Daniel Berrigan Quotes

I studied with the idea of becoming a Catholic priest.

I entered the diocesan seminary. I liked the Dominicans, and I had Dominican friends. But then I chose the Society of Jesus, which I knew well because the seminary was entrusted to the Jesuits. Three things in particular struck me about the Society: the missionary spirit, community and discipline.

Back when I was 8 or 9 and wanted to be a nun, I would often stop at church on my way home from school.

I went into the seminary when I was 16.

I trained to be a priest - started to. I went to seminary school when I was 11. I wanted to be a priest, but when they told me I could never have sex, not even on my birthday, I changed my mind.

The truly longstanding tradition in the church is that some are called to celibacy. Some feel called to it. But the church has never supported that celibacy be mandated for someone not called to it. It's never imposed on someone.

Priests are not men of the world; it is not intended that they should be; and a University training is the one best adapted to prevent their becoming so.

Indeed, one of the most successful and influential religious organizations in history, the Society of Jesus, was consciously modeled along military lines by its founder, Ignatius Loyola.

When I was in sixth grade, I wanted to become a priest.

And so um, I knew that I really didn't want to be a priest and didn't want to be a celibate, though I could probably manage it. Um, and um, ultimately I left.

I'm not sure that Jesuits ever produce faithful Catholics. Because they're too fierce. It is Sturm und Drang, and it is guilt - it is all that battlefield stuff.

I have nothing against priests. In fact, I tried for a time to be one... It should be clear, then, that I respect, and am often fond of, the many priests in my life.

There are others (I am speaking of my own order) who enter the priesthood and diaconate in order that they may visit women with greater freedom.

Two of my aunts are Catholic sisters.

As a matter of fact, I decided in high school that I was going to go to the seminary. And I did study with the Paulist Fathers for two years after high school in full anticipation of becoming a priest.

I don't think I'm going to be priest material.

Is it like gay men go into the priesthood because they figure, Well, this'll solve my problem. I can't be a homosexual in the priesthood; it'll just go away. Maybe I'll try it with the Republican Party.

The guy who kind of broke the story in 'Spotlight' was a priest, the guy who had sort of done all the research. One of the things he said when one of the 'Spotlight' reporters asked him how he could still remain a Catholic, he said that, 'My faith is in the eternal, and the church is an organization.'

For me, I've always wanted to be a nun. I mean, I think about what it's like to be a nun. And I've always been fascinated with nuns, and I have a nun collection, I've been collecting nuns for 20 years. And I have a song that I wrote, 'I Wanna Be a Nun,' when I was 25.

I was by no means a nun.

I never thought I would do a reality show.

I didn't grow up in the Catholic church, but I went to a Catholic high school and a Catholic college, and the Jesuit priests are not saints floating around campus.

Trying to do Christianity properly is tough. Life as a priest is rigorous and disciplined. It involves sacrifices.

I was filming in Roscrea in Co Tipperary. I had great fun watching monks in the monastery there making bread. They even offered me a job as their main baker. One of them said I would make a good monk, but I told him there was a slight problem because I was married.

I had fun playing a mutant. I never thought I would. Like, I never in my wildest dreams thought I would.