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from www.dailymail.co.uk – Sex is so commonplace in today’s society that the chaste are now considered freaks, the Archbishop of New York has claimed.
Archbishop Timothy Dolan said that things had gone so wrong that people who waited until they were married before losing their virginity felt like deviants.
He blamed reality TV shows such as Jersey Shore – which reduce sex to ‘animal rutting’ – for flipping the Biblical teachings on their head.
Given the state of things, God’s word on sexual responsibility has now become ‘counter cultural’ as opposed to what it meant in the 1960s, he said.
Archbishop Dolan, 61, is one of the most powerful figures in the American Catholic church and is known for taking a tough moral line on a range of issues.
In his sermon at St Patrick’s Cathedral in Manhattan, he said that practicing Catholics are branded holier than thou just for what they believe.
He claimed that the values of society had gone upside down and that the sexual promiscuity which was considered risque in the 1960s is now the norm.
The Catholic leader 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.
‘The biblical teaching on sexual responsibility is counter cultural.
‘Anyone who tries his or her best to live it can expect a lot of temptation and even ridicule and criticism.’
In his homily, the archbishop added that ‘sexual immorality’ was linked to society’s ills such as violence and broken families and called on priests to preach chastity in a better way.
He also attacked reality TV shows for reducing sex to our ‘most popular contact sport.’
He said: ‘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.
‘Truth be told, it is chastity and purity that liberates us, while immorality enslaves us.’
Archbishop Dolan leads the 2.6million-strong Catholic church in New York covering all of the five boroughs of the city.
He is also the president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and will next month be appointed by The Pope to the College of Cardinals, a powerful body which deals with new appointments.
Since arriving in New York from the post of Archbishop of Milwaukee, the religious figurehead has tried to reach out the public with his radio show on Sirius XM called, ‘A conversation with the Archbishop.’
He has also proved popular due to his self-effacing sense of humour and has won fans due to his public battle with weight loss, having shed 25lbs in the last 12 months.