“Faith is not a contract. Faith is surrender. If no other relationship in our experience is one of self-surrender, if it's all contractual, people won't know how to believe.” PeopleIfsKnowsBelieveSelfKnow HowCatholicSurrenderContracts Author:Francis George
“The fact that God knows everything does not mean that He is directly causing everything. He respects our freedom at our level. He makes it possible for us to act freely. If He didn't, we wouldn't act at all - we wouldn't be at all.” IfsKnowsMeanDoeFactsLevelsGod KnowsGod Knows Everything Author:Francis George
“He [God] made us free, and He respects that. It is two different spheres of causality. Interdependent, though. It is not two boxes looking at one another without any kind of direct connections. There are very direct connections. That's why the question of "how are we free if God is omnipotent?" is a real, constant question. Ultimately, God is all powerful, and yet we are free.” IfsKindMadeTwoDifferentRealPowerfulDirectConnectionsConstantBoxesSpheresOmnipotentCausality Author:Francis George
“So, in every case if you really love someone there is an element of submission to them because you want what's best for them, and at times they're going to tell you what's best for them. Even if you have second thoughts about it, you'll probably still do it because you love them.” IfsWantStillsCasesElementsSubmissionLove SomeoneSecond ThoughtsIf You Really Love Someone Author:Francis George
“Love isn't blind. Love is reasonable. God is pure love, but He is also pure reason. If you separate reason from faith you'll end in violence. Either way, if you have a purely rationalistic scheme that is atheistic, for instance Communism was for social justice. Fascism was for the nation-state, which isn't automatically a bad thing.” IfsWayEndsStatesReasonNationsSocialJusticeLove IsViolencePureSocial JusticeBlindInstanceCommunismReasonableBad ThingsFascismSchemesAtheisticPure LoveBlind Love Author:Francis George
“If you, however, separate reason and faith so that it's purely a rationalistic scheme, it will end in violence. If a pure faith scheme - sometimes called the fundamentalist scheme in modern parlance - you'll end in violence too.” IfsEndsSometimesReasonViolenceModernPureSchemesFundamentalist Author:Francis George
“Christ didn't leave us a book of instructions; He left us a body, a family - a Church. If it were perfectly clear, there wouldn't be any freedom.” IfsBookBodyLeftChristChurchClearInstruction Author:Francis George
“If you're going to say you're Catholic, you inform your conscience so that you're activities will conform to what God is telling us through the Church. If God is telling you something outside of that, well, the Church will look at that and say: we think it is true or we don't think it is true. The Church might say: that might be true for you but it has no public normative value.” IfsThinkingWellsLooksMightValuesChurchActivityConscienceCatholicBeing TrueConform Author:Francis George
“Law is a process. If there is equality of process for everybody, then that's our definition of justice. Whether or not what is done is right or wrong, you follow the process. And so, the end result is just by definition within that alternative universe that is American law. Most people still operate within a moral universe where principles of good and bad and what is right and wrong in itself, and not just as a result of the process.” PeopleIfsStillsEndsDoneLawUniverseProcessJusticeResultsMoralPrinciplesDefinitionsAlternativesGood And BadEnd ResultsAmerican Law Author:Francis George
