62 Comments

• indiana jones | May 26, 2012, 08:51 PM EDT

  "ANIMAL RUTTING"?? AL LEAST THERE IS NO "ANIMAL PEDOFILIA" (PEDOPHILIA) IN THE ANIMAL WORLD....I AM TIRED OF HEARING SOME PRIESTS REFERRING TO ANIMALS AS INFERIOR CREATURES....IT IS THEIR GOD THAT CREATED THEM BY THE WAY....AND MANY PIOUS RELIGIOUS PEOPLE WOULD DO WELL IN FOLLOWING THE EXAMPLE GIVEN TO HUMANS BY OTHER SPECIES SUCH AS AUTHENTICITY, BRAVENESS, LOYALTY AND GRATITUDE JUST TO CITE A FEW....FROM READING (ON THIS ARTICLE) WHAT THIS CARDINAL-TO-BE PREACHES, I CAN UNDERSTAND WHY THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IS IN TROUBLE! FORTUNATELY, NOT ALL CATHOLIC PRIESTS THINK -OR TALK- LIKE HIM....THE GOOD LORD SAVE US ALL!

• AnneMorag | Jan 20, 2012, 11:18 AM EST

  Oh, now, stop this. Who gave birth to Jesus? Bashing women for a biologic function that GOD created for our mutual enjoyment and to promote the continuation of the species is counter-productive. Or, am I just being an irrational, wanton woman trying to seduce all you Godly men to my way of thinking? Sigh.

• GeorgeDillon | Jan 20, 2012, 09:09 AM EST

  eiriamach--You tell us. I'm sure you have some crazy take on the topic.

• eiriamach | Jan 19, 2012, 04:25 PM EST

  "Rutting" is done only by the male of the species-- elk, deer, and elephants mostly. What does that say about those who connect rutting with debased sexual activity?

• GeorgeDillon | Jan 19, 2012, 02:38 PM EST

  The older I get the more sorry I am that I didn't do more animal rutting in my teenage years and my 20s. Still, I think I have a good few rutting seasons left to me. Let's get rutting!

• RedBranch | Jan 19, 2012, 12:35 PM EST

  Time for another Reformation?

• SingleDonald | Jan 19, 2012, 10:07 AM EST

  I'm really getting sick reading of the anti female rhetoric in Church history! This Father Peter Damian couldn't have been the priest who worked with lepers; I believe he was in the 19th Century. The 11th Century monk should have spelled his name, "DAMIEN", after the antichrist featured in the Omen trilogy! BTW, Cardinal Pacelli was Pope Pius XII, not XVI.

• eiriamach | Jan 19, 2012, 08:10 AM EST

  Interesting comments by TomS and CaptainC on RCC's attitudes toward women! In an article in the NY Times 1/7, Sara Ritchey writes for the benefit of the wives of married Ex-Episcopal priests who recently were ordained into the RCC Chair of Peter Ordinariate: "By the time of the First Lateran Council, the priest’s wife had become a symbol of wantonness and defilement. The reason was that during this period the nature of the host consecrated at Mass received greater theological scrutiny. Medieval theologians were in the process of determining that bread and wine, at the moment of consecration in the hands of an ordained priest at the altar, truly became the body and blood of Jesus Christ. The priest who handled the body and blood of Christ should therefore be uncontaminated lest he defile the sacred corpus.... The priest’s wife was an obvious danger. Her wanton desire, suggested the 11th-century monk Peter Damian, threatened the efficacy of consecration. He chastised priests’ wives as 'furious vipers who out of ardor of impatient lust decapitate Christ, the head of clerics'.... According to the historian Dyan Elliott, priests’ wives were perceived as raping the altar, a perpetration not only of the priest but also of the whole Christian community.... [I]n the words of Damian, as 'the clerics’ charmers, devil’s choice tidbits, expellers from paradise, virus of minds, sword of soul, wolfbane to drinkers, poison to companions, material of sinning, occasion of death ... the female chambers of the ancient enemy, of hoopoes, of screech owls, of night owls, of she-wolves, of blood suckers.'” ("A Cohort of Married Roman Catholic Priests...")

• stephen1553 | Jan 19, 2012, 12:35 AM EST

  he tralks about immorality while protecting str8 pedophile priests.

• stephen1553 | Jan 19, 2012, 12:34 AM EST

  All you need to know about Dolan is that when he was bishop of Milwaukee from 2002-2009, he was hiding the molestation of children. His legacy was that in Jan 2011, the diocese filed for bankruptcy due to sucessful lawsuits His new job btw is to fight the extension of the statue of limitations re the molestation in several states. I noted that one of the awards re molestation in David Frances book - our Fathers - was 5.2 million $$ MUltiply that by the estimated 100,000 kids molested int he USA and you wont have to worry about the catholic church demonizing our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters any more. the sign over the vatican gates will say bankrupt. The mistatke the world made was to not arrest Pacelli - Pope Piux XVI and try him at Nurmenburg. For laying the ground work of the hatred of Jesus own people - which paved the way for the holocaust and WWII.

• brianmack | Jan 18, 2012, 07:35 PM EST

  I don't really like this guy Dolan. Way too political and I could be wrong but the last time I passed St. Patrick's Cathedral, it had all the trappings of a palatial estate. If Dolan would only follow this passage: Sell what you have, give to the poor and come follow me, I might begin to listen to him. It's sad, as a former altar boy and daily church goer that I can't place one foot into a church today.

• howareya | Jan 18, 2012, 06:06 PM EST

  jamieLM ... I'm not saying that I believe you can only have sex for procreation. If that were the case, then barren couples and women over the child bearing age would not qualify, right? As you said, responsible sex. But I just think now our society is not encouraging responsible sex. I think we should give every little boy baby a mini-vasectomy and then when they get married and want kids, they can have it reversed. That way, all babies would be wanted babies!! LOL

• seanomelbourne | Jan 18, 2012, 06:00 PM EST

  I'm happy to be a humanist,I do not have to clutter my head with ridiculous religious doctrine.Religions are invented to control people and their taught processes. Religios teachings are not neccessary in understand love,honour and respect.

• SingleDonald | Jan 18, 2012, 04:35 PM EST

  TomSwinford, Thanks for the "crash course" on St. Augustine. There is so mush about him that I still don't know, though I first learned of him in 1st Grade! The sister told us that this man ran off with a "bad crowd". His mother, St. Monica, prayed 30 years for him. Well, I think St. Monica's prayers "caused" more harm than good. If Augustine would have settled down, with 1 woman who he loved & cherished, none of this misogony would have been preached! We all ahould know that if a woman seduces a man, out of love and/or affection, neither partner should consider himself/herself to be either a "victim" or "evil perpetrator"! BTW, a seductress can cure an overly inhibited guy of girl shyness!

• SeamusMartin | Jan 18, 2012, 03:47 PM EST

  Dolan is a typical old guard of the RCC. Sadly, he wants to "get off", but because of his oath he can't so he wants all others to feel as empty and stressed as he does. We need a new guard of wedded priests, both men and women. RCC watch out... the New Catholics are starting to think for ourselves and we want change, a New Catholic Church, progressive & loving. We want to always consider "What would Jeses do?", not "What does Dolan/Pope say?"! Long live the New Catholic Movement.

• SeamusMartin | Jan 18, 2012, 02:59 PM EST

  Yes the Catholic Church's historic view and treatment of women is appalling - and its pathetic and tragic inability to recognize human sexuality as a fundamental life force, as natural as breathing and every bit as necessary, is one of its greatest failings. The shameful requirement imposed on my mother, whether local or widespread, can be traced directly to Augustine, who, in his later years became a raving lunatic - and a fair amount of church dogma comes from this man. For example, he pinpointed the precise moment when Original Sin is committed. It is the moment of the male climax in sexual union - and the reason why each baby must be baptised to be cleansed of this sin. Yet Augustine did not blame the man for the sin, he blamed the woman, the seductress, forever leading Godly men to do bad things. In the 6th century, Pope Gregory the Great decreed once and for all that Mary Magdalene, a devout follower of Jesus, was a whore, without a single shred of evidence. To prevent women from attaining higher positions in the church Gregory had to put them in their place - as utterly unworthy beings. In the most important ways things have not changed at all. Archbishop Dolan is proof of that.

• CaptainCon | Jan 18, 2012, 01:56 PM EST

  It is no surprise- under the layer of gold cloth in the catholic church is an utter hatred and fear of women. And that has been there from the start. You only have to look at the weirdo abuser priests who indicated that raping a child to them was less of a transgression than sex with a woman. That particular dark current runs deep in the catholic priesthood. Clement of Alexandria: “Every woman should be filled with shame by the thought that she is a woman.” Tertullian: “Woman is a temple built over a sewer, the gateway to the devil. Woman, you are the devil’s doorway. You led astray one whom the devil would not dare attack directly. It was your fault that the Son of God had to die; you should always go in mourning and rags.” Ambrose: “Adam was deceived by Eve, not Eve by Adam… it is right that he whom that woman induced to sin should assume the role of guide lest he fall again through feminine instability.” Augustine: “Woman was merely man’s helpmate, a function which pertains to her alone. She is not the image of God but as far as man is concerned, he is by himself the image of God.” Pope Gregory I: “Woman is slow in understanding and her unstable and naive mind renders her by way of natural weakness to the necessity of a strong hand in her husband. Her ‘use’ is two fold; [carnal] sex and motherhood.” Thomas Aquinas: “[Woman] was made only to assist with procreation.”

• SingleDonald | Jan 18, 2012, 12:34 PM EST

  TomSwinford, I am APPALLED at what you posted, about old Ireland! A woman having sex with her husband, which creates a baby, being required to confess this as a "sin"??? Any religion which devalues women as "seductresses of men" is an EVIL religion! Women are special, and, so long as the liason is consensual, no "sin" has taken place! Your post exposed the SUPREME misogny that the Church once had, and also the inspiration of guilt over sexuality, for women & men! St. Augustine was a supreme "stud", in his youth. Then, when he reached a certain age, he apparently flip-flopped to such a degree as to demonize ALL close encounters, between men & women. Shame an you, Augustine, and all those who believe in your misogony & guilt over human sexuality!

• IrelandNorth | Jan 18, 2012, 06:09 AM EST

  Legitimate point, even if made by a theoretician. Much existential confusion in the world is caused by theoreticians speaking authoritively on matters they know nothing about personally. Ironically, human sexuality can be debased by materiality or contradictory morality.

• madpadd | Jan 18, 2012, 01:33 AM EST

  Religion to me is a very private thing. The less said about it the better. What in the name of God is this idiot Dolan up to and why in hell would anyone waste a Sunday morning listening to him.

• Collette2 | Jan 17, 2012, 09:18 PM EST

  How many of these dearly beloved son's became clergy, following their nose to the trough. His last paragraph say's it all. Out of the mouth of angels, or demons.

• Collette2 | Jan 17, 2012, 07:55 PM EST

  mamaginnty, there is much truth in what you say - and much wisdom. I was born one of ten on a small farm in the West of Ireland when the earth was young. A writer from a nearby town wrote of the sad cycle of life around him: ."....and in the springtime the men returned from the factories and the steel mills and the coal mines and the building sites of England to fertilize their lands and their women.." Thus it was in my family. Most of us were conceived in the spring and had our birthdays in December and January - like most kids around us on other small farms. Whether by Canon law or local church custom, my mother was required to confess her sin of having carnel relations with her husband shortly after each birth. After her fifth child she said enough of this humiliation - fathers had no such requirement. I did not learn of this for many years and it speaks volumes to how the church viewed women .... the seducers of mankind, using their bodies to lead Godly men to sin - these the sentiments of Saint Augustine of Hippo, one of the giants of Catholicism.

• Gearoid4 | Jan 17, 2012, 07:47 PM EST

  I understand the argument that the Church in Ireland presented a very negative view of sexuality in the past which caused unnecessary psychological turmoil and fear of the corporeal body on the part of people who were conditioned by it. But the pendulum can swing too far in the other direction when anything and everything is permitted in terms of sexual behavior. Recent revelations have created a deep and wide distrust of Church pronouncements but it just might be when we need a prophetic voice more than ever, the true radical nature of what Cardinal Dolan says, is drowned out by the smug cat-calls of those of the "anything goes" mentality.

• TayandCake | Jan 17, 2012, 07:09 PM EST

  This dude is a idiot, end of story

• seanomelbourne | Jan 17, 2012, 06:19 PM EST

  The people who hate sex are those who do not practise or enjoy it.It would be just and proper if the Cardinal kept out of other peoples bedrooms.

• stephen1553 | Jan 17, 2012, 05:48 PM EST

  Murph46 said :Propagation of the faith= more catholics to give $ to the church. I'll add - "to create more victims for the priests to abuse"

• stephen1553 | Jan 17, 2012, 05:42 PM EST

  Most of the bloggers here have already covered the points about this sex obsessed man and his church. Any kid 16 years old knows that if you deny sex, it ultimately comes out in perverted ways, eg the church of the endless hidden molestation of children. And the report to the bishops they paid 1.8 mil to CCNY's John Jay college of criminal justice said as more gay priests entered the priesthood, the molestation rate went down. Of course- at least the gay priests were having consenusal age appropriate sex, instead of twidling the kiddes packages, etc Dolans promotion to Cardinal is to make him more "powerful" in his latest job - to stop the extension of the statue of limitations re child molestation. And dig around a little - Dolans former diocese of Milwaukee went bankrupt in jan 2011 - due to lawsuits by the kids parents. the harm to those children lasts all their life. So should the statue of limitations.

• mayoman | Jan 17, 2012, 04:42 PM EST

  Dolan is a celibate man that is merely rehashing the tired, old dominance-trip of countless other celibate men throughout the centuries. And those guys (gatekeepers, all), didn't know what they were talking about either. However what was best for The Faithful was never really the point; for it has always been about what was best for the Church and for the so-called princes that ran the store.

• snakehips | Jan 17, 2012, 04:12 PM EST

  Jeez, Coming from one of the highest members of a group that have risen sexual immorality to an art form, you got to laugh out loud.

• hollabackgurl | Jan 17, 2012, 03:46 PM EST

  Don't look at all the priests who abused and raped kids! Look at slutty women and gay men instead. They're awful aren't they? Much, much worse than us. Right.

• luckodeirish | Jan 17, 2012, 03:41 PM EST

  Well I supposed this might matter if you were a dyed-in-the-wool hard line Catholic. In my opinion they don't exist anymore. And I find it arrogant in the extreme that some priests still continue to preach sexual morality when the church is guilty of the most appalling oversight and abuse. It's just laughable. F**k away my friends!

• mamaginnty | Jan 17, 2012, 03:28 PM EST

  I may be one of the oldest here in IC. but my memories are clear on how we lived by Rome's rules here in Ireland for decades. It was a womans duty to obey the husband as far as sex goes, it was her duty to have more babies, no matter how you became pregnant, whether being beaten by the husband, being so poor you or the children stole veg from a farmers field to stay alive, but had to give the last penny to the church on Sunday. If you dared complain to a priest that you could not go on having babies, or about being beaten into submission to have sex and were now pregnant, the priest would just turn a blind eye and say it is gods will. Never any offer of help for the poor woman or children, now we know why we had to have babies, the more babies...the more little catholics in the world. If you realy loved your husband and he you, but tried to prevent getting pregnant you were commiting a great sin. I was one of the lucky ones, my husband has respect for me, and we ( planned our babies ) 5 wonderful children. I could have obeyed the rules and had 10 or 15 children like many many others but I SAW THE LIGHT, I have my faith but have no faith in the men who rule Rome. In todays world the parent should be the teacher bringing up the child to respect others sexually, not to sleep around as they say, they have every thing going for them now if they do not want to get pregnant. Teaching from parents and schools is the main thing now, not the men in robes.

• lokionline | Jan 17, 2012, 03:07 PM EST

  I've heard of doubling down, but conservatives of all stripes are doubling down like crazy on all the 'conservative viewpoints' despite the evidence that 30 years of conservative activism that has left Ireland, the UK, the US and much of the developed world in a cultural and economic mess. Thunder away Cardinal Dolan -- in a bleak time, you are at least a source of amusement to many of us .

• CaptainCon | Jan 17, 2012, 03:06 PM EST

  The truth is that these so-called 'Princes of the Church' no longer have the moral authority or even ethical weight to discuss human intimacy. Apart from the fact that this man has no experience that we know of with regard to the subject one is also prompted to wonder whether stern catholics such as himself have a damaged view of human sexuality altogether. Psychosexually inadequate was the summary phrase used by those trained psychologists commissioned by the Catholic Bishops of the United States in describing all too many of those young men sent through the catholic seminary system. I would not describe the attempt to suppress human sexuality as in any way likely to produce a psychologically healthy human being.

• PhlutiePhan | Jan 17, 2012, 02:57 PM EST

  Cardinal D has it right. Someone has to "stick their head out of the sewer" and call it a sewer. Economics and socialism are one thing but morality comes first. That was the message of St. Patrick and that is the message of Timothy Cardinal Dolan. Oo-rah!

• errigal | Jan 17, 2012, 02:56 PM EST

  WHAT BIG FAT CATS DRINKING AND RUTTING IN THE THE BACK ROOM.

• RichardP | Jan 17, 2012, 02:55 PM EST

  ps..the fact that it's enjoyable must piss off the celibates in the Catholic Church Hierarchy - the few that there really are.

• RichardP | Jan 17, 2012, 02:53 PM EST

  @butlerreport - WELL SAID! @Gearoid4 - perhaps then you might recommend the church drop it proscription o condom usage. Only an organization which wishes to keep its people enslaved to its bizarre doctrine would rail against the most natural and fundamental instinct of the animal world - of which humans form a substantial part.

• PatriciaMarya | Jan 17, 2012, 02:42 PM EST

  In that wonderful book, "How the Irish Saved Civilization" we learn that the early Irish practiced "Trial Marriage." It lasted for one year and after that time-line, then and only then was the union made permanent. I chuckled at the last commentor - A celibate man in a dress giving advice." It is time for the Catholic Church to begin paying taxes on its enormous wealth and its properties.

• witchjoey | Jan 17, 2012, 02:29 PM EST

  As a victim of violent sexual abuse by a priest for 2 years as a child, I can see what Cardinal Dolans real mission is. He is doing the typical Catholic hierarchy diversion of pointing at others and chastizing them for being sinful. Meanwhile, he is swimming in a pool of thousands of clergy sex abusers, rapists, and criminals who have dodged justice for hundreds of years. What a hypocrite. And he is basically stating that consenting adults who engage in sex are the real sinners. This is the normal strategy for RCC sociopaths who do not admit and recognize their own activities in filth and child crimes, and you can bet that many of his closest friends at the Vatican are gulity of cover-ups, shuffling of pedophiles,lies, deceit, and countless sex crimes against innocent children; I know firsthand about it. He should be ashamed, but he doesn't have the conscience to feel shame. - Joey Piscitelli- Clergy sex abuse victims advocate

• ChrisVogel | Jan 17, 2012, 02:23 PM EST

  Maybe it's just his wishful thinking? Too much celibacy! It's not bad enough that these guys are wrong all the time, but they are smug, sanctimonious, malicious, and destructive, too. As for sex in marriage, a Canadian religious pollster discovered that relgious conservatives who consider that sex is only for procreation, had sex with the intention of conceiving less than 1 time in 20. That is, about 95% of their sex was for fun.

• hybernia | Jan 17, 2012, 02:16 PM EST

  A bit of 'animal rutting' would help knock off some of that huge gut you have father, better still get a job.

• barneyjo | Jan 17, 2012, 02:00 PM EST

  @kilgara - "A Catholic MUST believe that the church and the pope are incapable of mistakes on matters of faith and morals" If that is so, explain to me the elevation of Maciel Delgado and the Legion of Christ by John Paul II to near mythical status!! I assume you are aware that Delgado was feted by John Paul II as an exemplar in the Catholic world. That of course was before it became known that Delgado himself was a paedophile who had fathered children in at least two continents and whon had induced practices within the Legion that were and are now regarded as "un-christ" and immoral.

• Gearoid4 | Jan 17, 2012, 01:54 PM EST

  So what is are the fruits of a free-wheeling attitude to sexuality that does stresses rights over responsibility? Epidemic levels of STDS, AIDs, teenage pregnancies, divorces are just a few of the wonderful things that it has brought to Western societies. Those who scoff at advice urging restraint that goes against the worldly grain, seem to have little in the way of helpful ideas to counter these depressing realities.

• RedBranch | Jan 17, 2012, 01:50 PM EST

  Good on you Cardinal Dolan, get the party line out there and keep putting it out. -'Rutting on my Mayella'- one of the best lines in all literature

• hollabackgurl | Jan 17, 2012, 12:55 PM EST

  Forget the poor, they don't grab headlines. Just fight the culture wars the same way the Evangelicals do - by bashing gays, women and sex, nonstop.

• jamieLM | Jan 17, 2012, 12:49 PM EST

  @howareya, there's such a thing as "responsible" sex - not having sex with every single person one finds attractive. @kilgara, add me to the list of "cafeteria Catholics." I refuse to tow the party line and say that I plan to create a child every time I have sex with my husband. There's no way I'm going to be the Catholic Michelle Duggar with "19 and counting," no matter what the "celibate" RCC hierarchy has to say. For me, it's totally irresponsible to bring children into the world that I can't support emotionally, physically, and financially just to make a lot of little Catholics for the Church.

• proudirishlass | Jan 17, 2012, 12:48 PM EST

  This is always a very touchy subject.No pun intended!!!This society has become over sexualized.The pressures put upon the youth of today to be sexual is enormous, and often results in disaster.They are usually not prepared to handle the consequences and everyone in society suffer. The fashion, media and entertainment industry are fully responsible for this undermining of morality. Sex is big business. It is used to sell everything.In fact a huge percentage of the economy is based on it. It sickens me to hear a young child saying that she wants to look sexy and her expression encouraged by adults.In fact even toddlers are sexualized by the clothing industry. Some kids clothes are revealing and have padded bras.This society is getting sicker by the minute.You may not want Cardinal Dolan commenting on this issue but someone needs to try to turn back the tide of debauchery. I fully agree with the comments of HOWAREYA. AT least Cardinal Dolons sermon opened a window of conversation on the subject.

• SingleDonald | Jan 17, 2012, 12:35 PM EST

  kilgara, At age 16, I challenged the notion that the Pope was infallible, in the area of morals. Later on, I learned that the "Doctrine of Infallibility" only applied to instances when the Pope spoke "ex cathedra". The Assumption of Mary was one such instance. Therefore, the puritanical views of the Church, concerning human sexuality, were NEVER covered under the "Doctrine of Infallibility"! BTW, this doctrine was only proclaimed in, or around 1870.

• Murph46 | Jan 17, 2012, 12:14 PM EST

  Propagation of the faith= more catholics to give $ to the church.

• kilgara | Jan 17, 2012, 11:57 AM EST

  The comments below reveal a deep ignorance of our beloved faith.We now have at least two generations of nominal Roman Catholics who were woefully deprived of a full education in what it means to be Catholic.The church has ALWAYS taught that sex is for married people only with the objective of procreation.A Catholic MUST believe that the church and the pope are incapable of mistakes on matters of faith and morals. If you do not accept this dogma then you are not a Roman Catholic.It's that simple. Cardinal Dolan is trying to educate but i'm afraid that for the vast majority of these "cafeteria catholics" it is way too late.

• howareya | Jan 17, 2012, 11:43 AM EST

  While Cardinal Dolan may be a bit extreme in his sermon...the pure sex in today's world is appalling! I'm sorry, but it seems now that sex is part of the norm of dating, whether the first date or no date..just hooking up in a bar. The tv programs show young people having sex with everyone around them. Kids are now having sex as young as 12 so they will be popular. Babies are being born to women with numerous different fathers. Celebrities are now having their babies and then thinking maybe about marrying the father. The family is breaking down. The Kardashians and their ilk are who people are looking up to (at least who they are interested in!)

• howareya | Jan 17, 2012, 11:29 AM EST

  Astonishing! Even when growing up in deeply Catholic, deeply religious rural Ireland in the 1950s and 1960s, no priest ever said from the pulpit that sex was purely for procreation - it was, we were told - as CitizenWhy nailed it - for companionable love between husband and wife, with or without the goal of procreation. His eminence has now removed companionable love from human sexual union (apparently because it is sinful), reducing it to the very thing he despises, animal instincts, i.e. sex for procreation only. The good cardinal-in-waiting now breaks bread with Rick Santorum whose Catholic beliefs would shock even the great bishop of Hippo, St. Augustine.

• mayoman | Jan 17, 2012, 11:23 AM EST

  The arrogance is endless. The hubris is apparently eternal. And the patronizing pontificating is as sickening as ever. After all the hundreds (perhaps thousands), of victims have stepped forward throughout the world and accused priests of sexual abuse, and have also accused the hierarchy of covering-up their crimes, (and thus enabling the pedophiles to continue their abuse), we are now being lectured by an unwed, and supposedly celibrate bishop, on the subject of Proper Sexual Conduct! And of course his message is negative and accusatory, (as it always is), and his topic is colorfully described as "animal rutting." Most Catholics can't stomach this reactionary garbage any longer. Only the most devote seem immune to this insulting tripe. No wonder Mass attendance has declined so much. Question: Will the Catholic hierarchy ever wake up and recognize reality?

• jamieLM | Jan 17, 2012, 11:19 AM EST

  Btw: I'd rather be labeled "immoral" for having "unfulfilled" sex with my husband because I use birth control than being involved in sexually abusing children.

• jamieLM | Jan 17, 2012, 11:08 AM EST

  Good posts by those below. Right on, SingleDonald. How does Dolan know that sex is "unfulfilling" between 2 adults unless they're trying to procreate? That's ridiculous. Hel-lo, people have enjoyable sex all the time with no thoughts of, or possibility of, creating a baby.

• Murph46 | Jan 17, 2012, 11:08 AM EST

  Hear a lot of those animal ruttings in the rectory with all those priests and altar boys did ya Cardinal?

• SingleDonald | Jan 17, 2012, 10:05 AM EST

  I'm glad Irish Central covered this. Soon to be Cardinal Dolan's reactionary rant is oh so typical of the Catholic Church. It may not stress the "sins of 'impure thoughts'" as it once did, but this is still among its teachings. The Catholic Church, and Evangelical sects are very naive to believe that people will still be so guilt ridden, that they must go to confession, or say Acts of Contrition, over things like indulging sexual fantasies, looking at Playboy/Playgirl, or actual consensual activity. RESPECT for one's partner is what is important. For us guys, acknowledging a girl's more complex physical & emotional needs should be focused on. When any religious organization seeks to limit sexuality to procreation, said organization inspires guilt in young, or unsophisticated members. It is very unhealthy to have to say, "Lord, please forgive me", over indulging in the above mentioned natural activities. That is why people sought early marriages, in past eras, so that they could have their Church "sanction" their consensual activity. I feel we have come a long way, in our understanding of human sexuality, to know that it is not something to be ashamed of. Sensible people should take Archbishop Timothy Dolan's antiquated sermon with a significant grain of salt.

• eiriamach | Jan 17, 2012, 10:00 AM EST

  Well, your eminence Dolan, if that's how you think about sex, it's a blessing for us that you took a vow of celibacy. But why, oh why, didn't you take a vow of silence at the same time and save us all your 'animal rutting' scenarios? That's not a pretty image to put in the minds of the young, or the not-so-young either! This comment comes from someone who is counter-cultural (like the Gospel), but not, like you and your colleagues, anti-cultural.

• CitizenWhy | Jan 17, 2012, 09:53 AM EST

  Reducing the purpose of sex to procreation is to reduce sex to the way animals use sex. The main purpose of sex is companionable love, with or without procreation. This man is setting up a grotesque misrepresentation of sex. But that's not surprising.

• rugbyplayer | Jan 17, 2012, 09:51 AM EST

  Isn't it ironic how these egomaniacal,bombastic RC bishops like Timothy Dolan of New York who have never married and preseumably never had a sexual experience are pontificating as experts on sexual matters day in and day out! Shut up!

• butlerreport | Jan 17, 2012, 09:35 AM EST

  Anyone listening to a celibate man in a dress talking about sex is a fool.