The Vatican updates list of sins for a changing world
This may be a bit of news that you’ve missed… and maybe you just don’t care (always possible)… but I think this is pretty significant.
The Vatican has gone on record to say that things like pollution, drugs abuse, genetic experimentation, and on-going poverty and social injustice are big time sins that we need to be addressing in the world. And this interesting statement tells me that the RCC is beginning to recognize the kind of modern to post-modern shift that is happening across the world: “If yesterday sin had a rather individualistic dimension, today it has a weight, a resonance, that’s especially social, rather than individual,” said Monsignor Gianfranco Girotti, the head of the Apostolic Penitentiary.
How ’bout them apples? Yep, we need to get our individual hearts right with God and one another, but part of releasing the kingdom of God in the earth is working to bring it into every facet and area of life in this world.
Read the full article from MSNBC here.
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Did you turn Catholic and not tell me? All this talk about Lent and the Vatican and the Catholic church…..I thought maybe I missed something in the midst of all the crazy that is our life.
T
No, I haven’t become Catholic when you weren’t looking : ) Just a “radical center” kingdom-Vineyard guy living vicariously in multiple traditions! I posted this because I think it’s noteworthy when the RCC is saying some of the same things that other cultural, evangelical, and emerging church voices are saying… Hmm, maybe God is up to something?
Soooo, does this mean that Our Lady of Greenwood is going to disconnect their electricity, since it comes from one of those sinful coal fired power plants? Are the priests going to stop driving cars? What about the Pope’s armored car? It pollutes. I think they need to differentiate between what is a personal sin, and what is a problem our society as a whole needs to address.
Agreed. And I think that’s what they’re trying to do: challenge the societies of the world to bring some broader change (repentance) into issues of global significance. Thanks for commenting!
I am glad that the Catholic Church is standing up to societal sins. It is important to move beyond individualism especially in a religion like Christianity where community is so stressed in the church.