Published: Wednesday, 19th March, 2008 12:00
David Walker on new catholic sins
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It’s a sad day when the church becomes dictated by modern fashions – as if religious leaders have finally become concerned that God just isn’t cutting it on the catwalks - but it seems primitive superstition has finally met contemporary vacuousness.
It’s long been said that the major religions are completely out of step with today’s world, with the latest Apple gizmos much more important to most than any notion of forbidden fruit.
Yet, like some sort of holy Marks and Spencers, it seems the Vatican now wants to overhaul its image in a bid to halt the fall in punters coming through their doors.
Of course, religion has always adapted to new conditions. But today it does not simply adapt; it takes its cue from the secular imagination rather than from the divine.
Strangely, it now seems the Catholic Church has targeted the Seven Deadly Sins as an area that could do with a Trinny and Susannah-style makeover for this season.
So this supposedly most conservative of institutions has decreed that sin must be modernised, imbued with ‘social awareness’ and ‘social responsibility’, so that it will resonate with supposedly illiterate text-messaging teens more interested in Facebook than the Good Book.
Perhaps you thought the original list of lust, gluttony, sloth, wrath, greed, pride and envy adequately encompassed your vices.
Well, sorry to disappoint you, but Gianfranco Girotti, the Pope’s right hand man in the sin department, says the old infractions of the 6th century are now so yesterday.
Archbishop Girotti of the Apostolic Penitentiary told the official Vatican newspaper that seven new ‘social’ sins were in the offing - and they had nothing to do with talking while your mouth’s full or forgetting to hold the door open.
The logic, apparently, is to apply some basic moral principles to our new age of technological advancement and globalisation.
These ‘in’ sins are to be environmental pollution; genetic manipulation; accumulating excessive wealth; inflicting poverty; drug trafficking and consumption; morally debatable experiments; and violation of fundamental rights of human nature.
So the good law-abiding Roman Catholic now has a brand new list of social sins to avoid in order to fend off eternity in the flame-licked afterlife.
By anyone’s yardstick, it’s a heavy load of thou-shalt-nots, particularly when many Catholics these days aren’t exactly subservient in the face of such old-fashioned stricture – it may even send some scurrying for the hills.
Traditionally, any Catholic who commits, or does not confess to committing, a mortal sin is destined to have their soul descend into Hell at the moment of their death.
Yet, being plunged into the depths of Hades for not putting out the recycling, or booking a flight to Barcelona for the weekend, seems a tad harsh.
Frankly, just getting up for breakfast could now be a perilous undertaking, fraught with endless questions.
At what point does your accumulation of wealth turn from being acceptable to damnable? Do developed countries get a bigger allowance for higher living standards?
Are the scientists of the world going to fry at an unholy temperature for trying to find a cure for cancer because God does not want them to play God?
Will you get through the Pearly Gates with a catalytic converter, but not if you drive a jeep? Will they have to remake the film ‘Seven’?
More importantly, are these new sins retrospectively active? What if you were naively indulging in the gluttonous consumption of plastic bags before they were announced?
But won’t the burning of you and your bags create yet more sinful pollution?
As for the likes of Tony Blair, you have to feel sorry for him. He’s only been a Catholic for a few months, but now he’s apparently got to give away his fortune.
Only recently, it was announced that the former PM would be teaching students at Yale University in the US on the subject of faith and globalisation. Presumably, he will no longer be taking his first class seat on a transatlantic jet but plumping instead for the relatively smaller carbon footprint of, well, his own footprint by walking to the States.
However, on the subject of excessive wealth, I confess that the new sins have come just in time for me – I’ve been earning so much recently that I can almost afford to buy a copy of the Big Issue.
The likes of lust, greed and sloth are, also admittedly, just the kind of good, juicy sin I have enjoyed from time to time - but drug trafficking, genetic engineering and morally debatable experiments? Not something I claim to have indulged in, nor most Catholics, I would guess.
And that’s the big problem; the new list is far more vague than the original and leaves yet even more questions than answers. Is modern life not stressful enough?
Worse for the church, there are no longer sinners, just personality disorders in the modern world. These new sins are not clarifying faith, they’re just confusing Catholics.
Scriptural routes, if followed through religiously, encourage a system of morals which any civilised modern person, whether religious or not, would find difficult to align with their day-to-day lives.
No list is suddenly going to change society’s thoughts on how in touch the church is; society stopped listening a long time ago. War has never been fought in the name of atheism, but even now, we are still killing ourselves over ancient literature.
Personally, I believe that we all have an inherent and utterly human ability to tell the difference between right and wrong. Without a God, morals do not become relative or arbitrary. And if you happen to be missing what is arguably the single most defining trait of the human race, then I’m pretty sure you’re not listening to the church anyway. Albert Einstein once said: “Strange is our situation here upon earth. Each of us comes for a short visit, not knowing why, yet sometimes seeming to divine a purpose.
“From the standpoint of daily life, however, there is one thing we do know: that man is here for the sake of other men - above all for those upon whose smile and well-being our own happiness depends.”
For the Vatican, I believe it’s back to the apostolic drawing board. Oh, and I am happily far beyond saving, so please don’t even try.
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