Verbatim.

"IMAGINE WHAT KIND of society we would have if an increasing number of us got our hands dirty! Imagine how effective our social power would be if we took up work within the community! How many communities would be transformed simply by our action? ... We cannot leave the betterment of our less-fortunate citizens to the appointed government bodies or charities."

--John Bird, editor of the British street magazine Big Issue (The Tablet, 1/2/99)

"CHRISTIANITY HAS always been, in many respects, about healing.... It is probably no accident that about the time mainline churches began ignoring this, about a hundred years ago, a new form of emotional healing [psychoanalysis]--this time secular--came into being. In other words, liberal Christian theology and religion ignored the healing power of the faith."

--Paul Vitz, psychology professor (Books & Culture, Jan./Feb. 1999)

"As IF TO COMPENSATE for the loss of political power, the popes of the late 19th and early 20th centuries began to accentuate their spiritual authority. Following Vatican I and its declaration of papal infallibility, Civilta Cattolica, the review of the Roman Jesuits, serenely declared that `when the pope meditates, it is God who is thinking in him.'"

--Jerry Ryan, author (Commonweal, 1/5/99)