Pondering the Inaccurate Claim of ‘New Sins’ and the Prevalence of the Same Old Sins
Pondering the Inaccurate Claim of ‘New Sins’ and the Prevalence of the Same Old Sins
Last month the secular news media, who never fail to live up to their biases, reported from Rome that “after fifteen hundred years the Vatican has brought the seven deadly sins up-to-date by adding seven new ones for the age of globalization.” As with many things regarding objective truth, the media got it all wrong.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church discusses sin in Article 8 of Chapter One, “The Dignity of the Human Person,” in Section One: “Man’s Vocation: Life in the Spirit” of Part Three: “Life in Christ.” In numbers 1846 through 1876 there is everything you ever wanted to know about sin: its relation to God’s mercy; its definition; its different kinds; and its gravity.
In the very last section on the proliferation of sin, the Catechism states that vices, bad habits, can be divided to the virtues they oppose and can also be linked to the capital sins which our Church’s doctrine, following St. John Cassian and St. Gregory the Great, are called capital because they give rise to other sins and vices. These capital sins are pride, avarice (covetousness), envy, wrath (anger), lust, gluttony and sloth (acedia).
This unholy heptad is also called the deadly sins, though incorrectly, because all mortal sins are deadly and even one who sins venially in one of those categories plays fast and loose with his or her spiritual welfare.
Bishop Gianfranco Girotti, an official of the Apostolic Penitentiary (not, note, a jailhouse or prison but an office that deals with penances and indulgences) gave an interview to the Vatican newspaper. The other news media, with characteristic unconcern for the truth, then picked up the story and mutilated it. What he had done was give several examples of contemporary failings not known to St. John Cassian and St. Gregory the Great, but sins that are grave or mortal. He mentioned, among others, genetic manipulation, drug use, fostering social inequality, ruining the environment, mindless accumulation of wealth, and economic injustice, abortion, and paedophilia.
If you think about it, you can fit any of those examples given by Bishop Girotti under one of the old seven capital sins, if you are interested in playing word games. But the larger malice of all this error in misrepresentation is that it trivializes the whole question of sin, of justice, and of judgment.
Somehow we have gotten the idea that sin is no more. A few years ago a distinguished psychiatrist, Dr. Karl Menninger, wrote a book, Whatever Became of Sin? In reality, we have to consider the fact that ingrained in our nature, wounded by Adam and Eve, but repaired by Our Lord and Redeemer, there still remains the temptation to violate the First Commandment and to worship, instead of the true God, the idol we see in the bathroom mirror every morning. That remnant of original sin is in all of us and has to be rooted out because it in turn gives rise to our violating the other commandments of God and the Church and committing those seven capital sins.
Now, the reverse side of that dreary coin is that Christ’s coming into the world had as its purpose to help us out of that idolatry, that slavery to sin, and in these times we, poor fools that we all are, don’t get it. All priests have the experience every Sunday that everybody in Church goes to holy Communion, and I say to myself as I watch, “Wonderful, if possible.” You and I all read the newspapers and we know that sin and crime are not absent from our world. Is it really true that everyone who comes to Mass and goes to holy Communion is sin free? Now read the next very carefully. It is possible that that is true, but as the English say, “Not bloody likely.”
Worse, whenever we have the impulse to be sorry for sin we have a sign from God that He has not given up on us but that He still loves us, that He still wants us to be sorry for our sins, to do penance, and to amend our lives so we can live eternally with Him. Whenever my conscience makes me say to myself, “I wish I hadn’t done that. I’m sorry that I did it. I want to make amends and be sorry for it and tell God,” that is a grace from God. Priests who sit in the confessional hour after hour on Saturday and have to occupy themselves with spiritual reading because there are no penitents wonder, if indeed, God moves anyone to sorrow for sin. And worse, do people realize what is happening to them if they are never sorry for the wrongs they do?
Now, of course, it is possible with the best of prideful men and women to say, “I confess my sins to God alone.” Well and good. If you are truly sorry and perfectly sorry for sin, God forgives those sins, but for us ordinary mortals, Jesus, ever merciful, has given us a sure sign that we are forgiven. It is when the priest says, “The Lord Jesus Christ absolves you, and I, by his authority, absolve you.” When we have heard this, we have absolute certainty from a representative, deputized by God, that our sins are forgiven, if we are truly sorry and if we try not to do them again, we have done God’s will.
So, if you like the new set of sins that Bishop Girotti listed, congratulations. If you like the old set, keep them. But be sorry for your sins, confess them, do penance, and amend your life because there will be a day after which that won’t be possible for you anymore.
© 2008 Catholic Diocese of Rockford
This item 8165 digitally provided courtesy of CatholicCulture.org
