Catholicism Quotes

There is no such thing as pointless violence. `City of God` (Cidade de Deus (2002)), is that pointless violence? It`s reality, it`s real life, it has to do with the human condition. Being involved in Christianity and Catholicism when I was very young, you have that innocence, the teachings of Christ. Deep down you want to think that people are really good - but the reality outweighs that.

Well, I think that Catholicism`s basic foundation of faith is personal conscience. I think it`s between you and God, not you and the Church.

When she was younger, my mother was quite committed to Roman Catholicism. But she got disillusioned with it and moved closer to something like Buddhist beliefs near the end of her life.

I had a line in one of my movies - `Everyone knows the same truth.` Our lives consist of how we choose to distort it. One person will distort it with a kind of wishful thinking like religion, someone else will distort it by thinking political solutions are going to do something, someone else will think a life of sensuality is going to do it, someone else will think art transcends. Art for me has always been the Catholicism of the intellectuals. There is no afterlife for the Catholics really, and there`s no afterlife for the arts. `Your painting lived on after you` - well, that doesn`t really do it. That`s not what you want. Even if your painting does have some longevity, eventually that`s going to go. There won`t be any works of William Shakespeare or Ludwig van Beethoven, or any theatre to see them in, or air or light. I`ve always felt you`ve got to live your life within the context of this worst-case scenario. Which is true; the worst-case scenario is here.

I suppose you could sum up the religious aspects of my boyhood by saying it was a time of life when I was taught the difference between right and wrong as it specifically applied to Catholicism.

I am so bummed out. I had gotten all excited about Catholicism again. I just loved all the people and ceremony of the last few weeks, all the hundreds of thousands in the square. I was out to lunch when I heard, `It`s the German.` You could just feel everyone groan.

Show business offers more solid promises than Catholicism.

Again, conventional Catholicism does not much appeal to me.

I would say that, intellectually, Catholicism had no more impact on me than did social theory.

I had a born-again experience at the age of 33. As a result of that I found a church where I felt I was being fed properly. I don`t say that as a reflection on Catholicism. But once I was born again, I got an evangelical spirit.

Conservative Roman Catholicism and evangelical fundamentalists are growing, ... Hysterical people are seeking security.

When Catholicism goes bad it becomes the religion of amulets and holy places and priestcraft: Protestantism, in its corresponding decay, becomes a vague mist of ethical platitudes