Quotable & Notable

“The way I see it, the Iraqis took a look at it and decided not to go to civil war.”

-- President George Bush at a March 21 White House news conference

“There’s always more subtle forms of persecution that people have to endure for their beliefs ... and certainly one of them is to be ridiculed.”

-- Boston Archbishop Sean O’Malley reflecting on his new cardinal’s vestments that are red to symbolize a willingness to shed blood for the church

“Everyone is entitled to his or her opinion.”

-- Archbishop Oscar Cruz of Lingayen reacting to embattled Philippines President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo who is resisting pressure to leave office because, she said, “I believe that I am here now because that is the plan of God for me and for us.”

“It’s not an act of God, it’s an act of guys -- guys exploiting other guys!”

-- Studs Terkel, quoted in the Chicago Sun-Times, saying of the 12 men killed in the Sago Mine in West Virginia that God hadn’t let those miners down -- their employer had

“There is nothing more false than the need to rediscover a -- how can I say it -- an ‘amazon’ Mary Magdalene in order to recuperate the presence of women” in the church.

-- Italian Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, formerly No. 2 at the Vatican’s doctrinal congregation, on the book and film, “The Da Vinci Code”

National Catholic Reporter, March 31, 2006