Posted on 03/10/2008 7:59:53 PM PDT by ctdonath2
When he finished his interview with L'Osservatore Romano, Archishop Gianfranco Girotti probably thought that his main message had been an appeal to Catholics to use the sacrament of Confession. Little did he know that the English-language news media would play the interview as a newly revised list of sins.
Archbishop Girotti, the regent of the Apostolic Penitentiary, spoke to the Vatican newspaper about "new forms of social sin" in our era. He mentioned such transgressions as destructive research on human embryos, degradation of the environment, and drug trafficking. Within hours, dozens of media sources were suggesting that the Vatican had radically revised the Ten Commandments, issuing a list of "new sins."
As usual, a British newspaper leapt to the forefront with the most sensational and misleading coverage. The Daily Telegraph made the preposterous claim that Archbishop Girotti's list replaced the traditional Catholic understanding of the seven deadly sins:
It replaces the list originally drawn up by Pope Gregory the Great in the 6th Century, which included envy, gluttony, greed, lust, wrath and pride.Could we have a reality check, please?
When a second-tier Vatican official gives a newspaper interview, he is not proclaiming new Church doctrines. Archbishop Girotti was obviously trying to offer a new, provocative perspective on some enduring truths. The effort backfired-- but in a very revealing way.
(Excerpt) Read more at cwnews.com ...
Thank you for posting this but I didn’t read the previous articles because I assumed this was the case. The British media is the worst media I’ve ever seen. They lie all the time even to the faces of people they interview. Until I vacationed in England, I had no idea how bad it was.
Thanks for the post, ct. I am a Catholic and I did not even bother to read the stories about the creation of “new sins” as I have at least a rudimentary idea of how my Church works.
Put not your faith in MSM stories :)
To both of you, thank you and a big ol' Catholic cyberhug (can you feel the electrons?) I'm one of many who feel heartfelt appreciation for your fairness and good-will.
I agree with your profile.
I fell away from the church for 20 years and came back when I was lucky enough to have a friend that showed me through his life what a Christian is.
I didn’t realize all the hand holding, singing, hand shakes and other changes that had occurred. It’s funny though, after all the years I still remember the prayers for the profession of faith. I guess if you say it for the first couple of decades of your life, somethings never go away.
I'd like to call your attitude "common sense", but I can't.
It's thoroughly sensible, just not very common.
As a very new Catholic, I contend that I did not “look foolish” in believing this story; it was the people who assumed that “everybody” knew it was a false alarm and sneered at those of us who believed it, or thought it credible, who looked foolish.
omg.....
We should be even more skeptical when the MSM report on Christians or Christianity.
In any case, I'm not either but I still feel the Vatican is due an apology for the way the media twisted this.
ping.
Media idiocy bump
I don’t care if you are a new Catholic or not, you prove the point that if it’s the Pope and the MSM quotes, you believe it without going to the source.
If this was GWB, you would look at what he said and not what they report.
This is the Conservative hating MSM afterall.
What are Capital Sins? [Seven Deadly Sins]
[Catholic Caucus] The Forum: Not "new sins" but an old media blind spot
Not "new sins" but an old media blind spot (Vatican _DOES_NOT_ Announce Seven New Deadly Sins)
Vatican Lists "New Sins," Including Pollution (Catholic Caucus)
--------------------------------------------------------
Viva Salation BUMP!
Viva Salvation BUMP!
When he finished his interview with L'Osservatore Romano, Archishop Gianfranco Girotti probably thought that his main message had been an appeal to Catholics to use the sacrament of Confession. Little did he know that the English-language news media would play the interview as a newly revised list of sins.
Archbishop Girotti, the regent of the Apostolic Penitentiary, spoke to the Vatican newspaper about "new forms of social sin" in our era. He mentioned such transgressions as destructive research on human embryos, degradation of the environment, and drug trafficking. Within hours, dozens of media sources were suggesting that the Vatican had radically revised the Ten Commandments, issuing a list of "new sins."
As usual, a British newspaper leapt to the forefront with the most sensational and misleading coverage. The Daily Telegraph made the preposterous claim that Archbishop Girotti's list replaced the traditional Catholic understanding of the seven deadly sins:
"It replaces the list originally drawn up by Pope Gregory the Great in the 6th Century, which included envy, gluttony, greed, lust, wrath and pride."
Could we have a reality check, please?
When a second-tier Vatican official gives a newspaper interview, he is not proclaiming new Church doctrines. Archbishop Girotti was obviously trying to offer a new, provocative perspective on some enduring truths. The effort backfired-- but in a very revealing way.
An ordinary reader, basing his opinion only on the inane Telegraph coverage, might conclude that a "sin," in the Catholic understanding, is nothing more than a violation of rules set down by a group of men in Rome. If these rules are entirely arbitrary, then Vatican officials can change them at will; some sins will cease to exist and other "new sins" will replace them. But that notion of sin is ludicrous.
Sin is an objective wrong: a violation of God's law. What is sinful today will be sinful tomorrow, and a deadly sin will remain deadly, whether or not Telegraph editors recognize the moral danger. The traditional list of deadly sins remains intact; nothing has replaced it. Greed, gluttony, and lust are as wrong today as they were a day or a year or a century ago. If Archbishop Girotti referred to "new" sins, it is because some of the offenses he named (such as genetic manipulation) were impossible in the past, and others (such as international drug trafficking) are much more prevalent today, in a global society. Insofar as people could have engaged in these activities a century ago, they would have been sinful then as well.
A sin is not a sin because simply an archbishop proclaims it so. Sin, the Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches us, "is an offense against reason, truth, and right conscience…" The precepts of "reason, truth, and right conscience" do not shift in response to political trends, nor do they change at the whim of Vatican officials.
The fundamental point of the L'Osservatore Romano interview was that Catholics need to recover a sense of sin, make use of the sacrament of Confession, and receive absolution for their offenses. Sin, the archbishop insisted, is a reality that man cannot escape.
Archbishop Girotti said that the modern world does not understand the nature of sin. With their coverage of the interview, the mass media unintentionally underlined the prelate's point.
It’s been driving me nuts. (Short trip — smiling)
If there are any other leftist spin threads out (and I think there are, please send me a FReepmail with the freerepublic address and I will add it to my list.
Thanks, everyone.
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