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

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.

As to marriage or celibacy, let a man take which course he will, he will be sure to repent.

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

For the standard of Christian life was to be strained to a higher pitch; more fasting was required, and more careful separation from the manners and enjoyments of the world; celibacy and martyrdom had great value set upon them, and second marriages were prohibited.

Celibacy is not a matter of compulsion. Someone is accepted as a priest only when he does it of his own accord.

Marriage may often be a stormy lake, but celibacy is almost always a muddy horse pond.

Celibacy is the worst form of self-abuse.

The vow of celibacy is a matter of keeping one's word to Christ and the Church. a duty and a proof of the priest's inner maturity; it is the expression of his personal dignity.

Celibacy is not just a matter of not having sex. It is a way of admiring a person for their humanity, maybe even for their beauty.

If it came to saving the life of one priest or sacrificing the life of an entire congregation, the church would save the life of the priest. Which is backwards, of course.

I remember going to church about four times a week. I liked it a lot.

You get a heck of a sound from the church. Can't you hear it in my voice?

Every true prayer is a prayer of the Church; by means of that prayer the Church prays, since it is the Holy Spirit living in the Church, Who in every single soul 'prays in us with unspeakable groanings'.

I think my election is one of several indications that gay and lesbian folk are being brought more into the center of things. I'd like to think that my election signals my bringing of gay and lesbian folk into the center of the church.

So, not only am I panicking over the weekend if I need to know my lines, but also if can I get the kids to the zoo. Can I even go to church? I was asking for certain things that would allow me to plan my life a little better.

The more I do bookstores, the more people come up to me from church groups. I spoke at Pittsburg State College and had 2 or 3 ministers and book groups from a couple of churches.

My father started me singing in church.

Leave the matter of religion to the family altar, the church, and the private school, supported entirely by private contributions. Keep the church and state forever separate.

A lot of victims, for example, have become addicted to alcohol and drugs. It seems to me that the church's healing ministry is going to be enhanced through this in much broader strokes. That's good, it's all positive.

The intelligence investigation under the leadership of Senator Church, which I know has helped cause this investigation by you, points out that the agencies did not disclose certain facts to us and that certain plots were going on.

Yesterday I had a Shaker visitor, and today a Catholic; and the more I see and hear, the less do I care about church doctrines.

Some hypocrites and seeming mortified men, that held down their heads, were like the little images that they place in the very bowing of the vaults of churches, that look as if they held up the church, but are but puppets.

If all Church power vests in the clergy, then the people are practically bound to passive obedience in all matters of faith and practice; for all right of private judgment is then denied.