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Yesterday’s report on Cardinal Dolan’s interview with the Wall Street Journal is historic and well worth cheering about. If you understand the culture wars, this is very big news.

There are many pro-life, pro-family leaders who have been suffering for decades while waiting, working and praying for this to finally start happening – because it has to happen.

Our catastrophic social/moral decline cannot be halted until our religious, especially Christian, leaders abandon their fears and negligence, clean house within and do their job, no matter how much they suffer for it. There is no other way. They have to imitate their master who showed the Way.

It is mainly the abandonment of religious belief and practice that got us where we are and it is the renewal of that belief and practice that will restore clear thinking, openness to heroic virtue and respect for the natural order of life. Everyone, Christian and non-Christian, will gain from this.

Today’s report on Martin Sheen’s infantile understanding of his Catholic faith is much more a story about the poor formation he received from his Church than about his own personal failings. Sheen is representative of millions of confused and lost, but well meaning, Christians suffering because of their ignorance.

Religion, especially authentic Christianity, can be a great power for good, confounding all other forces in the world. That is why Communists, Nazis, the de-populationists and all other anti-human ideologues all try to destroy real Christians and genuine Christian thought.

They fear Christianity, especially the Catholic Church, because they know its potential power. It is not of this world. It is based on a powerful love which the other forces do not possess. They can only manipulate, deceive and bludgeon people into conformity to their selfish goals.

That interview took guts on Cardinal Dolan’s part. This current head of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops very publicly admitted what we have known for so long, but which so very few bishops have been willing to admit – the bishops have greatly failed to shepherd.

They have especially failed on teaching about the difficult moral issues – not just contraception – although as Pope Paul VI strongly made the now proven case in Humanae Vitae, widespread contraceptive use poisons every aspect related to human sexuality. Why? Because it denies and corrupts the real purpose of our sexual life.

Once that is denied and abandoned, eventually anything, and I do mean anything, goes. We are seeing it all around us and there are much more frightening things to come unless the brakes of faith are put on.

The Cardinal Archbishop of New York admitted that the Church has failed to teach the Catholic teaching on contraception. It therefore, he concludes, “forfeited the chance to be a coherent moral voice when it comes to one of the more burning issues of the day.” He is referring to the Obama mandate on all Catholic and other Christian institutions.

Yes, the Church has less moral authority these days because it has not been much of a spiritual, evangelizing Church anymore. Bishops have tended to be politicians with mitres, business managers, liberal social activists or just plain timid administrators.

Dolan told the interviewer, “I’m not afraid to admit that we have an internal catechetical challenge—a towering one—in convincing our own people of the moral beauty and coherence of what we teach. That’s a biggie,” he said. Yes it is, but he knows, as we all do, that with God anything is possible.

Now the Cardinal has to be convinced that he must also start to forcefully teach Catholics that they cannot vote for any politicians who accept the killing of children in their mother’s womb or who would vote for same-sex “marriage”. And we hope and pray that he will accept the need, out of charity, to finally start denying the sacraments to obstinately pro-abortion, pro-homosexual ‘marriage” Catholic politicians.

LifeSiteNews gets lots of heat for what is labelled as “criticizing bishops”. But you know, everything we report has a purpose, and it is never a negative purpose. Our reports on episcopal failings, as well as our reports on wonderful courage and action by clergy, such as these statements by Dolan, are all meant to help STRENGTHEN Catholic and other religious leaders. We need them. LifeSiteNews staff have zero interest in undermining and hurting religion. That would be counterproductive for the good of life and family.

The sheer “white hatred” (we are told) that we know some clergy have for LifeSiteNews is confounding. But then, in most of those particular cases there has to be something else involved, rather than what is publicly expressed as being the reasons for their animosity. It likely has to do with our defense of all genuine traditional sexual morality, especially regarding homosexuality. Not much else can explain such an irrational response to our reports which are very deliberately never angry or remotely hateful. We report the facts, and for some, that is too much.

Cardinal Dolan, Archbishop Chaput and the growing number of other bishops and orthodox Christian leaders who are experiencing a new awakening to their full call in today’s world (thank you President Obama) need lots of support, encouragement and prayers to stay the course. They are going to be hugely tempted to cave and compromise and not go even further than they already have. However, we want them to become saints, for their own good, and for ours. Let’s all help them to do just that.