Social Sin - It's Nothing New

The headlines coming out of the Vatican by secular news agencies over the last day quickly grabbed my attention, as good headlines do; but they were far from accurate. The first one I heaerd, on the radio Monday morning, proclaimed: "Vatican declares seven new Deadly Sins." The story reported that the Pope has created a new set of seven contemporary Deadly Sins to go with the traditional ones of sloth, anger, lust, gluttony, pride, envy, and greed. As the day went on, news agencies throughout the world caught on to this supposedly hot news story - because you'd think it would be top news if, as one report said, the Vatican were changing the list of mortal sins for the first time in 1500 years. Other news headlines: "Vatican lists new sins," or "Seven more sins, thanks to Vatican" or "Recycle or Go to Hell, warns Vatican" (this article begins: "Failing to recycle plastic bags could find you spending eternity in Hell.")

But here's the real story, as best I can surmise: a Vatican official, the head of the Apostolic Penitentiary, responded to an interview question from L'Osservatore Romano, the Vatican newspaper, which asked if sin in today's world is any different from sins in ages past. He responded that his opinion is that sin today takes a more social dimension than past ages, when sin was often more individualistic. He pointed to such social sins as genetic manipulation, economic injustice, and harming the environment. That's it - end of story. There is not a new list of Seven Deadly Sins - although it is quite entertaining to hear news reports come up with such a list from the actual interview. The Church has not redefined what a mortal sin is - as a matter of fact, the Church does not have an actual list of mortal sins, since three conditions must be met for such a sin (serious matter, knowledge of its sinfulness, and freedom). The Seven Deadly Sins are seen as the root of all sin - not a list of what could be a mortal sin. And, last but not least, the Pope or the Vatican have said nothing - in the realm of Church teachings, the opinion of a Vatican official expressed in a newpaper interview is pretty low on the list.

Social Sin is not a new concept. Especially over the past century, there has been more and more of a realization that sin effects not just us, but all the people around us, and there are certain types of sin that can effect an entire society or even the whole human race. And to say that becoming excessively wealthy is a new sin (as reported by some media) is to completely ignore what Jesus himself said, in more than one place in the gospels, about accumulating wealth. Yesterday must have either been a really slow news day, or the media are completely clueless when it comes to religion reporting - or both.