Religious quotes and news – August 10, 2025
Snippets of religious statements and highlights of events from around the world
Internet relationships and genuine relationships
Pope Leo told youths at Tor Vergata, Rome, on August 2:
“Among the many cultural connections that characterise our lives, internet and social media have become “an extraordinary opportunity for dialogue, encounter and exchange between persons, as well as access to information and knowledge” (Francis, Christus Vivit, 87). However, these tools are misleading when they are controlled by commercialism and interests that fragment our relationships.
“Today there are algorithms that tell us what we should watch, what we should think, who our friends should be. So our relationships become confusing. When a tool controls someone, that person becomes... a commodity on the market. Only genuine relationships and stable connections can build good lives.”
Seeking God
Pope Leo’s homily at mass concluding the Jubilee for young people, on August 3:
“We are not made for a life where everything is taken for granted and static, but for an existence that is constantly renewed through gift of self in love. This is why we continually aspire to something ‘more’ that no created reality can give us; we feel a deep and burning thirst that no drink in this world can satisfy. Knowing this, let us not deceive our hearts by trying to satisfy them with cheap imitations! Let us turn this thirst into a step stool, like children who stand on tiptoe, in order to peer through the window of encounter with God.
“St Augustine, reflecting on his intense search for God, asked himself: ‘What... is the object of our hope...? Is it the earth? No. Is it something that comes from the earth such as gold, silver, trees, crops, or water...? These are pleasing, beautiful, good’. And the conclusion he reached was: ‘Seek the one who made them, he is your hope’.”
(Compiled by Fr Joe Borg)