Abortion is a searing and divisive public policy issue precisely because two significant sets of rights are in conflict, and no matter which set of laws it enacts, society must choose between those rights.
Clericalism is a form of elitism in which some are viewed as having special rights and privileges.
Chicago is highly segregated, a fact that both causes and compounds the problems we face in bringing an end to violence.
White supremacy is a sin. Neo-Nazism is a sin.
Society cannot escape what is essentially a moral question: When does human life deserve legal protection from the state? And society certainly cannot escape this dilemma by denying that it is fundamentally a moral issue, no matter what position one chooses.
I want to be a partner with business, labor, civic leaders, foundations, other churches so that we can work together... If I can talk to all of these people and have something in common, maybe I can get them to see that they also have something in common with each other when we come together.
Hope in the future is deeply rooted in our national psyche. It is part of the soul of our nation.
The Church is not fully Church if it lacks dialogue.
People think sometimes there is a 'Catholic vote' because of one particular issue. This demeans who we are as a Catholic community. We should take the whole thing... We take everything.
We should be with people who are in need.
I take time to be with people, and I learn a lot.
Listen, talk, be respectful of people - and make sure that you have openness to where people are coming from. And you don't do anything that is unnecessarily antagonistic, that is only going to make you feel good because you've done it.
We realize there is no political party or politician who fully takes into consideration the issues the church is about. This is nothing new to us.
We are a people unafraid to welcome 'your tired, your poor, your huddled masses,' because we measure others by the quality of their hopes for the future, not by the circumstances of their birth.
I don't think sometimes people in positions of leadership in the church really engage gay and lesbian people and talk to them and get to know about their lives.
We don't need military weapons in our society. We're not supposed to be at war with one another.
The death penalty confronts us with a penetrating moral question: Can even the monstrous crimes of those who are condemned to death and are truly guilty of such crimes erase their sacred dignity as human beings and their intrinsic right to life?
Science can and should inform debate about abortion and the law. But science does not resolve questions of moral value and moral choice.
The Second Amendment was passed in an era when organized police forces were few and citizen militias were useful in maintaining the peace.
Every school that I have ever attended, except for kindergarten, I went to a Catholic institution.
We're not a Church of preservation but rather a Church of proclamation. To achieve this end, we must be open to significant, if not revolutionary, changes in how the Archdiocese with its parishes and ministries is organized, how it's resourced, how it's staffed.
Christ receives people; because of that mercy, conversion happens.
Let's face it: grandparents are very important to family systems. You're babysitters, but you also instill values in children that sometimes skip a generation.
Racism can be called our nation's own specific 'original sin.'
My folks were very practical. They were also kind of able to think outside of the box. They were not going to let circumstance paralyze them. They knew sometimes you just had to take some new initiative. I think they passed that on to all of us... If you don't find a way, you make one.
We're all different; we all have our ways of understanding ourselves and the way we live our lives and struggle with our humanity.
We help immigrants because we are an immigrant nation, and we are an immigrant church. We've always done that; this is nothing new to us. This is not a new venture for us. It's who we are and have been from the very beginning of the history of the Catholic Church in this country.
Parishes must be the safest places for a child to be.
I don't want the abnormal or something special. I want to have a normal life.
For generations, our political life was distorted by the influence of public officials whose foremost goal was to preserve the essence, if not the form, of slavery in a segregated and discriminatory social system.
We must band together to call for gun-control legislation. We must act in ways that promote the dignity and value of human life.
We want to inspire people to work together, giving them hope that we can do something even if we cannot do everything.
I commend the parents who are sending their children to a Catholic school, because they're making a sacrifice, and they're paying twice for their child's education: They're paying the tuition, and they're paying taxes.
There is a synergy between the way Croatians approach life and the way Jesuits do. Croatians are very real about situations. We don't gloss over things. If there are issues to deal with, you deal with them.
Catechesis, preaching, and passing on the faith must not only be about educating the members of our communities in the content of our tradition. This is important, but it must equally be about developing their spiritual sensitivity to the ways God manifests His presence and action in the world.
Collaborative governance needs to be more than calling on the advice and competence of others to make up for our episcopal shortcomings. Rather, governance involves seeking how God is revealing his work through others in the community.
We have never owned, as a country, the damage done not only to people who were enslaved but to future generations in which they were treated. I think that has damaged the future of many African-American people. Some have risen above it quite nobly, but it has impacted generations, and we have to be able to own that as part of the past.
We have to be sure we don't pigeonhole one group as though they're not part of the human family, as though there's a different set of rules for them. That would be a big mistake.
We are called to care for those sickened by pollution, house those displaced by environmental calamities, and heal the spirits of those - especially our youth - who are disheartened by a world where human survival is now in question.
I was really grateful to have a chance to have some really in-depth study about the power of language using a philosopher who taught at the University of Chicago by the name of Paul Ricoeur. I'm really happy to be in Chicago because a lot of what I do is rooted in his approach to language.
We have to believe in the mercy and grace of God to trigger conversion rather than the other way around: that you're only going to get the mercy if you have a conversion. The economy of salvation doesn't work that way.
Pope Francis tells us who he is by pointing to Caravaggio's St. Matthew: 'Here, this is me, a sinner on whom the Lord has turned his gaze.' He is telling us that he has experienced the same rush of speechless wonder and graced love Caravaggio depicts in his painting.
Some pro-life advocates focus almost exclusively on the rights and suffering of the unborn baby, while some pro-choice advocates focus equally exclusively on the rights and suffering of pregnant women. This is a distortion of the moral choice that confronts us as a society.
We don't need more divisive language or programs and policies that are going to tear the fabric of the nation apart.
When the state imposes the death penalty, it proclaims that taking one human life counterbalances the taking of another life. This assumption is profoundly mistaken.
There should be reluctance to make a national policy so inflexible that it fails to take into account the country's diversity.
'Dialogue' is not a dirty word; it's our word.
We budget quite a bit of money every year in order to assist people who are migrating here, people who are trying to enter into our society and be a part of the American dream.
I think that the Pope has trust in every bishop that is appointed.
