Quotes About Clergy

It will, I believe, be everywhere found, that as the clergy are, or are not what they ought to be, so are the rest of the nation.

One of the duties of fortitude is to keep the weak from receiving injury; another, to check the wrong motions of our own souls; a third, both to disregard humiliations, and to do what is right with an even mind. All these clearly ought to be fulfilled by all Christians, and especially by the clergy.

Many militants of the secular cause look astonishingly like clergy. Worse: like caricatures of clergy.

I was born into the Church of England but in the most nominal way possible you can imagine, so it's Christmas and Easter. And then like a great many clergy in the Church of England I actually got nobbled by being a chorister.

Despite leading a 'disordered' life, Greene had a surprising effect on Catholics. Hovering on the edges of the church, his old friend Edith Sitwell, who converted some years later, wrote to him in 1945: 'I said before, but I repeat it, what a great priest you would have made. But you are better as you are.'12 She felt that he understood sin and redemption in a way the clergy did not.

Denial of our pattern of failure seems to be a kind of practical atheism or chosen ignorance among many believers and clergy.

One side effect of our individualized reading of the Gospel is that it allows the clergy great control over individual behavior, via threats and rewards. Obedience to authorities became the highest virtue in this framework, instead of love, communion, or solidarity with God or others, including the marginalized.

We recognized hierarchical or vertical accountability but almost no lateral accountability to one another—as Jesus hoped for the world when he prayed that we "all might be one" (John 17:21). A corporate reading of the Gospel gives hope and justice to history, but less control over individuals, which is probably why clergy who do the preaching don't like it too much and thus don't preach it too much.

Of course, clergy cannot talk about a further journey if they have not gone on it themselves.

We clergy have gotten ourselves into the job of "sin management" instead of sin transformation. "If you are not perfect, then you are doing something wrong," we have taught people. We have blamed the victim, or have had little pity for victims, while daring to worship a victim image of God. Our mistakes are something to be pitied and healed much more than hated, denied, or perfectly avoided. I do not think you should get rid of

If God could not forgive lascivious priests, there would be very few clergy in heaven.

No sentía simpatía por los profesionales de Dios

I'm sure, but at least people here know what's sinful and what's not. The other thing is that I've seen no slaves anywhere in Normandy." "There's a slave market in Rouen, but the buyers are foreigners. Slavery has been almost completely abolished here. Our clergy condemn it

The clergy believe that any power confided in me will be exerted in opposition to their schemes, and they believe rightly.

Surely our clergy need not be surprised at the daily increasing distrust in the public mind of the efficacy of prayer.

The Catholic clergy seldom bother to make their arguments plausible; it is plain that they have little respect for human intelligence, and indeed little belief in its existence.

The hope that grief counselors and clergy try to make you feel. The phrases well-meaning friends throw at you. She's out there, watching over you, gazing down at you. She's with you, every day, living again in every memory. . . . It's all a bunch of crap.

The decision to allow clergy to perform same-sex marriages at the discretion of the congregation poses challenges for seminaries training new pastors who come from denominations fundamentally opposed on biblical grounds to same-sex marriage.

I heard every time you call an excommunicated priest 'Father,' an angel gets hemorrhoids.

Even more astounding, this Miracle can only happen if the priest has a Willy. Protestants, Jews, Zen Buddhists etc., have ordained many female clergy-persons in recent decades, but the Vatican remains firm in the principle that only a male — a human with a Willy — can transform the essence of bread into the essence of a dead body.

Whenever the clergy succeeded in conquering political power in any country, the result has been disastrous to the interests of religion and inimical to the progress of humanity.

I have always thought it curious that, while most scientists claim to eschew religion, it actually dominates their thoughts more than it does the clergy.

Nothing can be more contrary to religion and the clergy than reason and common sense.

Hell is paved with priests' skulls.