Diane Winston , holder of the Knight Chair in Media and Religion, sums up the Vatican's additional list of seven deadly sins on the Knight Chair Web site.
"No surprise that the Vatican's update of seven deadly sins is an incisive indictment of capitalism — this Pope, like the one before him, sees our economic system as spiritually corrosive," Winston wrote. "The new list isn't substantively different from the old one, but it puts a fresh face on some all-too-familiar abstractions. So pride is manifest as genetic manipulation and envy is morally debatable experiments; gluttony means too much money and lust is drug trafficking and consumption; greed leads to inflicting poverty and sloth causes environmental pollution; anger, well, that leads to violating fundamental rights of human nature."
The new deadly sins are environmental pollution, genetic manipulation, accumulating excessive wealth, inflicting poverty, drug trafficking and consumption, morally debatable experiments, and violation of fundamental rights of human nature.
"Okay, the Vatican condemning sinful behavior is not a news flash, but the frame it provides—specifically, engaging the contemporary world in a collective reconsideration of systemic and personal sin—is noteworthy," she wrote. "We forgive our peccadilloes all too easily, which is why the Vatican wants a wholesale return to confession."
