“If I had gone right into the third grade, or if I had skipped a grade, or if I had not been in Selma (Ala.) in 1947, I would never have met these groups of priests, I never would have become a Catholic, I never would have become a priest, and I never would have become a bishop. So if the Monday morning quarterback says, why, after graduating from high school with about a 98 percent average, would anyone ever put you back? The finger of God.”
On his conversion from his boyhood Baptist faith
“I’ve never looked upon my conversion to Catholicism as a giving up of all those things I learned about religion and faith. People have even accused me at times of being a Catholic with Protestant lungs in my preaching style or love of music.”
On letting go of racial injustices
“Being from the South, you can be very forgiving. If we’re not forgiving then we’re really not Christians. I think black people would have burned themselves out if we had let the bitterness of what happened to us consume us. That’s the greatness of soul — that you can forgive the way God forgives — and that’s a plus in our favor.”
