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Vatican lists "new sins," including pollution By Philip Pullella
Mon Mar 10, 2008
VATICAN CITY (Reuters) -
Thou shall not pollute the Earth. Thou shall beware genetic manipulation. Modern times bring with them modern sins. So the Vatican has told the faithful that they should be aware of "new" sins such as causing environmental blight.
The guidance came at the weekend when Archbishop Gianfranco Girotti, the Vatican's number two man in the sometimes murky area of sins and penance, spoke of modern evils.
Asked what he believed were today's "new sins," he told the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano that the greatest danger zone for the modern soul was the largely uncharted world of bioethics.
"(Within bioethics) there are areas where we absolutely must denounce some violations of the fundamental rights of human nature through experiments and genetic manipulation whose outcome is difficult to predict and control," he said.
The Vatican opposes stem cell research that involves destruction of embryos and has warned against the prospect of human cloning.
Girotti, in an interview headlined "New Forms of Social Sin," also listed "ecological" offences as modern evils.
In recent months, Pope Benedict has made several strong appeals for the protection of the environment, saying issues such as climate change had become gravely important for the entire human race.
Under Benedict and his predecessor John Paul, the Vatican has become progressively "green."
It has installed photovoltaic cells on buildings to produce electricity and hosted a scientific conference to discuss the ramifications of global warming and climate change, widely blamed on human use of fossil fuels.
Girotti, who is number two in the Vatican "Apostolic Penitentiary," which deals with matter of conscience, also listed drug trafficking and social and economic injustices as modern sins.
But Girotti also bemoaned that fewer and fewer Catholics go to confession at all.
He pointed to a study by Milan's Catholic University that showed that up to 60 percent of Catholic faithful in Italy stopped going to confession.
In the sacrament of Penance, Catholics confess their sins to a priest who absolves them in God's name.
But the same study by the Catholic University showed that 30 percent of Italian Catholics believed that there was no need for a priest to be God's intermediary and 20 percent felt uncomfortable talking about their sins to another person.
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I'm going to indulge myself here (seminary humor!!), so apologies to all Catholics, and apologies to Brian in Mesa because he's not guilty of this. I just have to point out that if I had a penny every time someone agitated me by assuming because I'm a Christian I have any interest at all in what the Pope says, I'd be able to buy everyone registered member on ASFN a Starbucks coffee.
Because of this story I can now look forward to many years of religious debates in which people who don't understand where lines are drawn in Christianity telling me the Pope says we're going to hell if we put glossy magazines in the recycle bin or if we've ever mapped the human genome. Or something like that. And they will get a confused -- and almost tortured -- look on their face when I unload my real feelings about the Pope as it relates to my faith. Needless to say, for the most powerful professed Christian on the planet, the Pope's reach does not extend nearly as far as people give him credit for. There are perhaps tens of millions of Christians who feel the same as me.
Just so it's understood around here.
Now back to your regularly scheduled P&R bitch and moan session.
I'm going to work on creating a few new sins, too. I'll need some surgical tubing, a mexican wrestling mask, a catalydic converter, tequilla, a daschund and some chocolate chip cookies.
I should have the new sins discovered just in time for lent next year.
__________________ America cannot have an empire abroad and a Republic at home.
Last edited by Pariah; March 11th, 2008 at 11:25 AM.
"Asked what he believed were today's "new sins," he told the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano that the greatest danger zone for the modern soul was the largely uncharted world of bioethics."
The church isn't making any new sins proclamations. The Pope isn't speaking on any matter of doctrine in this regard (the only time he is deemed "infallible.") This has no bearing on anything, other than to remind people to be good citizens of the world, to the world. No big whoop.
The church isn't making any new sins proclamations. The Pope isn't speaking on any matter of doctrine in this regard (the only time he is deemed "infallible.") This has no bearing on anything, other than to remind people to be good citizens of the world, to the world. No big whoop.
No big whoop... except for all those suckas who don't use birth control and end up saddled with disease and/or excess children because they opt to adhere to all the drivel coming out of the Vatican.
No big whoop... except for all those suckas who don't use birth control and end up saddled with disease and/or excess children because they opt to adhere to all the drivel coming out of the Vatican.
Maybe if they opted to adhere to all the drivel coming out of the Vatican, they wouldn't get disease or excess children because they'd be with their one partner and following natural family planning (which I know for a fact works, though I don't adhere). It isn't like the church is telling people to go out and get their freak on, and bang willy nilly, but don't use protection. It is saying the opposite, and that's the basis behind the natural law concept in the first place.
I'm not going to belabor this argument, because I actually don't agree with it, fundamentally. But I also understand why they have stated the position as such and it makes sense in those constraints. The "drivel" has a basis in the belief of the church and they have been consistent in that regard.
But thanks for taking a tangent into a legitimate issue since the original article in this is just a bunch of tripe. My original point stands on the no big whoop about the original article.
No big whoop... except for all those suckas who don't use birth control and end up saddled with disease and/or excess children because they opt to adhere to all the drivel coming out of the Vatican.
No big whoop... except for all those suckas who don't use birth control and end up saddled with disease and/or excess children because they opt to adhere to all the drivel coming out of the Vatican.
I thought the Catholic church is against birth control?
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