We have to become involved in the political process - if we don't like it, we can change it.
Chicago is highly segregated, a fact that both causes and compounds the problems we face in bringing an end to violence.
There is a temptation to have shortcuts and not put in the time and the effort. I think you have to be willing to talk to people and sit sometimes around a table and listen to other people.
I think that education is a pathway out of poverty for many people. It was for our family.
Ultimately, it is only the witness who convinces people, not the teacher.
White supremacy is a sin. Neo-Nazism is a sin.
I always tell myself... that the faith I have is a gift, so I shouldn't take that for granted. And so when people are struggling and feel they have no faith at all, I shouldn't say, 'Well, it's their fault.'
We want to inspire people to work together, giving them hope that we can do something even if we cannot do everything.
We should be with people who are in need.
We have to learn. We have to listen to where people are. We have to listen to where the Spirit is working in the lives of people.
I would say the synodal church is like the word itself. It is 'a going on the way together,' and it is a way - whenever people walk, there are people who have been that way before who know that others have been that way before, and so they try to give direction.
The church can challenge society, but society also challenges the church. That's good. We should be humble enough to be able to accept that.
The Catholic Church is an enormous footprint in Chicago, doing a lot of good. That aspiration is felt by a lot of people - that the church succeed - because it will be good for society.
Bishops need to resist the defensiveness that institutions often fall back on in crisis moments.
We have never owned, as a country, the damage done not only to people who were enslaved but to future generations in which they were treated. I think that has damaged the future of many African-American people. Some have risen above it quite nobly, but it has impacted generations, and we have to be able to own that as part of the past.
Let's face it: grandparents are very important to family systems. You're babysitters, but you also instill values in children that sometimes skip a generation.
People think sometimes there is a 'Catholic vote' because of one particular issue. This demeans who we are as a Catholic community. We should take the whole thing... We take everything.
Parishes must be the safest places for a child to be.
Our people's faith is strong and sustains them even in times of challenge.
Just as Cardinal Bernardin proposed that an of ethic of life be consistently applied to unite all the life issues, we need in our day to mine the church's social teaching on solidarity.
