Seven New Deadly Sins!!! (No, But it Made a Good Story)

Short version: A second-tier Vatican official got interviewed by L'Osservatore Romano, a Vatican newspaper. He talked about "new forms of social sin" in our era. A few hours later, traditional news media was spreading the word that the Vatican had a list of "new sins."

You gotta admit, "Vatican Declares New Sins!" or "Seven Deadly Sins Replaced!" make good, attention-grabbing headlines.

I'm not as hard on the news media's cluelessness as some are. Many reporters trying to cover religious news, particularly Catholic news, seem to be as ill-suited to the task as art critics would be at the Super Bowl. Brilliant people, but with little-to-no knowledge of what they're reporting on.¹

You've probably seen something like this:

• "Seven new deadly sins: are you guilty?" Times Online (UK) (March 10, 2008)
  "Drug pushers, the obscenely rich, environmental polluters and “manipulative” genetic scientists beware – you may be in danger of losing your mortal soul unless you repent.
  "After 1,500 years the Vatican has brought the seven deadly sins up to date by adding seven new ones for the age of globalisation. The list, published yesterday in L'Osservatore Romano, the Vatican newspaper, came as the Pope deplored the 'decreasing sense of sin' in today's 'securalised world' and the falling numbers of Roman Catholics going to confession."
• " Vatican official: New sins on horizon" CNN (March 14, 2008)
  "Fifteen hundred years after the Roman Catholic Church introduced the original list of seven deadly sins, a Vatican official last week suggested an updated roster for a new age.
  "Although it doesn't reflect a change in official doctrine, the expansion of sins brought on by technology and science aligns with Pope Benedict XVI's emphasis on communal rather than individual piety, observers say."

But, odds are that you haven't seen this:

• "Media muddle over new seven deadly sins" CathNews (March 14 2008)
  "The Episcopal Conference of England and Wales has dismissed reports that a new list of seven deadly sins has been approved by the Vatican.
  "Zenit reports the conference released a statement clarifying an interview published by L'Osservatore Romano with Bishop Gianfranco Girotti ... - regent of the tribunal of the Apostolic Penitentiary - saying it was misinterpreted in the media as an official Vatican update to the seven deadly sins.
  " 'The Vatican has not published a new list of seven deadly sins, this is not a new Vatican edict,' the statement said."
• "The Forum: Not 'new sins' but an old media blind spot" Catholic World News (CWN) (March 11, 2008 )
  "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.' "

Actually, the CNN report did pretty well, pointing out that "it doesn't reflect a change in official doctrine...."

For starters, the Church's focus has been and is on practicing the seven holy virtues: the healthy state, not the dysfunctional sinful state. This table may help a little.

The traditional seven deadly sins	The seven holy virtues
Lust	Chastity
Gluttony	Abstinence
Avarice	Temperance
Sloth	Diligence
Anger	Patience
Envy	Kindness
Pride	Humility

What the lower-level Vatican officials had actually been talking about was how new technology and socio-political conditions make it possible for people to foul up on a larger scale. And, they were focusing on wrong behavior involving groups, as well as individuals.

Finally, here's a list of those new "seven deadly sins"
(remember, these aren't official):

Genetic modification
Carrying out experiments on humans
Polluting the environment
Causing social injustice
Causing poverty
Becoming obscenely wealthy
Taking drugs

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¹ The biggest problem that most reporters have, writing stories like this, may be the currently-fashionable notion that "sins" are a set of rules, determined arbitrarily, which can be changed at any time. The Catholic Church's idea, that "sins" and "virtues" are objective realities, is something that they may never have encountered.