Please forgive me for this post

I've often wondered why religious organizations don't directly address problems like pollution and naked disdain for the environment. As a result, while likely old news for the well informed Catholic, it was certainly surprising to me to find recently that the Church has updated the deadly sins for the new millennium.

Included are the sins of environmental pollution, inflicting poverty, accumulating excessive wealth, drug trafficking and consumption, morally debatable experiments, and violation of fundamental rights. At this point, conversion is seeming like a pretty good idea. Then, just as the thought that 'morally debatable experiments' might mean gene therapy rather than animal testing, I read the last new deadly sin: genetic manipulation.

An internal dialogue that trys to understand the thinking that damns the polluters that end lives, while simultaneously damning the physicians that use genetic manipulation to save lives, is beginning to brew when further reading reveals a quote that just blows the top right off my head. The same Archbishop Girotti that initially delivered these new sins during a teaching session named abortion and pedophilia as two of the greatest sins of our time, then promptly brushed aside cases of sexual violence against minors committed by priests as 'exaggerations by the mass media aimed at discrediting the Church.'

Wow! Now that's some double talk! It appears to me unlikely that this push to update the Church will draw few intelligent converts or enhance adherence if in nearly the same breath Church leadership exhibits a total disregard of reality, fairness, and positive change. The cliche of 'the more things change, the more they stay the same' seems appropriate. It also seems that the dangerous lives of altar boys will remain dangerous, and I will remain reprobate for writing posts like this.