Quotes About Clergy

it was impossible to imagine a religion that was distinct from civic-mindedness, and therefore a clergy marginal to the Republic. Members of the big colleges (pontiffs, augurs and the chief priest himself) were elected by the people

The Attack is a funny book which the reader has the option of taking seriously. For when the laughter subsides we realize that SK has set before us a stark either-or proposition: either follow the gospel according to Christ and the apostles, or follow the gospel according to the clergy. There can be no dialectical synthesis between these contraries.

The dream of poor Bazin had always been to serve a man of the cloth.

Wagner: Ich hab es öfters rühmen hören, Ein Komödiant könnt einen Pfarrer lehren. Faust: Ja, wenn der Pfarrer ein Komödiant ist; Wie das denn wohl zuzeiten kommen mag.

Once the Catholics lost their nerve in the war over the sexualization of culture, once they backed away from holding Hollywood Jews to the basic rudiments of sexual decency, it was inevitable that the instruments of culture they failed to control would get used against them in all out cultural warfare. The sexualization of the Catholic clergy dates from this period.

He seems to see good in every one. No one would take him for a clergyman.

Moral training in Ireland is severe and lasts until marriage. Even in childhood, we are taught by the pious clergy to battle against bad thoughts so that we may preserve our holy purity.

Hence, the Reformers dramatically failed to put their finger on the nerve of the original problem: a clergy-led worship service attended by a passive laity.[157] It is not surprising, then, that the Reformers viewed themselves as reformed Catholics.

Church leaders don't know how to deal with this chronic crisis; as with the out-of-touch Orthodox hierarchy and clergy of the late imperial period, many don't seem to realize what's happening, much less how to address the decay.

Legend has it that in an argument with a cardinal, Napoleon pointed out that he had the power to destroy the church. "Your majesty," the cardinal replied, "we, the clergy, have done our best to destroy the church for the last eighteen hundred years. We have not succeeded, and neither will you.

the decreasing demands in other areas were as important, and probably more so, for reducing the commitment of Catholics. As lannaccone (1994, p. 1204) has commented, the Catholic church "managed to arrive at a remarkable, 'worst of both worlds' position-discarding cherished distinctiveness in the areas of liturgy, theology, and life-style, while at the same time maintaining the very demands that its members and clergy are least willing to accept.

Thus we see the Methodists as they were transformed from sect to church. Their clergy were increasingly willing to condone the pleasures of this world and to deemphasize sin, hellfire, and damnation; this lenience struck highly responsive chords in an increasingly affluent, influential, and privileged membership.

evangelical clergy showed growth in giving, attendance, and even membership, for pastors who had served in a congregation three years or longer. But the most dramatic changes were in congregations served by clergy seeking less tension with the culture. Congregations with "officiant" pastors showed sharp drops for all of the measures (Finke and Stark, 2001).

He was to tell André Malraux later: "Clemeneau used to say: 'War is a much too serious business to be left to the military.' And look what happened to Communism when the Communists got hold of it or to the Catholic Church in the hands of the clergy. We are rapidly approaching a point when it will no longer be possible to trust scientists with science.

Give the clergy your sympathy; don't give them anything else.

Clergymen almost necessarily fail in two ways as teachers of morals. They condemn acts which do no harm and they condone acts which do great harm.

Looking back to the earlier centuries of the church, most of the great teachers were also bishops and vice versa. It's only fairly recently that the church has had this great divide.

The problem of corrupt clergy haunts God's family in every age. Priests who misuse and abuse their authority inflict untold damage upon the people of God.

Thus, the founder of Opus Dei, though he was a priest, did not seek to gather power to the clergy. In fact, he wanted the Catholic laity to discover their own dignity and assume the responsibilities that came with baptism.

The two-tiered spirituality created an artificial separation between the clergy and the laity—and thus between the Church and the world.

In 1965, in the Council's "Decree on the Ministry and Life of Priests" (Pres-byterorum ordinis, 10), the Church proposed a new institutional form, called the "personal prelature." Such an institution could accommodate both clergy and lay members cooperating to accomplish specific pastoral tasks.

That is why our Churches are half empty and also why millions never darken a Church door. People are not fed. They are hungering and thirsting for the pure Gospel and they get pulpit essays and discussions of questions. They go away empty and disgusted and then they stay away.' Time proved Moody right. Had clergy been in less of a hurry to trot out the latest undigested critical theory, the churches of America and Britain would not have sunk into the trough of the 1920s and 1930s.

Angrily, even tearfully, he complained of the divisions within the clergy, where "some be too stiff in their old Mumpsimus, others be too busy and curious in their new Sumpsimus.

The really funny thing is that most all of my friends who are priests have seen me perform, and they say, 'I wish I could talk the way you do on stage. I wish I could reveal truth to my congregation the way you do.'