poetrychic

hang on to your hats...the vatican has released some new sins for all of us to be mindful of

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.

Vatican lists "new sins," including pollution (Reuters) : Yahoo! Green

ok, i like the idea of vatican city turning green, and am admittedly shocked the new pope has chosen such a course, but c'mon already...to make this a sin, and by default, say you can go to hell for not being environmentally conscious is quite a bit of a stretch

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"it was a creed written into the founding documents that declared the destiny of a nation, yes we can!"

Jonesy

The cloning thing is actually incredibly interesting. We should deliberately clone a human, to learn more about the spirit. If two bodies are identical... aside from nurture, what is the difference between the two?

guest1234567

It's possible to not be environmentally conscious because of ignorance of the ramifications of your own actions. I doubt you would go to hell for that. But if you willfully cause an environmental disturbance, why not? If it's littering, are you not stealing the view of someone else? I always told the kids to leave the flowers and pine cones where they were when they were younger and camping for the same reason.

Certainly allowing toxic waste into the air and water should be damnable, right?

Jonesy

Religion is really just a second government. Except government is mostly physical while religion is mostly mental. You know... religion makes up all these fake-laws (man-made laws, just like government creates), but gets you to abide by them through the use of mental manipulation such as terrorism (obey or eternity in hell), and telling you their man-made laws are laws from God.

djack

Enough posting. We have new sins to commit. Follow me.

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Malkavian

Well, how much CO2 will you produce by burning in hell for all eternity? Remember - you are a fossil fuel. I don't think Hell is an environmentally healthy concept. Vatican should eliminate it to save billions of tons of CO2 emissions per year that Hell undoubtedly produces.

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Looks like i picked the wrong week to quit sniffing glue

Sean

The morons never cease to amaze me.

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poetrychic

i've been giving this some thought today...but i have to ask you a question, when you were teaching your children to let nature be, did you threaten them with spankings, a grounding, no tv for a month, no sleepovers or any such similarly horrible thing in the mind of a child if they didn't comply with your wishes/teachings?

my guess would be no, but i could be wrong about that...i liken the above question to that which the catholic religion uses to keep people in line, eternal hell for not obeying...

personally, i would not litter and have often picked up trash on the side of a highway or in my neighbourhood, but i don't do it to be "rewarded" with heaven and i don't litter out of a fear of hell...it's just a conscionable thing to do...to make this a sin, well, i have to question the motive...does the vatican expect all production to grind to a halt for fear of hell? do they think people are just all of a sudden going to stop driving suvs, leaving all the lights in the house on or supporting companies that have high levels of pollution? the article mentioned that relatively few catholics even attend confession anymore, so are they just trying to drive up their penance numbers?

what're they going to change the 10 commandments now, too?

i disapprove, probably because of my catholic upbringing, yes that's more than likely what it is, in the fear tactics they use to manipulate people into doing what they say...

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"it was a creed written into the founding documents that declared the destiny of a nation, yes we can!"

poetrychic

and just what makes you think i would go to hell, mister?

besides, i'm going to be cremated so my body will be reduced to mere ashes, not much co2 left in a pile of ashes

and i agree, the vatican should eliminate the concept of hell...all that flame and burning, can't be good for the environment

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"it was a creed written into the founding documents that declared the destiny of a nation, yes we can!"

Environment Man

I don't care for the Vatican but I sure do like their New Rules. And better than Antireligion Bill Maher's new rules too.