Postscript.

"In political life you expect to be meatballed. But it's pretty tough to be fragged by your own troops."

--Governor Frank Keating, chair of the bishops' sex abuse committee, reflecting on Cardinal Bernard Law's vitriolic response to his suggestion that Catholics vote on the church hierarchy with their pocketbooks. (1)

"It means that anyone who wants to appeal is going to have a damn easy trial in Rome."

--Reverend Canice Connors, president of the US Conference on Major Superiors of Men, explaining the impact of the Vatican's revisions to the US bishops' norms on sex abuse. (2)

"He would certainly be talked to, and talked to severely, I would think."

--Bishop Thomas Daily, of Brooklyn, New York, explaining what should happen to priests who persist in making statements at odds with church teaching, in response to a question about serial offender Paul Shanley who advocated sex between men and boys. (3)

"It is better and more blessed to remain in virginity or celibacy than to be joined in matrimony."

--Cardinal Avery Dulles, Professor of Religion and Society at Fordharn University, Bronx, New York. (4)

"I don't think that the poor are terribly worried about where they are going to be buried."

--Reverend Thomas Rausch, professor of theology at Loyola Marymount University, defending the $50,000-$3 million cost of private crypts at the new cathedral in Los Angeles. (5)

"Saint Francis was the patron of the poor, not the impertinent and the impudent."

--A Franciscan monk from Katowice, Poland, justifying how the monks--who rely on begging to survive--could hire a security agency to remove beggars from a church. (6)

"It's not too bad; after all, there's still the funeral to follow."

--Bishop Tadeusz Pieronek, rector of the Papal Academy of Theology, asked if Poland is not in a religious crisis now that many only appear in church for their own wedding. (7)

(1) Pam Belluck, "Official tells Catholics: fight abuse with purse and feet," New York Times, October 5, 2002; (2) Laurie Goodstein, "Call for revisions means more priests are likely to fight zero-tolerance dismissals," New York Times, October 20, 2002; (3) Pam Belluck, "Bishop knew Boston priest had praised man-boy sex," New York Times, October 29, 2002; (4) Jerry Filteau, "Cardinal links vocations drop to misunderstanding of Vatican II," Catholic News Service, October 31, 2002; (5) Sandra Marquez, "Coffee, chardonnay, crypts for sale at new LA cathedral; critics say church is selling out," Associated Press, September 5, 2002; (6) Warsaw Voice, "Heard in Passing," November 24, 2002; (7) Warsaw Voice, "Heard in Passing," November 10, 2002.