Quotes & Sayings About Catholic Guilt

For many of us Catholics, the word evangelization evokes one of two responses. Maybe we associate it with overzealous, in-your-face, fire-and-brimstone fanatics, and so we write it off completely. Or we think of it as we think of exercise: we know we should be doing it, but we aren't so we carry a lot of guilt about not doing it enough or not doing it at all. — William E. Simon Jr.

Truth is, I'm a good Catholic girl. The faith has always been elusive, but the guilt is intractable. — Janet Evanovich

His mind remained freakishly pin-point sharp until his last days, but his body had shut-down a good six months before. He surprised his hospice doctor and nurses by clinging to life long after he should have expired. It was a fear of dying, driven by guilt over something he did early on. He was afraid of judgment day. His strict Catholic upbringing wreaked havoc in his brain and kept his will from preventing his body to die. — Stephen Joseph Mitskavich

The period of Catholic ascendancy was on the whole one of the most deplorable in the history of the human mind ... The spirit that shrinks from enquiry as sinful and deems a state of doubt a state of guilt, is the most enduring disease that can afflict the mind of man. Not till the education of Europe passed from the monasteries to the universities, not till Mohammedan science, and classical free thought, and industrial independence broke the sceptre of the Church, did the intellectual revival of Europe begin. — William Edward Hartpole Lecky

There's Catholic guilt about things, then there's the guilt of being the youngest of 10, so when nice things happen to you, you're not really allowed to enjoy them. — Jack White

Unfortunately, when someone asks me for a favor, I can't say no. Because of my upbringing - my Catholic guilt - if I don't do it, it plagues me. — Bradley Cooper

I was brought up as a Catholic. I've got A-level guilt. — Billy Connolly

I was brought up a Catholic, for that you get an A level in guilt. — Billy Connolly

I attended Catholic school. We received a great education from the nuns ... Also, guilt. Guilt and a feeling of never being satisfied with what you've done. And a sense that you are inadequate and a big phony. All useful for a writer. I'm always being edited by my inner nun. — George Saunders

I spent my entire Irish Catholic youth in a constant state of guilt over imaginary sins. I learned that nothing is a sin as long as you don't take pleasure from it. — Terry Wogan

Ah, guilt and sorrow had dogged Juan's footsteps too, for he was not a Catholic who could rise refreshed from the cold bath of confession. Yet the banality stood: that the past was irrevocably past. And conscience had been given man to regret it only in so far as that might change the future. For man, every man, Juan seemed to be telling him, even as Mexico, must ceaselessly struggle upward. What was life but a warfare and a stranger's sojourn? — Malcolm Lowry

It's great to be recognized when I'm looking for a table at a crowded restaurant, but I still don't put it to best use. I'm such a lump. I won't cut the line. It's my Catholic guilt. I gotta get used to it. — Christopher Meloni

Catholic, I discovered, meant a type of Christianity for humans who like gold leaf, Latin, and guilt. — Matt Haig

I'm easily frightened, and I've also come to realize that old Catholic guilt or remorse is easily stimulated. — Billy Collins

I grew up Catholic. I was not above guilt trips. — Dani Alexander

So I sit and endure the stares and the pangs and twinges of Catholic guilt, knowing that I am doing the right thing if I'm right, and the right thing even if I'm wrong. Being Catholic is hard. Being ex-Catholic is even harder. — Pete Hautman

pastors throughout the countryside around Rome had reminded their parishioners that Jesus was a Jew in order to coax them into opening their doors. Catholic guilt was a powerful tool, — Amy Harmon

My identity has always been confused. Born in Edinburgh of a Scottish/Russian/Jewish mother and an English/Irish/Catholic father, there is no form of guilt to which I was not subjected in my childhood. Members of my immediate family live all over the world - a diaspora of cousins, aunts, uncles and more in a dizzying mix. — Sara Sheridan

In the Code of Canon Law, it states clearly: 'A person who is conscious of grave sin is not to celebrate Mass or receive the body of the Lord without previous sacramental confession.' I haven't attended confession in well over a decade, and that's less because of dogmatic conflict than it is because of moral cowardice. Deeper than that, maybe I don't want to be forgiven. I want to be punished. Which may be just about the most selfish, egotistical thought I've ever had. I'm sick with self-love. Or self-loathing. After all, they're both essentially the same thing. — Phillip Andrew Bennett Low

My mother was French Protestant, and my father was Italian Catholic, and their union was an excess of God, guilt and sauce. — Mitch Albom

I was raised Catholic. I didn't appreciate the guilt and sin part of it. — John Densmore

I came up from growing up with a lot of Catholic guilt, a lot of punk rock, hipster guilt in the later years where I think people have thrown a lot of things on me. Where I always felt like I'm not supposed to tell the horn section what to play or I don't want to come off egotistical. — Jack White

I was raised Catholic. Guilt is my resting state. — Paul Doiron

Or maybe, he thought, returning to the boxes, it was part of being Catholic
you were made to feel guilty about everything — Elizabeth Strout

I wasn't ready for the guilt of being a parent. I was raised Catholic, so guilt is a familiar friend. Guilt is as much a part of the Catholic culture as is rooting for Notre Dame. I grew up with a "God is watching you, so you better not make him mad" mentality. I felt guilty for feeling good, for feeling bad, and for feeling nothing. Attending Confession was supposed to alleviate some of the guilt, but I always ended up feeling guilty for not telling the priest everything I felt guilty about, so I stopped going to Confession. Then I felt guilty that I stopped going to Confession. That's a lot of guilt. Just when I thought that nothing could top "Catholic Guilt," I became acquainted with "Parental Guilt," which totally puts "Catholic Guilt" to shame. Sorry, Catholic Guilt. Now I feel guilty for shaming you. — Jim Gaffigan

The creation of Spoleto was a social experiment. Because I've always suffered guilt from being a Catholic, when I was in my fifties I felt a need of being needed. — Gian Carlo Menotti

I suffer from Irish-Catholic guilt. Guilt is a good reality check. It keeps that 'do what makes you happy' thing in check. — Edward Burns

I don't think you can be a Catholic without an accompanying measure of guilt. — Mia Farrow

Being raised Catholic myself, I think people who are Catholic tend to carry a lot of guilt. It's almost a joke. — Linda Cardellini

There's only one difference between Jews and Catholics. Jews are born with guilt, and Catholics have to go to school to learn it. — Elayne Boosler

Why is it that our many mental institutions are overcrowded? People will not take their time. They do not live in the present! For are not all fears, phobias, crippling anxieties tied in with the future - a time that has not yet come - and may not? And are not deep depressions, melancholias, and foolish guilt complexes connected with the past - a time that is gone, and is gone forever - a time that cannot be changed even by God Almighty? These dementias most certainly bespeak some relation to the fact that those plagued with them have not been objective enough to stay in contact with the one great gratuitous reality called now. — M. Raymond

I'm an Irish Catholic and I have a long iceberg of guilt. — Edna O'Brien

I think I have serious latent Catholic guilt issues. — Grimes

I'm an Episcopal, which is Catholic Lite. It's like same religion, half the guilt. — Robin Williams

Catholic and Jew - it's very closely related, a lot of holidays, a lot of guilt, a lot of the same things going on. — Larry Wilmore

I'm Jewish, but my mom's Catholic, so the guilt area is covered. I have the highest expectations, along with the lowest. I tried to put as much of myself as possible in Reality Bites, but in terms of my humor, I'm still trying to figure out what my sensibility is. It's a process, really. I don't feel like I have a very clear idea of what I'm supposed to be, or even of how people perceive me, except that I got put into this Generation X file. — Ben Stiller

Guilt is the currency of the Catholic faith — Luke Gracias

And I'm a Catholic, from an Irish Catholic family, and we know plenty of stuff about guilt. — Bob Gunton

I always know it's Sunday because I wake up feeling apologetic. That's one of the cool things about being a Catholic ... it's a multifaceted experience. If you lose the faith, chances are you'll keep the guilt, so it isn't as if you've been skunked altogether. — Janet Evanovich

I was brought up a Catholic, so I take no pleasure in guilt. — Imelda Staunton

I put Catholic guilt to work pretty good for a rich rock star. — Bono