Catholic Church Adds Environmental Pollution to the 7 Deadly Sins — What Do You Think?

By Susan Seliger

I began reading a science article on Envy by Natalie Angier in the New York Times (always a wonderful experience) which, of course, brought to mind the 7 Deadly Sins – and I picked up a pen to see if I could actually name all seven.

Now I am not Catholic, so this is not what I was raised on. (In fact I am not really religious at all – as a Jew I am really only Jew—ish— so in my family the leading mortal sin was leaving food on your plate followed quickly by not buying on sale.)

Yo—in case you are easily distracted like me and tempted to stop reading to see if you can name them – I will save you the trouble — there’s a cheat sheet below. (Hint, cheating is not one of them.)

Back to the point:

So of course, to check my sin-list, I went to my crib sheet on life — Google and Wikipedia. And there I found this most interesting morsel about the Catholic Church adding ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTION to the list of the new, modern deadly sins.

“On March 9, 2008 the Vatican newspaper published an interview with Bishop Gianfranco Girotti (head of the Apostolic Penitentiary, the Vatican body which oversees confessions and plenary indulgences), in which he listed seven modern social sins.^[5][6] These “social sins” include environmental pollution, genetic manipulation, obscene wealth, infliction of poverty, drug trafficking, morally debatable experiments, and violation of the fundamental rights of human nature.”

I don’t know about the rest of that modern list of social sins (genetic manipulation?), but environmental pollution does seem to be right up there with the old standbys (listed below — the virtues, as always, get second billing, in parentheses):

Lust, (chastity)

Gluttony (temperance)

Greed (charity)

Sloth (diligence)

Wrath (patience)

Envy (kindness)

Pride (humility)

Are you wondering what happened to murder and adultery — why didn’t they make the list?  Is it because the mortal sins are defined as feelings or emotions that define your character, rather than individual actions?  Still, even if that’s the case, certain actions, like murder and adultery, strike me as pretty strong indicators of character, or lack thereof. The same goes for environmental pollution — it’s an action that only someone with a clear lack of character and integrity would commit.

I’m glad the list was expanded. It gives a little more punch to the command to “Clean up your act” doesn’t it? Your life – and your mortal soul – could depend on it.  I’d like to believe that.

Photo credit: Tendring District Council in the UK