Social sins not a recent discovery by church

The "seven new deadly sins" story may draw our attention to the church's social and environmental teaching, writes Breda O'Brien…

The "seven new deadly sins" story may draw our attention to the church's social and environmental teaching, writes Breda O'Brien.

IT WAS a gift to journalists. The Vatican was proclaiming new sins! The Daily Telegraph headline in response to this alleged development was a model of moderation. "Recycle, or go to hell, warns Vatican." Sadly, the Vatican was not threatening eternal damnation on those who slip chocolate wrappers into the black bin instead of the green bin. Instead, Bishop Gianfranco Girotti, an official of the Apostolic Penitentiary, had completed a course for priests about confession and then gave an interview to L'Osservatore Romano. "Penitentiary" sounds like somewhere Johnny Cash might have sung about in one of his more morose moments, but it is an agency of the Roman Curia. It deals primarily with matters relating to the forgiveness of sins.

Bishop Girotti was musing aloud about what is known in the Catholic tradition as social sin, that is, sin that impacts on society. For example, tax evasion, that great Irish hobby, is an example because it affects society's ability to care for all its members. He reflected that whereas in the past there had been quite an individualistic understanding of sin, that the reality of globalisation means that we cannot ignore the social dimension of sin. Far from proclaiming new sins, he was in tune with more than a century of Catholic social teaching, beginning with Pope Leo XX111's encyclical, Rerum Novarum in 1891. In that encyclical, the pope endorsed the right to unionise and engage in collective bargaining, and was critical of the excesses of capitalism. Among the issues that the bishop mentioned as of particular relevance today were economic injustice, environmental irresponsibility, accumulation of excessive wealth and genetic experimentation with unforeseen consequences. No new sins there, just variations on old ones. After all, it was the founder of Christianity who suggested that it was easier for a camel to enter the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.

There is an interesting phenomenon among more traditional Catholics. They get very upset about what they term "a la carte Catholics", by which they generally mean people who pick and choose from what the church says about sexual morality. However, it is just as "a la carte" to ignore the church's social teaching, or to downplay its importance.

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Attitudes to care for the environment and to climate change are prime examples of this. Catholics of a traditional mould are much more likely to be sceptics about climate change, and to mutter darkly about left-wing plots to distract attention from real moral issues like abortion. Given the overwhelming scientific evidence, this is akin to Noah refusing to build the ark on the grounds that a flood will never happen.

It is also ignoring clear statements by not just the current pope, but by the previous pope, a rightly revered icon of conservative Catholics. In a World Peace Day message nearly three decades ago, John Paul stated: "Today the dramatic threat of ecological breakdown is teaching us the extent to which greed and selfishness are contrary to the order of creation, an order characterised by mutual interdependence."

Last September, in a letter to the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, Pope Benedict wrote: "Preservation of the environment, promotion of sustainable development and particular attention to climate change are matters of grave concern for the entire human family. No nation or business sector can ignore the ethical implications present in all economic and social development. With increasing clarity scientific research demonstrates that the impact of human actions in any one place or region can have worldwide effects."

Speaking to young people at Loreto in Italy, Pope Benedict was unequivocal. "Before it is too late, it is necessary to make courageous decisions that can recreate a strong alliance between humankind and the Earth."

Not that one should assume that the pope has suddenly transmogrified into Al Gore, even if Reuters recently reported that His Holiness had ordered solar panels for the Vatican. His carbon footprint is certainly smaller than that of his globe-trotting predecessor.

However, none of this suggests he has accepted the environmental agenda without reservation. Catholic social teaching has always rested on several pillars, including the dignity of the human person, the need to care for the poor, and to be good stewards of the environment. The pope remains deeply sceptical of the elements of the environmental movement, particularly the stance exemplified by John Muir, founder of the Sierra Club, who died in 1914. Muir believed that human beings are "always and everywhere a blight upon the planet".

In contrast, Catholic social teaching believes that the human person has a unique dignity. At times, that teaching has been distorted to imply carte blanche to do anything we like with the Earth, but in its more thoughtful manifestations, the order of creation is seen as one of interdependence.

It is true that with a few notable exceptions, like the Columban priest, Seán McDonagh, social teaching on care for the environment is not as developed as, say, teaching on the rights of the poor. However, there is an important tradition of sustainable development. For example, it is unsurprising to see that Trócaire has focused on climate change in its Lenten campaign this year. After all, it is the developing countries that bear the brunt of our selfish use of the world's resources.

It is easy to take a whack at conservative Catholics, but is there not an element in all of us that wants to deny the reality of climate change? Look at Y2K, we sneer. Banking was supposed to collapse and planes were supposed to fall from the sky.

We conveniently overlook the fact that it took years of frantic rewriting of computer code to prevent disaster.

Perhaps the sensationalist headlines on alleged new sins were no harm, because at least it reinforced in people's minds the idea that destroying our planet is perhaps the ultimate sin. Conservative, liberal, atheist, believer or just confused, we all have more than a vested interest in preserving this, our fragile blue and green home.