This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
Fulton Sheen, fully Archbishop Fulton John Sheen
In times of prosperity the church administers; in times of adversity the church shepherds.
Adversity | Church | Prosperity |
Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, aka Vatican II
The Catholic Church rejects nothing which is true and holy in these religions… In Hinduism, men probe the mystery of God and express it with a rich fund of myths, and a penetrating philosophy… In the various forms of Buddhism the basic inadequacy of this changing world is recognized and men are taught with confident application how they can achieve a state of complete liberation… The Church also regards with esteem the Muslims who worship the one, subsistent, merciful and almighty God… They venerate Jesus as a prophet… Given the great spiritual heritage common to Christians and Jews, it is the wish of this sacred Council to foster and recommend a mutual knowledge and esteem.
Church | Esteem | God | Knowledge | Men | Mystery | Nothing | Philosophy | Sacred | World | Worship | God |
As we have seen over and over again, whenever church and state enter into partnership, human freedom is restricted, intellectual growth is stifled, and education is formalized and routinized to exclude and smother innovation and creativity.
Church | Creativity | Education | Freedom | Growth | Innovation |
The church bell sometimes does better work than the sermon.
Education is an ornament in prosperity and a refuge in adversity.
Adversity | Education | Prosperity |
Without friends no one would choose to live, though he had all other goods; even rich men and those in possession of office and of dominating power are thought to need friends most of all; for what is the use of such prosperity without the opportunity of beneficence, which is exercised chiefly and in its most laudable form towards friends?... With friends men are more able both to think and to act.
Men | Need | Office | Opportunity | Power | Prosperity | Thought | Friends | Think | Thought |
Prosperity makes friends and adversity tries them.
Adversity | Prosperity | Friends |
In prosperity prepare for adversity. It is both wiser and easier to collect winter stores in summer.
Adversity | Prosperity |
One who was abhorred by all in prosperity is adored by all in adversity.
Adversity | Prosperity |
In the day of prosperity there is a forgetfulness of affliction; and in the day of affliction there is no more remembrance of prosperity.
Affliction | Day | Forgetfulness | Prosperity |