7 New Deadly Sins (MERGED) (1 Viewer)

The original punishment for sloth was being thrown in snake pits?

I know that would get me moving.

Good thing Jared chose Subway instead.

Actually, I don't think there is anything new here. The Church has been railing against genetic engineering for a while. Intentionally destroying the enviornment is morally wrong even if you aren't a believer -- where and how are your fellow human beings going to live?
 
Polluting is now a sin

ROME, Italy (AP) -- A Vatican official has listed drugs, pollution and genetic manipulations as well as social and economic injustices as new areas of sinful behavior.
art.vatican.sins.ap.jpg


The Vatican has updated the list of mortal sins to relate to the age of globalization.

Monsignor Gianfranco Girotti said in an interview published on Sunday by the Vatican's daily newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano, that known sins increasingly manifest themselves as behavior that damages society as a whole.

Girotti, who heads the Apostolic Penitentiary, a Vatican body that issues decisions on matters of conscience and grants absolutions told the paper that whilst sin used to concern the individual mostly, today it had a mainly a social resonance, due to the phenomenon of globalization.


Catholic teaching distinguishes between lesser, so-called venial sins, and mortal sins.
When asked to list the new areas of sinful behavior, Girotti denounced "certain violations of the fundamental rights of human nature through experiments, genetic manipulations."
http://www.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/wayoflife/03/10/vatican.updates.sins.ap/index.html
 
They were clearly influenced by the lost gospel that references the massive clean-up coordination after the Feeding of the 5000. In divinity school I clearly remember reading that after the meal, Jebus sent the apostles out to pick up all the fishheads and butt pieces from the loaves that were tossed about.

There's a blurb in one of the other gospels that references the outrage expressed by the teeming mob after Shadrach, Meschach, and Abednego were tossed in the fiery furnace. Seems that some of the more ecologically conscious among the mob were concerned about the carbon emissions.
 
It seems pretty clear that the Vatican is really trying to get out in front on matters of climate change. Although I'm sympathetic to the Vatican, I'm pretty cynical about it. It seems to me that the Vatican is trying to assert itself on the world stage here and also pick up steam with the young people. (Although I don't understand why young people got the reputation for being environmentalists. If anything young people have been brought up to be the most materialistic, consumer minded generation yet.)

Plus, isn't pollution just a form of gluttony, pride or sloth? You're either too lazy to dispose of something the right way, or so self-consumed that you have to drive a hummer or you believe that you have the right to consume a disproportionally high amount of fossil fuels. Pollution as a mortal sin seems lame.
 
It looks like the significance may be in them stating it as being a mortal sin as opposed to a venial sin.
 
It looks like the significance may be in them stating it as being a mortal sin as opposed to a venial sin.

Who would have thought such a distinction would have been lost on the media? (Of course, they did mention the difference between mortal and venial sins, but at the same time framed the article to where it appears that pollution has been added to the list of sins rather than of mortal sins.)

Of course, this is the same reason the media doesn't focus on policy matters but rather solely on the horserace. It would take too much time and research to present such detailed material correctly. It's either ignorance or sloth.
 
It seems pretty clear that the Vatican is really trying to get out in front on matters of climate change. Although I'm sympathetic to the Vatican, I'm pretty cynical about it. It seems to me that the Vatican is trying to assert itself on the world stage here and also pick up steam with the young people. (Although I don't understand why young people got the reputation for being environmentalists. If anything young people have been brought up to be the most materialistic, consumer minded generation yet.)

Plus, isn't pollution just a form of gluttony, pride or sloth? You're either too lazy to dispose of something the right way, or so self-consumed that you have to drive a hummer or you believe that you have the right to consume a disproportionally high amount of fossil fuels. Pollution as a mortal sin seems lame.

This is my problem with the Catholic church. redundancy upon redundancy, reiterating whats already been said, ritual upon ritual, and its all really says the same thing.

Being half fecetious here, but Pollution as a mortal sin? does this mean when I fart, I commit a sin? I am after all, releasing some sinful methane into the atmosphere, should I eat foods that don't brew up the noxious wind?


Idont know, but the Vatican just looks silly doing this IMO.
 
This is my problem with the Catholic church. redundancy upon redundancy, reiterating whats already been said, ritual upon ritual, and its all really says the same thing.

Being half fecetious here, but Pollution as a mortal sin? does this mean when I fart, I commit a sin? I am after all, releasing some sinful methane into the atmosphere, should I eat foods that don't brew up the noxious wind?


Idont know, but the Vatican just looks silly doing this IMO.

I would imagine it's much more detailed than just 'pollution is a mortal sin' and I doubt farting falls into the category. I've noticed the media is extra-lazy when covering matters of Catholic doctrine. In fact, I bet there is a lengthy document regarding pollution's sin status. Still, as highly educated as members of the Catholic Magisterium are, you'd think they would have the foresight to realize how comical it would appear through the lens of the media.
 
I would imagine it's much more detailed than just 'pollution is a mortal sin' and I doubt farting falls into the category. I've noticed the media is extra-lazy when covering matters of Catholic doctrine. In fact, I bet there is a lengthy document regarding pollution's sin status. Still, as highly educated as members of the Catholic Magisterium are, you'd think they would have the foresight to realize how comical it would appear through the lens of the media.

I an totally agree on all that.

Its like they threw out a softball right over the plate.
 
An inimitable rule of life (#27, I believe, according to Amy Welborn): If the news story is from the British press and involves the Vatican...DON'T believe it.

Out of curiosity, anyone in here listen to or read the interview itself? It's in Italian and can be found here: http://wdtprs.com/blog/2008/03/as-per-a-request/#comments

Having scanned through that article it seems that nowehere does the Osservatore Romano report or the Archbishop suggest that there are seven new deadly sins. The number seven is never mentioned, the deadly sins or capital vices are not mentioned, and of course nowhere is it suggested that these ‘new’ form of sins somehow replace the older forms of sin. They’re just new ways of committing the same old sins.



From CWNews.com:

"When he finished his interview with L’Osservatore Romano, Archishop Gianfranco Girotti probably thought that his main message had been an appeal to Catholics to use the sacrament of Confession. Little did he know that the English-language news media would play the interview as a newly revised list of sins.

Archbishop Girotti, the regent of the Apostolic Penitentiary, spoke to the Vatican newspaper about “new forms of social sin” in our era. He mentioned such transgressions as destructive research on human embryos, degradation of the environment, and drug trafficking. Within hours, dozens of media sources were suggesting that the Vatican had radically revised the Ten Commandments, issuing a list of “new sins.”

As usual, a British newspaper leapt to the forefront with the most sensational and misleading coverage. The Daily Telegraph made the preposterous claim that Archbishop Girotti’s list replaced the traditional Catholic understanding of the seven deadly sins:

It replaces the list originally drawn up by Pope Gregory the Great in the 6th Century, which included envy, gluttony, greed, lust, wrath and pride.

Could we have a reality check, please?

When a second-tier Vatican official gives a newspaper interview, he is not proclaiming new Church doctrines. Archbishop Girotti was obviously trying to offer a new, provocative perspective on some enduring truths. The effort backfired– but in a very revealing way."


Essentially, there is nothing to this story. A Vatican official tried to make a point about how the effect of sin is communal as well as individual, it was completely misinterpreted either intentionally or unintentionally, and now here we are.
 
Well, I guess I was right about the media and wrong about everything else. Oops.

It does go to show how badly the media reports on Catholic matters.
 

Create an account or login to comment

You must be a member in order to leave a comment

Create account

Create an account on our community. It's easy!

Log in

Already have an account? Log in here.

Users who are viewing this thread

    Back
    Top Bottom