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.' » | Daniel Bates | Monday, January 16, 2012
