Catholics From The United States

"I'd operated at full-throttle for thirty-four years to push the goals and objectives of the U.S. Army forward. So to wake up one morning and find my appointment calendar totally empty- no brushfires to extinguish or strategic plans to implement- was a truly jarring, discombobulating experience. Not to mention depressing."

"There were about 500 folks in the reviewing stands during my retirement parade at Ft. Belvoir. I thought I would experience a rush of powerful emotions and feelings during my last day in the Army, but that wasn't the case. The day was pretty much a blur, to be truthful. One minute I was in the Army, the next minute I wasn't. When my last day finally wound down, following a reception after my retirement parade, I went home and stood in front of a mirror as I took my uniform off one last time. A weary-looking, fifty-four-year-old black woman stared back. "You are retired," I told her. Instead of reacting visibly, she seemed almost indifferent. Hmmpphh! I took my uniform off and hung it up, as I had done thousands of times. Then I went to bed and immediately fell asleep."

"I'd served the military with honor and distinction and felt things had gone well as a resuly. And I missed that. The best analogy I can think of is to suddenly cross the finish line after running a three-decade marathon. A marathon where the competition and the camaraderie have you feeling pumped about participating every day. I loved the Army, and I loved my service in defense of my country. Consequently, the first four days after I retired was a little weepy, as well as exhausted as hell. After waking up at four that first morning, I lounged in bed until nine o'clock the next three days. That may sound funny to some people, but to me nine o'clock was downright decadent! I did stop sleeping late, but was a lost soul for a good month after retirement. The void retirement had carved into my existence was almost similar to the passing of a friend or relative. I grappled with sadness and fond remembrances and even a little self-pity."

"Looking back on my 34-year Army career, you could really sum it up in two words- caring and serving. I served in defense of the country that I love, and I served people. And I learned a lot by doing both. At the end of the day, I can look back and say that I was a good soldier, a very good troop. And I am fiercely proud of that. The Army provided me an opportunity to be all that I could be, and I think I took full advantage of that opportunity. A famous writer and poet once said that the purpose of life is to count, to have made a difference that you lived at all." I sincerely believe that I contributed and that I made a difference while in the Army. I also believe that I am still making a difference in the lives of others by caring and serving. At the end of the day, that's what life is really all about."

"No government agrees with another government on everything."

"As Apostolic Nuncio I firmly believe that interfaith dialogue is the means to promote good relations among people of different faiths who can discover the beauty of other peoples' faith."

"Almost everything Washington said or did was shot through with a certain irony. He bowed before the prejudices of the meanest Southerner, but he moved in circles in the North which were closed to all but a few white men. He told Negroes that Jim Crow was irrelevant, but he himself violated the law by riding first class in Pullman cars with Southern white men and women. And irony of ironies: he who advised Negroes to forget about politics wielded more political power than any other Negro in American history."

"Faith and reason for Catholics are unified, they're both gifts of God's creation. Faith takes nothing away, but gives them a whole new way of being human."

"People, of course, who maybe put their hope their pursuits in material things are very soon disappointed — "OK, what happens next?" It doesn't really answer the true happiness of the deepest part of the human heart. Only God answers that. And we try to get that message across."

"A "homosexual" is anyone who experiences a sexual attraction to persons of the same sex. [...] "Gay" is a self identity chosen by some homosexuals, [...] the idea that homosexual behavior is as normal and natural as heterosexual behavior."

"The person who accepts the gay label in adulthood has typically spent much of his childhood emotionally disconnected from people, particularly his male peers and his father. He also was likely to assume a false, rigid "good little boy" role within the family."

"The pre-homosexual boy is detached, not only from father and other boys, but from maleness and his own male body, including the first symbol of masculinity, his own penis…Homosexual behavior is the search for the lost masculine self. [...] By the early teenage years, unconscious drives to fill this emotional vacuum – to want to connect with his maleness – are felt as homoerotic desires. The next stage will be entry into the gay world."

"There needs to be, as St. Paul said to the Colossians, heartfelt compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, forgiveness and above all, love. That kind of love never fails."

"The first person to whom we are accountable is Christ, who is the good shepherd, and we're called to act in his place. That's a very serious responsibility to the Lord himself."

"I hope that my being a member of the College of Cardinals can increase the affection and the devotion of the people of the Archdiocese of Washington for Pope Francis and his Petrine Ministry."

"Perhaps more than ever, the modern world requires the Holy See's "soft power" of persuasion rather than coercion, to drive a diplomacy based on ideas and fundamental human rights—and needs to provide a possibility of conflict resolution without military intervention."

"I want all to know that if I disappear from the scene, because the bush is vast and hyenas many, that I am not planning any accident, nor, God forbid, any self-destruction. Instead, I trust in a good guardian angel and in the action of grace."

"Who in Kenya is desperate to kill Father Kaiser, and why now? They could only be powerful people who saw him as a moral thorn in their evil flesh."

"The formation of Area Catholic Communities is important to me because I think we have to work together if we're going to keep all of our parishes and if we're going to cover all of our parishes adequately and well. Having good personnel in a parish is important."

"I think people are looking for something, as they always have, to hold to something that has roots, that has tradition, that has meaning, that has depth. And I think the Catholic Church continues to offer that despite her imperfections."

"As I grew older, I had to cross the mountains of crisis in the seminary. I had doubts about my capacity and if this is what I wanted to do for the rest of my life—problems everyone in the priesthood suffers—but I had so much spiritual direction to help."

"I don't do church talk well. By that I mean, sometimes when you interview people in authority, they sound like stained glass windows. I come from a very simple background, a family of steelworkers. So, you learn to develop this ability to just say what you mean and not have any talking in circles or say a lot of words and not say anything. And this way there can be no ambiguity when I speak."

"We see that happening today with many of the immigrants that come and are being rejected. Even though they are not criminals, they are being treated as criminals."

"The people in Cuba need our help and we will continue to support them in whatever way we can as the Catholic Church has always believed that engagement, rather than isolation, is the best way to improve human rights and move forward in our relations with the island nation."

"We don't condemn other voices, but we do expect to have the freedom for our voice to be heard. My experience in Washington is, if you are prepared to dialogue, to discuss and to listen, then you can sometimes get a chance to bring the Gospel to the discussion. It is very important for the Church to be present. It has to be present in the on-going efforts that are the political, social and cultural environment."

"Self-giving is an act of self-valuing because it presupposes that the person is valuable enough to be considered a gift. Self-giving is inherently more social than self-interest, even rightly understood."

"My vocation is who I am and it is not just what I do at times. I think I understand much better now that I am a priest forever. This is a tremendous grace which gives me much consolation every day, but it is the daily challenge to me to be who I have been called to be in every way."

"We have to share the hurts pain the love the joy of the other and in that way we're sharing that sense of ruching were limping that person and then pick ourselves up in the same process because we're giving for sharing something of ourselves."

"Prep is a school steeped in history, family, friendship, and tradition. Many of the hundred boys in my class had gone to parochial school together. Our parents had gone to Gonzaga, Georgetown Visitation, and the other Catholic schools in the area. Many of our older brothers had also gone to Prep. Many of our older brothers had also gone to Prep. I'll never forget when I was in the eighth grade and had an interview as part of my application. I sat down with my parents in front of a teacher I had never met before. "You're a little taller than your brothers," he said after shaking my hand. "But I bet you're not as good an actor as your brother." This kind of atmosphere led to a sense of being part of a group that knew you better than you knew yourself. There was also the advantage of Prep being an all-boys school. At a critical time in our lives we were allowed to study, make friends, and get to know girls as friends due, paradoxically, to the fact that we were not distracted by girls. At age fifteen it was hard to think of anything else. And had there been girls on campus, Prep would not have been the place it was."

"There were times that were up and down, but I think all through it the sense of what it meant to be a priest and to be called to be a priest was something that kind of grew in fits and starts in different ways. There were times when I was thinking, "Well, maybe I should just leave." There were other times I was pretty certain that this was a call from the Lord."

"I have absolutely no regrets with the ministry that I've had the opportunity to serve in. In God's providence, this has all been arranged for his glory and I have no regrets. But there is a certain desire that I think every priest has to work directly with the people as much as possible. That's part of our pastoral heart and our desire and I don’t think that ever leaves us, in whatever type of ministry we may have."

"Every follower of Jesus has a role to play in evangelization and spreading the faith. People need to be formed in missionary consciousness; the lay faithful can reach out to so many different people in different walks of life, giving witness of how important the Lord is in their own lives."

"I like to say African-American Catholics are a people of the book and of the sacraments of the Church. The stories of sacred Scripture, of God leading his people from slavery to freedom and being faithful, speak very loudly to them. There is a strength that comes from the sacraments and being rooted in our ancestors, the saints."

"It is very important for the bishop to directly serve the people, without being removed two or three steps."

"The cross is the single greatest demonstration of love ever seen. Help them to understand it. Repeatedly call their attention to it. Help them to understand God doesn't simply tell us He loves us; He shows us."

"I chose that I want to stay here, because this is my church now. My diocese even though I won't be responsible for it. This is the church that I have grown to love."

"We oppose – as the Catechism says – any type of unjust discrimination, but in this case, when teachers are expected to witness – not only by their word but by their actions – a coherent witness to the Gospel and the teaching of the Catholic Church, this was certainly not unjust. And the Court agreed with us on this decision."

"We haven't done a good job teaching clearly what the Church teaches, its beauty, and the positive impact it will have in our lives, and in a way that uplifts and energizes the listener. We were complacent in past decades, as our churches were relatively full. I think we're recovering our ability to evangelize, however."

"Many people are more apt to conserve the things they know about than to conserve the things that are foreign to them. This flora will, I hope, acquaint at least a few more people with the plants around them and perhaps thus serve as a stimulus, however slight, toward more permanent protection of our environment."

"Ecumenism is a gift from God, a gift that becomes possible through prayer."

"I was always going to do this because I wanted to do this. I really wanted to become a priest, but that's not the way it works. You don't just nominate yourself. It's a matter of a calling."

"The evangelization of the "New World" first came through an indigenous person. They've always been a very integral part of the Church, just as any baptized person."

"The sacraments — baptizing new Catholic Christians; confirming young adults in the faith; marriages, beginning the domestic church in so many households here in Nevada, they're the biggest accomplishments in my life and, I think, any priest's life. The things that look bigger, the building of churches — they're the means to an end."

"In spite of all this nonsense from the left, we are going to win. We're in the process of taking this country back. No one in the audience should be despairing. No one should be discouraged. We ought to be really encouraged by what happened yesterday. And in spite of all of the injustice, which, of course, friends and audience of this show, of our friend Steve know, we are going to prevail. Number two, to the point of the clips and, of course, your preview of the fact that I am an early American historian and love the Constitution. That Supreme Court ruling yesterday on immunity is vital, and it's vital for a lot of reasons. But I would go to Federalist No. 70. If people in the audience are looking for something to read over Independence Day weekend, in addition to rereading the Declaration of Independence, read Hamilton's No. 70 because there, along with some other essays, in some other essays, he talks about the importance of a vigorous executive. You know, former congressman, the importance of Congress doing its job, but we also know the importance of the executive being able to do his job. And can you imagine, Dave Brat, any president, put politics off to the side, any president having to second guess, triple guess every decision they're making in their official capacity, you couldn't have the republic that you just described. But number three, let me speak about the radical left. You and I have both been parts of faculties and faculty senates and understand that the left has taken over our institutions. The reason that they are apoplectic right now, the reason that so many anchors on MSNBC, for example, are losing their minds daily is because our side is winning. And so I come full circle on this response and just want to encourage you with some substance that we are in the process of the second American Revolution, which will remain bloodless if the left allows it to be."

"All of the many traditional Melanesian Cultures had something in common. Roles, duties, responsibilities, authority and disciplines were clearly defined. These were taught by the elders, and they were followed by the community, even by the young. That stability and authority no longer exists especially where Gospel values have not yet sufficiently penetrated the emerging modern culture."

"Forty-four years ago, the United States and the conservative movement were in dire straits. Both had been betrayed by the Washington establishment and were uncertain whom to trust. Both were internally splintered and strategically adrift. Worse still, at that moment of acute vulnerability and division, we found ourselves besieged by existential adversaries, foreign and domestic. The late 1970s were by any measure a historic low point for America and the political coalition dedicated to preserving its unique legacy of human flourishing and freedom. Today, America and the conservative movement are enduring an era of division and danger akin to the late 1970s. Now, as then, our political class has been discredited by wholesale dishonesty and corruption. Look at America under the ruling and cultural elite today: Inflation is ravaging family budgets, drug overdose deaths continue to escalate, and children suffer the toxic normalization of transgenderism with drag queens and pornography invading their school libraries. Overseas, a totalitarian Communist dictatorship in Beijing is engaged in a strategic, cultural, and economic Cold War against America’s interests, values, and people—all while globalist elites in Washington awaken only slowly to that growing threat. Moreover, low-income communities are drowning in addiction and government dependence. Contemporary elites have even repurposed the worst ingredients of 1970s “radical chic” to build the totalitarian cult known today as “The Great Awokening.” And now, as then, the Republican Party seems to have little understanding about what to do. Most alarming of all, the very moral foundations of our society are in peril."

"Yet students of history will note that, notwithstanding all those challenges, the late 1970s proved to be the moment when the political Right unified itself and the country and led the United States to historic political, economic, and global victories. The Heritage Foundation is proud to have played a small but pivotal role in that story. It was in early 1979—amid stagflation, gas lines, and the Red Army’s invasion of Afghanistan, the nadir of Jimmy Carter’s days of malaise—that Heritage launched the Mandate for Leadership project. We brought together hundreds of conservative scholars and academics across the conservative movement. Together, this team created a 20-volume, 3,000-page governing handbook containing more than 2,000 conservative policies to reform the federal government and rescue the American people from Washington dysfunction. It was a promise from the conservative movement to the country—confident, specific, and clear. Mandate for Leadership was published in January 1981—the same month Ronald Reagan was sworn into his presidency. By the end of that year, more than 60 percent of its recommendations had become policy—and Reagan was on his way to ending stagflation, reviving American confidence and prosperity, and winning the Cold War. The bad news today is that our political establishment and cultural elite have once again driven America toward decline. The good news is that we know the way out even though the challenges today are not what they were in the 1970s. Conservatives should be confident that we can rescue our kids, reclaim our culture, revive our economy, and defeat the anti-American Left—at home and abroad. We did it before and will do it again."

"My heroes were my parish priests. I watched them in awe and I wanted to be like them. I wanted to do what they do. God blessed me because I was able to become what I always dreamed and not everybody gets that chance."

"In 1979, the threats we faced were the Soviet Union, the socialism of 1970s liberals, and the predatory deviancy of cultural elites. Reagan defeated these beasts by ignoring their tentacles and striking instead at their hearts. His approach to the Cold War? “We win and they lose." His economic agenda? The human dignity of work and its many rewards. His platform in the culture wars? The “community of values embodied in these words: family, work, neighborhood, peace and freedom.” This book—and Project 2025 as a whole—will arm the next conservative President with the same kind of strategic clarity, but for a new age."

"This is the duty history has put before us and the standard by which our generation of conservatives will be judged. And we should not want it any other way. The legacy of Mandate for Leadership, and indeed of the entire Reagan Revolution, is that if conservatives want to save the country, we need a bold and courageous plan. This book is the first step in that plan."