Posted on 03/10/2008 7:34:35 AM PDT by Pyro7480
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.
(Editing by Keith Weir)
Catholic ping!
There’s nothing new about it’s being wrong wantonly to misuse the goods of creation.
There are new elements in the area of biological sciences, but I think the Church is doing a good job of applying the core principles of morality to technological innovations.
hahaahahahaahahahahahahaha
I don’t think they’d recognize “objectivity” if they cracked their skulls on it.
This is actually one of the reasons. The focus on what was referred to under Paul VI and JPII as "systemic sin" or, in other words, some collective act committed usually by a government, completely confused people.
First of all, there's nothing most of us can do about it, since it is not something we have done personally and usually haven't even voted for or had anything to do with the person who is actually doing it (assuming there is one).
I hope this is just Reuters finding the most left-wing person they can and making it sound as if his word is the defining one.
I don't think there's anything wrong with reasonable energy conservation policies - it makes good sense from the point of view of one's personal budget, and it is usually not hard to do. But making it sound as if using a higher-watt bulb is sinful is something that simply invites ridicule and makes people shrug off the whole concept of sin.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/1983234/posts
This was posted earlier... appears the reporter class has an agenda a few weeks before earth day.
First, al-Reuters makes a mountain out of a molehill. The interview some bishop, and talk about how timeless principles of morality apply to XXI Century society. This, they blow up as though someone had invented wholly new categories of moral principle. Nonsense!
Second, al-Reuters makes a molehill out of a mountain. That many nominal Catholics (and indeed folks in the West in general) have lost any sense of objective right and wrong, is a serious problem. They treat it almost as a joke.
Ping to follow the discussion
Penitent: Bless me Father, for I have sinned. It's been --- years--- since my last confession.
Confessor: Why so long?
P: Well, I don't feel like I've been committing, y'know, sins. I mean, nobody's perfect, I'm only human after all, but I do pretty good, I make an effort, and ...
C: (deep sigh) -- So, why are you in Confession NOW?
P: Because I feel guilty about ... bad stuff.
C: Like?
P: Like, global warming the shrinking of the ozone layer, the extinction of the purple-banded snail darter, the Whole World Situation...
C: (another sigh) How many times?
....
C: And for your penance, say...
P: Please don't give me rote prayers, Father. I don't know any rote prayers.
C: The Our Father? The Glory Be?
P: Well, here's one. I know the Angelus.
C: Good. For your penance, say the Angelus.
P: Bon-n-n-g ---- Bon-n-n-n-g-g-g-g---- Bonnnnn-n-n-g-g-g...
St. Gore will be pleased with this newest addition to the Earth-friendly sequacious; with the Southern Baptists already on board his Ark will soon be ready to set sail.
Synthetic Sin is more like it.
I wouldn't trust al-Reuters or AP to faithfully represent dog show results let alone real news.
Now all we need is an English translation.
LOL! Sending this one to my priest...
Exactly. And most people, even if they can’t analyze exactly why, know that this devalues the whole concept of sin. (Not to mention the priests who have learned this nonsense in seminary and inflict it on folks in the confessional!)
Genesis 1:26 (NIV)
“Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”
But then again, as often seen on here, arguments include include (take your pick...)
A) It’s Old Testament so it doesn’t count
B) Catholics don’t follow the Bible, they follow the Pope
C) Genesis is an allegory
Others?
That many nominal Catholics (and indeed folks in the West in general) have lost any sense of objective right and wrong, is a serious problem. They treat it almost as a joke.
&&&
You are so right about that.
On a related point, yesterday, my priest made the statement that the major failing of our generation for its children is that of not giving them a strong faith background, one that they can cling to when life presents them with difficulties large and small.
I agree with you completely. How much spin is in this?
There is nothing on zenit, so I figure it’s spin.
That's because they lack the reasoning ability to conceptualize and then specifically identify objective right and wrong.
Even the muslims have a surrah that says that you should not urinate in the well from which the camp drinks.
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