Dolan: Young people must be ‘patient’ with the Church

New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan described his regular visits to Rose Hill as “magnificently uplifting occasions,” and encouraged millennials to be generous, which he labeled “the penicillin to our culture of entitlement that is avalanching all of us” in a wide ranging interview with Fordham’s Center for Ethics Education blog.

When asked about a disconnect young people may feel to their faith, Dolan said: “I would ask them to be as patient with the Church as they hope God is with them. The Church is made up of an extremely awkward and bumbling group of sinners. I happen to be a big one, and so are they.”

When asked, he said that while animals should never be subjected to abuse, they can be use for research “that would enhance the human project.” He went on to say that universities should perhaps do more to help aide young parents, despite the church’s strong stance against pre-marital relations and birth control. 

“[I would] hope there would be nothing punitive against a young woman who would find herself in an unexpected pregnancy,” he told Ethics and Society. “I’d like to think what if Mary of Nazareth were a student at Fordham – did she not have an untimely pregnancy?”

The interview [full here], which was conducted by Ethics and Society blog student editors Michael Menconi, FCRH ’15, and Ken Ochs, FCRH ’15, was published Tuesday.