#priest

What, but the rapacity of the only men who exercised their reason, the priests, secured such vast property to the church, when a man gave his perishable substance to save himself from the dark torments of purgatory. ↗

— Mary Wollstonecraft

#dark #exercised #gave #himself #his

Whatever flaws or personal failings afflict them, it remains the case that the overwhelming majority of priests and politicians are honourable and honest - seeking to live out their beliefs and serve society. ↗

— Keith O'Brien

#beliefs #case #failings #flaws #honest

I was amazed, shocked, and sickened by what I heard throughout the day, over and over, by many victims' stories. I can think of no one with whom I didn't recognize a common thread. These monsters, these evil priests, used the same words and methods on all of us. With each session, I would find something that sent a cold chill down my spine. It amazed and frightened me that the actual words used on me, to rape me, to rape me, were the same as the words used on so many others from all over the United States. You would think that all these priests either were educated in how to concur and rape us, or they met privately with each other to compare notes and develop their plan of attack on us. The pattern was so much the same, with the same words, that you would swear it was scripted and disbursed to these priests. Do they secretly have closed-door meetings on how to abuse us? A chilling thought. Neary's routine of saying the “Our Father” during the rape and making me say it with him, repeating the “thy will be done” over and over, the absolution given me after he “finished,” the threats of having God take my parents away, the lectures about offering my suffering up to God, etc., etc., etc. My experience was identical, word-for-word, to that of many others. The exact words during the abuse were not just close, but exactly the same, as if it were some kind of abuse ritual. Ritual abuse is not limited to the religious definition and can include compulsive, abusive behavior performed in an exact series of steps with little variation. How could these similarities occur without the priests taking the same “abuse seminar” together some place, somehow? Was it taught in the seminary? In some dark corner? It goes beyond coincidence—the similarities in deeds and verbiage that these predators use on us. It truly chilled me to the very marrow of my bones. ↗

— Charles L. Bailey Jr.

#catholic #church #clergy-abuse #cover-up #coverup

It's okay for Christians throughout centuries to exterminate races and for their priests to rape little kids throughout decades, but trying to give the people the power to think and be individual, that's evil? ↗

— Glenn Danzig

#christians #decades #evil #exterminate #give

Had I become a priest, the sermons would've been electric! ↗

— Johnny Vegas

#been #electric #had #i #priest

People say that slaves were taken from Africa. This is not true: People were taken from Africa, among them healers and priests, and were made into slaves. ↗

— Abdullah Ibrahim

#among #healers #into #made #people

So the Negro race has continued, and today is the day of the Negro as far as the world is concerned. They have influenced the generations of time; they have mixed their blood with many peoples, until there are many peoples not able to hold the priesthood. ↗

— Warren Jeffs

#as far as #blood #concerned #continued #day

Writing fiction has become a priestly business in countries that have lost their faith. ↗

— Gore Vidal

#business #countries #faith #fiction #lost

Don't you know, priests, why our sermons do not touch the people's heart? Because we do not preach to the eyes, only to the ears. ↗

— Antonio Vieira

#ears #eyes #heart #know #only

It is only in the case of the Priestly Code that opinions differ widely; for it tries hard to imitate the costume of the Mosaic period, and, with whatever success, to disguise its own. ↗

— Julius Wellhausen

#code #costume #differ #disguise #hard