Schubert, Franck, and Liszt were all Roman Catholics who questioned or doubted or lived in different ways, and religion was certainly part of all their lives.
We’re not opposed to Catholics having pride in their church, but that doesn’t mean that every church that doesn’t join them isn’t a church.
Equal rights should not be debatable and certainly should not be put to a vote of the people. Would we ask the electorate to vote on whether or not Catholics and Protestants should marry? Of course we would not.
Like most lapsed Catholics, I will probably return to the fold when I start to fear death.
We Catholics must admit that there is a constant temptation among us to avoid the lectionary and the Word of God for private and pious devotions that usually have little power to actually change us or call our ego assumptions into question.
It was generally believed that Catholics were not interested in arts and science graduate schools. They weren’t going to be intellectuals. And so I put the theses to the test. And they all collapsed.
I myself am Catholic, and many Catholics have values that are a priority for Republicans, especially as they relate to marriage and life.
In the polls, over 80% support the right to die and have done for the last 25 years. Even 80% of practising Catholics and Protestants support it, plus 76% of Church Times readers.
Probably the one Bible passage that is read by Jews and Roman Catholics, Protestants, Islam, more than any other chapter is Psalm 23. And in Psalm 23 there is a verse that says, ‘Surely, yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil.’
Catholics should be proselytizing about a God who is love, who represents a hereafter where there’s no hell, who wants you to lead a life where you can confess your sins and feel much better afterwards. Those are lovely concepts of God.
An ignorance of Marx is as frequent among Marxists as an ignorance of Christ is among Catholics.
Sometimes I, as a public official, turn to Scripture or hymns – especially hymns, because sometimes we Catholics don’t have the Scriptures memorized like we should – to help me explain a public policy position or an idea or to be able to articulate it better when you’re talking about justice or mercy or compassion.
Trump displays many of the traits of a proto-fascist, and he is also part of a wave of right-wing nationalist movements that is sweeping the West. He can also be positioned in the long, American right-wing tradition of fearing ‘the Other,’ whether they are Catholics or Jews or, now, Muslims.
I know many Catholics love God with all their heart. I have genuine respect for anyone who truly has given their life to Christ. We read about Mother Teresa and what a wonderful example she was.
For black Catholics, the papal visit is a time of anticipation but also a time of reflection on their difficult – but important – place within the Catholic Church in America.
I had been involved in the March on Washington in 1963. I was with friends carrying a sign, ‘Protestants, Jews and Catholics for Civil Rights.’
If we get you in the early years of your life and we fill your head with all of the Catholic stories, then it’s very hard for you to stop being Catholic. Catholics are Catholics because they like being Catholic.
I accept that there are multitudes seeking God, seeking meaning, and so on, but if they reject atheism, I would rather they became modern-day Catholics or Jews than that they became Muslims.
I sincerely hope I can contribute to the progress there has been in relations between Jews and Catholics since the Second Vatican Council in a spirit of renewed collaboration.
One sees in Latin America, and also elsewhere, among many Catholics a certain schizophrenia between individual and public morality.
As I told Piers Morgan, ‘Catholics have confession, whereas Northern Irish Protestants only have interviews.’
Those Catholics, they really nab you when you’re young. They sear you. They sear you; they do.
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