the picture.” quote by George Weigel](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/b1d/george-weigel-9372_appropriate_but-ripped-out-of-context-who-am-i-to-ju_146817.jpg)
![“I hope ["reanimated the papacy"] means that the new interest in the pope evokes a new interest in the Church's teaching, of which the pope is the custodian.” quote by George Weigel](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/a8e/george-weigel-9372_church_i-hope-reanimated-the-papacy-means-that_225548.jpg)
![“The pope [Francis] takes his vocabulary from his pastoral experience, not from the rhetorical tool kit of liberation theology, with its Marxist yammering about "center" and "periphery." The "peripheries," for Francis, are all those who have fallen through the cracks of late-modernity and…” quote by George Weigel](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/14f/george-weigel-9372_argentina_the-pope-francis-takes-his-vocabulary-fr_261899.jpg)
![“[Pope Francis]sees a world in need of the Gospel, and of friendship with Jesus Christ, as an antidote to the self-absorption and loneliness that are eating away at the solidarity of the human community.” quote by George Weigel](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/79d/george-weigel-9372_absorption_pope-francis-sees-a-world-in-need-of-the_343248.jpg)
![“[Pope] Francis communicates the pastoral embrace of the Church, the breadth and inclusiveness of Catholicism symbolized by the Bernini colonnade around St. Peter's Square, in a powerful way.” quote by George Weigel](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/06a/george-weigel-9372_bernini_pope-francis-communicates-the-pastoral-e_495970.jpg)
![“These [conservative] people, if they're Americans, look back on the last 35 years of our ecclesial experience and take heart from that. The dramatic reform of seminaries continues. The priests and bishops who take their pastoral model from John Paul II will continue to do so, perhaps learning a…” quote by George Weigel](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/22a/george-weigel-9372_bishops_these-conservative-people-if-they-re-ame_542601.jpg)
