Monday 10 March 2008

Sins Ain't What They Used to Be

Those pesky Catholics! You turn your back for a second and they're messing about with things again... After a normal, every-day, run-of-the-mill training week aimed at encouraging more people to confess regularly - because everybody loves telling an old (alleged) paedophile their darkest secrets - an archbishop (Gianfranco Girotti if you must know) announces an updated list of deadly sins. It seems there are still seven of them - why break with tradition after all? - but they are rather different form their predecessors.
Well, I'm sure you're all waiting with baited breath so without further ado, here are the winners:
  1. Environmental Pollution
  2. Genetic Manipulation
  3. Accumulating Excessive Wealth
  4. Inflicting Poverty
  5. Drug Trafficking and Consumption
  6. Morally Debatable Experiments
  7. Violation of Fundamental Rights of Human Nature
So there you have it. Much of the bad stuff I'd be concerned about would be covered by no. 7 there. Although what rights of human nature are I have no idea. Human nature is always blamed for bad stuff as well as praised for good. So who is doing the violating? I'm sure there'll be lots of complicated theological explanatory notes that nobody can understand...

I also like that they've covered science in there twice, under "genetic experiments" and again under "morally debatable experiments". Debatable? So any experiment that is in a grey area is right out? Because if you're being strict that might include a hell of a lot of science. You know, all that stuff that ethics committees spend their time thinking about. Clinical trials for example. For those life-saving drugs. And, of course, both of these would cover embryonic stem-cell research so the HFEB is doubly slapped by that one.

I wonder if genetic manipulation of animals is allowed but not of humans? I'll have to wait for those handy notes before I decide whether or not to eat those GM foods - because this would be another reason for me to take it up in a big way, what with me being contrary like that.

And also, the Catholic Church says "Don't do Drugs" or you're going to hell, first class and no refunds. You hear? What about drugs that are allowed in some countries but not others? what about Christ's Blood? Or is that OK because it has transubstantiated (is that a verb?) before you drink it? They'd best be careful.

The environmental pollution one is heartening, although everyone pollutes to some extent so there might need to be a lot of confessing. Since that was the point of the training week, however, I can see how they decided to include it. "Hmmm, let's include even more stuff people do on a daily basis, that way they're sinning 24/7!"

And then there's the ones about wealth. I guess a specific definition of wealth would be required. And then a short trip to the Vatican's accounts department for an investigation into "unnecessary wealth".

Anywho, I may blog again about this if I find more on it. You have been warned.

1 comment:

Laurie said...

They had to add more sins because abortion is one of the "greatest sins of all time," and I can't see where falls under the original 7. Of course paedophilia falls under both the original "lust" and (I think) the new vague "violation of...human nature." I also haven't figured out how I would go about inflicting poverty even if I wanted to. Embezzle from the middle class?

The article seems to indicate that these new ones are in addition to the old ones, so there must be 14 (somewhat overlapping) deadly sins now. Shoot! I thought I was going to be able to eat all I wanted and angrily sit around doing nothing while lusting after Hugh Laurie and being envious of his wife without going to hell.