“If you’re looking for hope and change, you’ll find a lot of both in the direction of Rome. It’s the best kind of hope because it offers forever and the best kind of change because it happens in your own life.” — Mary Matalin, a Republican political consultant and recent convert to Catholicism, speaking about the church during the 65th annual dinner of the Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Oct. 19 in New York

“I think we’re failing to demonstrate the relevance of Catholicism in our modern life. I think Catholicism is being rejected a lot because it’s old. It is old, but it’s like an old treasure map. A treasure map is valuable if it leads to treasure. If you find a treasure map, you don’t throw it away because it’s old.” — Matthew Kelly, an international Catholic speaker and author, speaking to participants at a recent “Christ Our Life” Catholic conference in Des Moines, Iowa

“We have the means to bring an end to poverty. Do we have the will? That is the question.” — Archbishop Francis Chullikatt, who heads the permanent observer mission of the Holy See at United Nations headquarters in New York, speaking to a U.N. committee

“Dear brother bishops, to defend life we must not fear hostility or unpopularity, and we must refuse any compromise or ambiguity which might conform us to the world’s way of thinking.” — Pope Benedict XVI, speaking Oct. 28 at a meeting with bishops from northeast Brazil