One of the biggest issues that we face is that we have people who have their own particular concerns, whether it's on abortion, birth control, divorce and remarriage, civil rights or social justice.

Others don't want to listen to viewpoints that members of the church have.

Some of the speakers we bring on campus may not reflect official church teaching, but that's how it is.

By no means do I anticipate screening those who come on to campus... And I have no difficulty if a bishop across the country or some local pastor may say that's not Catholic teaching - that's fine.

BC is not going to replace the hierarchy, and BC is not going to lead some major reform in the Catholic Church - that's got to come out of the whole Catholic community.

I would be with those who say the hierarchy in the United States has badly mishandled this whole situation.

Now where people are - at least the people I talk to - they are focused on issues of trust. Accountability also comes up, to make sure that this doesn't happen again.

I say let's respond as best we can to the victims and their families.

The Spirit hasn't deserted the church today.

No organization, whether it's police or physicians or whatever, wants to have its errors held up to the light of day, but it's wrong, as is coming out so well.

One of the biggest issues that we face is that we have people who have their own particular concerns, whether it's on abortion, birth control, divorce and remarriage, civil rights or social justice.

Clearly there are individuals who don't understand what the church teaches, or they think it's so limiting.

I think the issue of clergy sexual abuse sparked people to look at their faith in a different way.

What I think we can do is help individuals understand the church teaching, but also maybe help the church understand the viewpoint of lay men and women about what they want in regard to priests, or how do they want the hierarchy to deal with them?

The hierarchy shouldn't fear what we're doing.

Individuals will speak their minds, which I think is healthy.

I would say the hierarchy has made terrible errors in judgment and it has to seek forgiveness by its members.

The church may hold whatever it holds with regard to clerical celibacy.

We are the meeting place, an entity that's trying to connect faith and culture.

This is a crisis, but there is an opportunity to help revitalize and renew the Catholic community.

You know how the church has been hit so hard by the sexual misconduct by clergy, and what's that's done to Catholics, especially here in Boston but elsewhere as well.

I think we can work through a lot of these issues.

What we're about is a manifestation of the Catholic roots of Boston College.

The more we can get together and talk about various perspectives, feelings, beliefs, the better.

I am very confident that the Spirit is with us.

As a university, we're not focused on bringing about huge reforms - that's not our role.

We've always had issues up for discussion at Catholic universities.

I frankly don't care if you agree with my stand on abortion. I take that stand because no other stand is consistent with decent principles, and no other standard is consistent with the will of God.

The media seems to think only abortion and gay marriage are religious issues. Poverty is a moral issue, it's a faith issue, it's a religious issue.

If they are opposed to abortion, they should be for preventing unintended pregnancies.

But I've been very clear in this campaign - I don't believe the party should have a position on abortion.

I don't think there is a good reason for an abortion, but Dr. Jasper made me really realize it was just a racket. He was just doing it for the money. He didn't care about the women.

We have had virtually unlimited access to abortion for nearly twenty years. Yet during that same period, more and more women and children have slipped into poverty.

I really didn't know there was two sides to the abortion issue.

The FDA is redefining birth control as abortion. The FDA is setting the bar higher for this kind of drug.

While the political debate over abortion will continue for a very long time, the federal government can and should be doing more to support programs and services that provide women with better options.

The emphasis must be not on the right to abortion but on the right to privacy and reproductive control.

Advocates of unrestricted abortion do not want the public to focus on these undeniable facts of fetal development, but the facts cannot be ignored.

I do not support abortion rights. Although what I would support in this vexed area is not clear to me.

A vast abortion industry, generating some half a billion dollars annually, sprang into existence in the wake of Roe and Doe.

A majority of Americans oppose partial-birth abortion, and Judge Hamilton's decision flies in the face of Congress passing and President Bush signing legislation banning such horrible acts of violence.

If men could get pregnant, abortion would be a sacrament.

The issue is not abortion. The issue is whether women can make up their own mind instead of some right-wing pastor, some right-wing politician telling them what to do.

Too many people use abortion as a form of birth control. And that's very wrong. I could never, ever have an abortion.

Every day Catholics prove that you can be a good Catholic and a good Democrat and have a different position from the Church on abortion.

The freedom that women were supposed to have found in the Sixties largely boiled down to easy contraception and abortion; things to make life easier for men, in fact.

The biggest obstacle was mixing abortion with overpopulation. These are two things that have nothing to do with each other.

I could never, ever have an abortion.

That is why I fought against abortion and that is why if I were still in the Senate I would be doing everything I could to defend the sanctity of marriage.