A selection of past quotes from the Archbishop.
"The advantage of starting as a conservative is that you can only improve." January 21st, 1988, after it was announced he had been appointed Archbishop of Dublin.
"My own understanding is that women will never be ordained." March 26th, 1989.
"An angel is a pure spirit, a purely intellectual being, without a body. God sends them on missions I do believe I have an angel guardian." January 14th, 1990.
"There are many people who suffer from that disorder [homosexuality] in their lives but it is no longer presented to the public as a disorder." January 14th, 1990.
"The sign of priestly celibacy is a gift from God so precious that the Church will not abandon it." April 9th, 1993.
"Divorce is radically anti-social." May 15th, 1994.
"The provision of price lists for dealing in death." June 4th, 1995, on the Government's abortion-information legislation.
"No ferret of the old society could begin to match some elements in the media once they have scented a story." September 22nd, 1995.
"I have compensated nobody. I have paid out nothing whatever in compensation." May 1995, when questioned about compensating victims of clerical child sex abuse in the archdiocese.
"I helped by giving the assistance of a loan. And consequently I have always believed the diocese did not compensate." October 2nd, 1995, on the 1993 loan to Father Ivan Payne to compensate a victim.
"I now recognise that our response [to clerical child sex abuse], in good faith, has at times fallen short of what would now be required. I apologise to you for the hurt that you have been caused." In a pastoral letter read at Dublin Masses on October 7th and 8th, 1995.
"What they are in fact doing in partaking of the Eucharist in a Protestant church is a sham." December 16th, 1997, on Catholics who receive Communion in Protestant churches, after the President, Mrs McAleese, did so in Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin
"A profound alteration in the relationship between parent and child may result when the child is no longer welcomed as a gift, but produced, as it were, to order." March 2nd 1999, on reproductive technology.
"Ireland is European because of Rome. Because of the church, Ireland is a worldwide community." At a dinner in his honour in the Irish College, Rome, February 21st, 2001.
"The church, too, has a profound reverence for the home, designed by the Creator through marriage and the family as the deep centre of human intimacy on which the whole future of our society depends." May 14th, 2001, at a State reception in his honour hosted by the Taoiseach and Ms Celia Larkin.
"Archbishop Empey [Church of Ireland Archbishop of Dublin] wouldn't have much theological competence anyway. He wouldn't be regarded as one of their high flyers ..." October 2001.
"... Trinity insulted me and through me the Catholic people of Dublin because we were celebrating the millennium of the city of Dublin [in 1988] and they invited me to come along to watch Donald Caird [then Church of Ireland Archbishop of Dublin] receiving an honorary degree ... So I have a certain view of Trinity. I think you will understand why." October 2001.
"You people - I'm very sorry, I shouldn't say 'you people' - but you come along and treat us as if we are utterly indifferent to what was going on. And I have gone through agonies over this thing." To reporters asking questions about clerical child abuse, April 2001.
"We failed them. I failed them, and there are no excuses for this failure." On clerical sex abuse victims, October 19th, 2002.
"The confession of sin is better made in the silence of the heart than spoken aloud. But I ask pardon of all whom I have offended, especially of those who suffered unspeakable abuse by priests of the diocese and experienced a lack of the care that ought to have been provided . . .
. . . As I ask pardon of those whom I have offended I freely forgive whatever has seemed to be unfair to me." At Chrism Mass, Dublin's Pro-Cathedral, April 8th 2004.