According to the Vatican, the typical groups of people that risk eternal
damnation such as murderers, adulterers, thieves, over-indulgent people,
and everybody else that fall under the seven deadly sins can now be
joined by the following: drug dealers, the extremely wealthy, and
scientists that deal with human gene manipulation.
The Catholic Church’s Catechism says that those who have sinned will be
sent into the depths of Hell right after they die. Now, the seven mortal
sins add onto the seven deadly sins. According to the Catholic Church,
those who commit the seven mortal sins are just as condemned as those
that commit the seven deadly sins.
To add onto: Envy, Pride, Gluttony, Greed, Lust, Hate, and Sloth, there
is: Environmental Pollution, Genetic Manipulation, Excessive Wealth,
Inflicting Poverty, Drug trafficking and Consumption, Morally Debatable
Experiments, and the Violation of Human Rights.
In a sense, those modern sins look to be a mere extension of the seven
deadly sins.
These new sins were placed as a means to energize more confessions. In
short, this is to get more people to attend confessionals.
So far, 60% of Italians have stopped attending confession. Keep in mind
that Italy is predominantly Catholic. On an unrelated note, the Italian
court of appeals has ruled that married women in Italy can lie about
extramarital affairs to police and/or in a court of law to protect their
“honor.”
Humorously, those married women can lie to the police but confess to the
Catholic priest.
“
If people
do not confess regularly, they risk slowing their spiritual rhythm,”
said Pope Benedict the XVI. He said that people are losing the notion of
sin. Benedict himself says that he confesses sins on a regular basis
once a week.
The Catholic Church says the new sins lay in the ethics of science and
the ecology. Archbishop Girotti listed those two as new types of sins.
He did add abortion and pedophilia as two other sins.
But, he was quick to dismiss the cases of sexual abuse by Catholic
priests as minor happenings that have been exaggerated. He said that it
was the mass media blowing things out of proportion to kill the Catholic
Church’s credibility.
Father Gerald O’Collins, who used to teach moral theology at the Papal
University in Rome, explained that one big point is that the priests
that listen to confessions are not tuned enough to what are deemed the
real evils. He added they need to know more about the social aspect of
sin.
In a sense, it would look as if the Vatican is making a move to “fight”
social injustice.
In a sense, the mortal sin of environmental pollution can be linked to
the deadly sin of greed. Environmental pollution has been connected to
greedy CEOs that just want extra money. There is the possible connection
to lust as those same people lust for money.
Morally debatable experiments could be connected to the deadly sins of
pride and lust. Too much pride as a scientist and a lust for knowledge
could be used as a possible explanation for the link between these two
vices and the newly added mortal sin.
Violation of human rights can be linked to the deadly sin of hate/wrath.
One group violates the human rights of another group by unleashing wrath
upon it.
These are mere examples of the links that can be made between the seven
mortal sins and the traditional seven deadly sins.
On another note, in the United States, many that were born and raised
Catholic or Protestant had dropped their faiths. They either dropped
religion completely or converted to something else.
Asides the lack of people attending confession, the drop of membership
is another problem the Catholic Church must deal with.
In short, those that fall under these mortal sins get to join those that
fall under the seven deadly sins.
