Reports that the Vatican has published a new list of the seven deadly sins of modern times that includes littering and economic inequality is simply not true, affirmed the episcopal conference of England and Wales.
The conference released a statement today clarifying that an interview published Sunday by L’Osservatore Romano with Bishop Gianfranco Girotti, regent of the tribunal of he Apostolic Penitentiary, was misinterpreted in the media as an official Vatican update to the seven deadly sins, laid out by Pope Gregory the Great in the sixth century.
“The Vatican has not published a new list of seven deadly sins; this is not a new Vatican edict,” said the conference. “The story originated from an interview that Bishop Gianfranco Girotti gave to the L’Osservatore Romano in which he was questioned about new forms of social sins in this age of globalization.”
I suppose the moral is that when talking to the media never provide a list of sins that just happens to have seven items. I suppose the good news is that Bishop Girotti didn’t list ten things, thus provoking headlines that the Pope was replacing the existing Ten Commandments!
As is often observed, the press just doesn’t [url=http://www.getreligion.org/?p=3265]”get religion.”[/url]
Wow. The ever-diminishing Religion Intelligence Quotient of the mainstream media, ladies and gentlemen.
#1 Amusingly put.
Actually, one BBC story actually did make the 10 Commandments inference:
[blockquote]Those newly risking eternal punishment include drug pushers, the obscenely wealthy, and scientists who manipulate human genes. So “thou shalt not carry out morally dubious scientific experiments†or “thou shalt not pollute the earth†might one day be added to the Ten Commandments.[/blockquote]
Glen Beck was interviewing Fr. Edward Beck (no relation) on the issue of ‘obscenely wealthy’, and they clarified that neither the making of money nor being rich was a sin. Selfish wealth (the love of money) was the problem, where making money just to have more money was the purpose.
They pointed out that there are many wealthy persons who use their money to do good for others and for society.