Modern sins in modern time!

Vatican has brought the seven deadly sins up to date by adding seven new ones for the age of globalization. Vetican told the faithful that they should be aware of modern sins in modern time coming with genetic manipulation and 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. The largely uncharted world of bioethics is the greatest danger for the modern soul, he said.

“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 added.

Girotti, in an interview headlined “New Forms of Social Sin,” listed environmental offenses as modern evils.

The Vatican said the sins as the outcome of human cloning and opposed stem cell research. The list includes genetic modification, carrying out experiments on humans, polluting the environment, causing social injustice, causing poverty becoming obscenely wealthy and taking drugs.

The mass media had “blown up” the issue “to discredit the Church,” but the Church itself was taking steps to deal with it, according to Girotti.

In recent months, Pope Benedict has stressed on the issue of environment protection. He said climate change had become gravely important for humanity. Under Benedict and his predecessor, John Paul, the Vatican has become progressively “green.”

Both Benedict and the late Pope John Paul II frequently expressed concern about the environment. Under Benedict’s papacy, Vatican engineers developed plans for some Holy See buildings to use solar energy, including photovoltaic cells on the roof of the auditorium for pilgrims’ audiences with the pontiff. Also they hosted a scientific conference to discuss the ramifications of global warming, widely blamed on the use of fossil fuels.