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Cardinal Dolan talks modern society and how sex is debased to “animal rutting”

Is a preoccupation with sex becoming Dolan's signature issue?

DARA KELLY,

IrishCentral Staff Writer

Published Tuesday, January 17, 2012, 7:56 AM

Updated Tuesday, January 17, 2012, 2:07 PM

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Soon to be, Cardinal Timothy Dolan

Photo by Brigitte Stelzer / Splash News

Snooki might be forced to wear her signature pouf at half mast this week, when word reaches her of soon-to-be cardinal Dolan's fiery sermon on sexual morality at St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York on Sunday.

Skipping over the plight of the poor and the oppressed in favor of a vigorous hot topic, Archbishop Dolan delivered a stark reminder to his congregation to resist popular culture’s message that sex outside of marriage is okay. It is not okay, Dolan clarified. Sex, if it doesn't happen between two married people for the strict purposes of procreation, is always immoral and unfulfilling he said.

'The one who, with God’s grace and mercy, tries his or her best to be pure and chaste is often thought of not as a hero, not a saint, but as a freak in our culture today,' Dolan told the congregation at St. Patrick's, in a report that ran in the New York Daily News.

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Churches that play politics should pay taxes

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'The biblical teaching on sexual responsibility is countercultural,' he argued, suggesting that conservative values about sexuality have become the true progressive ones now. 'Anyone who tries his or her best to live it can expect a lot of temptation and even ridicule and criticism,' Dolan said.

It is just the kind of hardline sermon that critics say has resulted in Dolan's invitation to be installed as a cardinal at a February 18 ceremony in Rome.

'I’m going to preach about sex,' Dolan announced theatrically at the start of his sermon on Sunday, adding 'Now I’ve got your attention.'

It's also the kind of attention grabbing sermon that Dolan's critics frequently lambaste. Archbishop Dolan, they say, spends too much time thinking about other people's plumbing and far too little time thinking about the challenges ordinary people face in the current economic climate.

'The church has at times in the past, sadly, come across as as some naysaying, puritanical nag, always giving a big ‘No, no, no’ to one of life’s greatest joys,' Dolan added, before telling his congregation to say no to one of life's greatest joys.

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62 Comments

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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!

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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.

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

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

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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?

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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!

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

Time for another Reformation?

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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.

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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...")

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

he tralks about immorality while protecting str8 pedophile priests.

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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.

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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.

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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

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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.

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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!

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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.

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