Quotable & Notable

“So many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway, so this is working very well for them.”

-- Former first lady Barbara Bush, after visiting hurricane refugees at Houston’s Astrodome

“Parents do not wait until they have three children before they feed their firstborn.”

-- Pastoral letter on catechesis from the Eastern Catholic bishops of the United States that said no parish is too small or too remote to offer religious education

 “More comfortable pews cannot compete with the easy chair or the bed that already serve the unchurched person.”

-- The Rev. Thomas E. Trask, of the Assemblies of God, speaking about the challenges of reaching unchurched people

“Just showing the people that the government can kill someone is not going to result in control over the security situation.”

-- Ahmed Subhi, a senior official in the European Union’s Ministry of Human Rights, responding to the first post-Hussein state sanctioned executions in Iraq, the hanging of three men convicted of murder

ginormous

-- An adjective meaning “bigger than gigantic and bigger than enormous” and the No. 1 entry for Merriam-WebsterOnline.com’s Top Ten Favorite Words (Not in the Dictionary) contest

National Catholic Reporter, September 16, 2005