Catholic Quotes - 5
More Catholic Quotes
We are apt to imagine that this hubbub of Philosophy, Literature, and Religion, which is heard in pulpits, lyceums, and parlors, vibrates through the universe, and is as Catholic a sound as the creaking of the earth's axle. But if a man sleeps soundly, he will forget it all between sunset and dawn.
Henry David Thoreau— January 6, 1842
Dozens of people were nailed to crosses in the devoutly Roman Catholic Philippines on Good Friday, in a gruesome re-enactment of the crucifixion, while others atoned for their sins by flaying themselves with bamboo whips or paddles tipped with broken glass. The ritual has become a Good Friday tradition in certain villages, where tourists flock to hear the locals scream in agony as seven-inch nails are driven into their hands and feet. Penitents are then hoisted up on crosses and left for five minutes in the scorching sun before the nails are pulled out.
— Ruben Enaje, donned a crown of thorns in Cutud [near Manila] before being nailed to a cross for the 22nd time. Mr Enaje, a 47-year-old decorator told he had missed the ritual only once, eight years ago. He was subsequently stricken with stomach ulcers and his wife was taken ill.
The Catholic Church is an institution I am bound to hold divine but for unbelievers a proof of its divinity might be found in the fact that no merely human institution conducted with such knavish imbecility would have lasted a fortnight.
hilaire belloc— Remark (undated) to William Temple, quoted in Robert Speaight, The Life of Hilaire Belloc (London: Hollis & Carter, 1957), p. 383
I profoundly admire Aldous Huxley, both for his philosophy and uncompromising sincerity . But I disagree with his advocacy of 'the chemical opening of doors into the Other World', and with his belief that drugs can procure 'what Catholic theologians call a gratuitous grace'. Chemically induced hallucinations, delusions and raptures may be frightening or wonderfully gratifying; in either case they are in the nature of confidence tricks played on one's own nervous system.
Arthur Koestler— Return Trip to Nirvana from Sunday Telegraph (1967).
The Catholic Church is an institution I am bound to hold divine but for unbelievers a proof of its divinity might be found in the fact that no merely human institution conducted with such knavish imbecility would have lasted a fortnight.
— Hilaire Belloc, remark to William Temple, quoted in Robert Speaight, The Life of Hilaire Belloc (1957). London: Hollis and Carter, p. 383
"Joseph Ratzinger has stood still because as a Bavarian Catholic in the Hellenistic tradition, interpreted in Roman terms, he wanted to stand still. To this degree he represented and represents a different basic model of theology and church, as different from mine as in astronomy Ptolemy's geocentric picture of the world is different from Copernicus' heliocentric picture."
hans küng— — Hans Küng, Disputed Truth: Memoirs Volume 2, Continuum 2008, p. 329
