Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Because "they" say so

It could just be me but I thought the seven deadly sins had their origin somewhere in the Bible. Imagine my surprise then when reading in The Daily Telegraph this morning that the familiar lust, gluttony, avarice, sloth, anger, envy and pride have just been added to by the Vatican. (I've named them because even though you are supposed to be able to remember "seven" things, I always have trouble remembering these!) New to the list - to cope with "the age of globalisation" are taking or dealing drugs, polluting the environment, and engaging in "manipulative genetic science". Also joining the list - paedophilia (does this mean the Catholic Church will finally feel empowered to do something about it's own history and instances of child sexual abuse), abortion (no surprise here ... ) and social injustices that cause poverty (possibly including the act of the Catholic Church naming abortion as a mortal sin?).
According to The Daily Telegraph's report, part of the push for the "new" mortal sins was the Pope's concern over the "decreasing sense of sin" and falling rates of Roman Catholics (not just all Catholics?) confession. Obviously the latter is not seen as a Catholic avoidance of the "old" sins which would somewhat negate the need for confession.
It's a sin if the Vatican say so .... hmmm. Like: it's not news if there's an embargo on it. Also in today's paper was "news" of an apology by Australian magazine New Idea which broke the story of Prince Harry (third in line to Britain's Royal Throne) serving on the front line in Afghanistan. The story went largely unnoticed, for the better part of a month, until picked up by US web-based news service The Drudge Report. Then within hours, there was massive media coverage including on-the-ground footage of Prince Harry and his unit in Afghanistan - which looked suspiciously like it had been shot BEFORE the news broke. Now, it could just be wrong-thinking on my part, but one could think this coverage may have been more dangerous to the Prince and his compatriots ("hey look, they're filming something over there ... must be important") than the New Idea report. Not exactly sure of their circulation details, but chances are New Idea don't distribute in Afghanistan. Does make one wonder though what other "news" is out there that we don't find out about because (a) it's covered by an embargo, or (b) it's covered by a D (?) Notice (not to be released in the national interest).

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