a big shout out to Vatican City!

I just wanted to take a moment to thank the friendly folks in Vatican City for taking the time to point out some new officially recognized sins, including genetic experiments, pollution and mind-damaging drugs. I wonder whether these things are decided by committee? This from a recent article (the article can be found here):

After last year's "Ten Commandments" against road rage and other sins committed behind the wheel, the Vatican has provided its latest update on how God's law is being violated with modern means.

"The poor are always becoming poorer and the rich ever more rich, feeding unsustainable social injustice," Msgr. Gianfranco Girotti, head of the Apostolic Penitentiary, told the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano in an interview published Sunday.

Girotti was asked what, in his opinion, are the "new sins."

He cited "violations of the basic rights of human nature" through genetic manipulation; drugs which "weaken the mind and cloud intelligence" as well as imbalances between rich and poor.

"If yesterday sin had a rather individualistic dimension, today it has a weight, a resonance, that's especially social, rather than individual," said the monsignor, whose office deals with matters of conscience and grants absolution.

I am not going to touch the whole "constitution of sin/who decides what sin is" issue because it is huge and, truthfully, I don't have enough time to get into it. In addition, I don't want this to be a complete rant against the Roman Catholic Church with which, sufficed to say, I have a whole lot of issues that I can't be bothered to discuss here. I absolutely agree with the fact that the imbalances between the "haves" and "have-nots" in our society is an atrocity and one that, as a Christian, I am committed to playing a part in changing in whatever ways I can. I also realize that I need to be constantly reminded about the plight of those who are less fortunate than me because I am self-centred. I guess my struggle in this instance is that I have a hard time with a corporation such as the Catholic Church, with their untold billions in revenue and land holdings, pointing this out with seemed righteous indignation. I know that there are Catholics doing amazing things in this world, alleviating suffering and serving others, however, I have have been to the capital of the Catholic empire and have seen first-hand the opulence and wealth of Roman Catholic Church, which makes edicts like this from Vatican City very hard for me to swallow. Personally, I find it is really not much different than Wal-Mart or Coke earnestly preaching to me about the plight of the poor. I am sure that there are those readers of mine who will disagree and I am cool with that--I am only expressing my own thoughts and opinions on this because it is something that has been on my mind for the last couple weeks or so.