- Miss Brabazon: [to Meldrum's infirm mother] He's gone out again, I'm afraid... you're all alone again... with me.
- Father Duggan: I can't see the reason for your concern, Bernie. You've made a decision and you've made the right one. Ironically enough you're just the man the church needs.
- Father Bernard Cutler: Do you mean that?
- Father Duggan: Bernard, I've never be able to understand why the Catholic Church looks upon itself as a kind of prison, with those in its service doing life sentences. Just because a man can't live by its code doesn't mean to say that he can't further the religion in another occupation.
- Father Bernard Cutler: Some might call it cowardice.
- Father Duggan: They might at that. I would call it honesty. If you stayed on, you'd be a hypocrite and we've enough of those as it is.