Answers Quote by Anthony Trollope

Priests are no more necessary to religion than politicians are to patriotism.

— John Haynes Holmes

Any appellative at all savouring of arbitrary rank is unsuitable to a man of liberal and catholic mind.

— Herman Melville

That clerical celibacy doesn't guarantee asceticism is obvious, any more than attending Mass guarantees prayerfulness (trust me on that one). But it preserves the…

— Ross Douthat

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

— H. L. Mencken

I wonder that among all the evils deprecated in the Liturgy, no one thought of inserting flitting. Is there any worse thing? Oh no,…

— Jane Welsh Carlyle

Doctrines are meant to serve man, not the other way around.

— Amin Maalouf

The people are as severe toward the clergy as toward women; they want to see absolute devotion to duty from both.

— Madame de Stael

“Never accept and be content with unanalyzed assumptions, assumptions about the work, about the people, about the church or Christianity. Never be afraid to…

— Brian D. McLaren

The church may hold whatever it holds with regard to clerical celibacy.

— William P. Leahy

Clergymen have much the same in their breeches as other men.

— Elizabeth Aston

The Catholic men are more upset about women not being able to be priests than are Catholic women.

— Andrew Greeley

We Catholics have been in the forefront in defending the dignity of the human person. Clericalism is a direct violation of human dignity.

— Blase J. Cupich