Dear Friends,
In the news recently has been an extremely misleading newstory about the Vatican creating a "new list" of the seven deadly sins or that the list has been "expanded" to fourteen sins in total. Of course, as is usual, what the media refers to as an action of "the Vatican" (it's never the Catholic Church when referring to supposedly "official" actions but strangely the geographical location of headquarters) is actually from an interview with a secondary ranking Archbishop in the Vatican's newspaper L'Osservatore Romano. And the good bishop didn't nothing of the sort.
Unfortunately it will only accenuate in the popular mind that what is a sin is something decided by a group of men in sitting in Rome.
There has been in response a good deal of sarcasm and mocking directed at the Church as a result of this. Especially that the criticism of the extremely wealthy who unjustly use their money to the neglect of others* has been decried as "hypocritical" coming from the "rich" Vatican. Of course the vast majority of the wealth held by the Vatican is not in the form of cash or a big bank account but assets of priceless art in museums for everyone to enjoy and not to be lost to some private collection where future generations cannot profit from it. There's much more that could be said on the topic but if you so happen to receive any comments from people on the matter I can only recommend that you read this excellent analysis by Catholic World News editor Phil Lawler where he swiftly and effectively dismantles all the mispresentations currently circulating.
*As Leo XIII points out in Rerum Novarum the just possession and just use of money are two different things. One can unjustly use what one has justly obtained.
SUMMA
SUMMA
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