Politics is a noble activity. We should revalue it, practise it with vocation and a dedication that requires testimony, martyrdom, that is to die for the common good.

The worship of the golden calf of old has found a new and heartless image in the cult of money and the dictatorship of an economy which is faceless and lacking any truly human goal.

A person who thinks only about building walls, wherever they may be, and not building bridges is not Christian. This is not in the Gospel.

The confessional is not a torture chamber, but the place in which the Lord's mercy motivates us to do better.

I come from a family of coal miners.

My parents were immigrants who started a nursery as a way to get us kids through school. I learned around the dinner table about customer service and cash flow and paying bills.

I was the kind of kid whose parents would drop him off at the local town library on their way to work, and I'd go and work my way through the children's area.

I'm a mother with two small children, so I don't take as much crap as I used to.