God goes green · Issue 865

James Hinks reviews the twenty-first century’s ‘seven sins’ and suggests there is more in recycling than a clean conscience

God goes Green…not with envy that David Beckham maybe overtaking as icon of all things good but with awareness for the environment. ‘Recycle or go to hell’ may be the next slogan used by County Councils, as ‘Thou shalt not pollute the Earth’ is now one of seven new sins.

They were added to the original mortal sins, published by Pope Gregory the Great in the sixth century, which included: pride, envy, gluttony, greed, lust, wrath and sloth.

The Vatican has decided to modernise the 1,500 year old social sins, to combat an’unstoppable process of globalisation’. They include injustice of excessive wealth, ruining the environment, dealing or taking drugs, paedophilia, abortion, unethical scientific experiments and genetically manipulating DNA and embryos.

Archbishop Gianfranco Girotti, Head of Apostolic Penitentiary, named these updated sins in the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano. Girotti claims that the original sins were an “idealistic dimension” and “individualistic” while the new ones hold “social resonance”.

The new sins though could be perceived as a publicity stunt as Pope Benedict the XVI deplored a “decreasing sense of sin” in today’s “secularised world”. Girotti, who is responsible for absolution of sins, noted that 60% of Catholics in Italy do not attend confession. Therefore adding to the list of ‘what not to do’s’ would conceivably broaden their demographic.

The new environmental sin is set to have most impact. Surely this ‘sin’ has the power to boost numbers of those who do not clear up their dog’s mess in the park or put all the different coloured glass bottle in the clear section. As these ‘crimes’ will not only be damaging the environment but risk eternal damnation.

Although you would be saved as long as you attended confession, for every sin, mortal or venial, is absolved after.

The Vatican may be bemoaned by critics for the new environmental sin, under the notion that they do not implement change themselves rather advocate a ‘do what I say, not what I do’ didactic method. Therefore not sticking to the moral saying ‘He that is without sin, cast the first stone’.

Though, on the environment, both Pope Benedict XVI and his predecessor Pope John Paul II frequently expressed concern about the fate of the Earth. In Benedict’s papacy the Vatican has installed photovoltaic cells on its buildings to produce electricity and hosted a scientific conference to discuss the ramifications of global warming and climate change.

They are then going some way to lead by example. Though, it could be argued that their practices and contrasting ideals of ‘unjust excessive wealth’ may need to be reformed.