Show me your hands. Do they have scars from giving? Show me your feet. Are they wounded in service? Show me your heart. Have you left a place for divine love?
Fulton J. SheenRead
There are not one hundred people in the United States who hate The Catholic Church, but there are millions who hate what they wrongly perceive the Catholic Church to be.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote suggests that people's negative feelings towards the Catholic Church are often based on misconceptions rather than reality.
Fulton J. Sheen's quote highlights a common phenomenon where individuals harbor animosity towards an institution, in this case, the Catholic Church, not due to direct experience or understanding, but because of their misconceptions and biases. It emphasizes the impact of perception on opinion, suggesting that many of the criticisms faced by the Church are not necessarily a reflection of what it is, but rather what people believe it to be, thus calling for a deeper understanding and dialogue.
Themes
PerceptionMisconceptionCatholic ChurchHateUnderstanding
In practice
Example use cases
During a discussion about religious tolerance, this quote can be used to illustrate how often misconceptions drive hate.
More from Fulton J. Sheen
All quotes →A woman gets angry when a man denies his faults, because she knew them all along. His lying mocks her affection; it is the deceit that angers her more than the faults.
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Many married women who have deliberately spurned the "hour" of childbearing are unhappy and frustrated. They never discovered the joys of marriage because they refused to surrender to the obligation of their state. In saving themselves, they lost themselves!
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No one has ever laughed at a pun who did not see in the one word a twofold meaning. To materialists this world is opaque like a curtain; nothing can be seen through it. A mountain is just a mountain, a sunset just a sunset; but to poets, artists, and saints, the world is transparent like a window pane - it tells of something beyond....a mountain tells of the Power of God, the sunset of His Beauty, and the snowflake of His Purity.
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The big print giveth, and the fine print taketh away.
Fulton J. SheenRead
Hearing nuns' confessions is like being stoned to death with popcorn.
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