Earlier this month one Catholic bishop offered his advice to recent graduates of Saint Thomas Aquinas College, urging them to be “politically incorrect” in an era where people need “safe spaces” and “cry closets.”

Bishop Robert C. Morlino of the Diocese of Madison, Wisconsin offered his advice during the 44th commencement ceremony for graduates of Saint Thomas Aquinas College in Santa Paula, California. In his speech, he urged the graduates to be “the voice of reason heard in our culture” amid “the darkness of our world.”

Bishop Morlino spoke on the culture of most colleges in the United States and world today, calling them “places of chaos and political correctness,” but not to fear as they have been “sacramentally equipped by your baptism and confirmation and intellectually equipped by your education to be witnesses to the truth of Jesus Christ.”

Morlino said that speaking basic truths in today’s world requires courage in a world where people are obsessed with the idea of being offended at everything they disagree with.

“People today have been taught to be offended, people live to be offended. That’s why they need a ‘safe space’ and a ‘cry closet,’ and what they mean by that seems to be a space where they can be safe from hearing the voice of reason and truth. If you speak the truth, you might not be safe.”

His advice to the students on a world where people live to be offended? To be “politically incorrect, like St. John the Baptist, the patron saint of political incorrectness.” He spoke on Pope Paul VI’s 1968 encyclical, Humane Vitae, and the basic truths it contains about the Church’s teaching on sexuality and contraception. He said the document

“Absolutely condemns artificial methods of birth control: abortion, sterilization, and contraception – there is an inseparable link between the procreative and unitive dimensions of human sexuality. The primary purpose of sexual union is the procreation of children; that’s what it’s for; and that’s why contraception is wrong — because it frustrates the purpose of sexual union.”

However, Bishop Morlino said although these telling these truths to others requires courage, and that they have to find common ground because the Church’s teachings can sound like a foreign language to most people.

“Courage is a gift infused by God. And it is also acquired and perfected through practice. If you want to be courageous in speaking the truth, you have to practice doing it precisely in those situations where it is difficult.”

Watch Bishop Morlino’s speech below:

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