The "New" Sins

Have you seen any of the many articles regarding the Vatican's list of "new" sins?

I read some today. Some were great, others were flat out rude and ridiculous. If nothing else, why not poke fun at the Catholic Church & Pope, right? While it may be easy, it's also easily infuriating. And while I hardly post on religious issues any more (like when I first started blogging), I feel the need to comment on this subject.

Let me share what I wrote in reply to this issue on a message board I participate in:

My take is this: They're not "new sins", really, but the Vatican's way of assisting us in properly forming our consciences, with things to consider that are pertaining to today's world. Just like with the Internet-it wasn't included in our parents time of first going to Confession, because the Internet didn't exist. That's how I see it. The Vatican is doing its job of making suggestions and guidelines for us to keep in mind, for properly forming our consciences, as well as doing an examination of conscience. There is my 2 cents.

So the media attacks away, trying to lead the vulnerable to believe that the Catholic Church is adding new "rules" and Commandments, creating new definitions of sin. Mainstream media would just love it if the naive group of people would believe their bunk, meaning that the Catholic Church creates new sins, taking the fun of life out of its members. Yes, a cruel, selfish Church is the image it desires to create.

There could be nothing farther from the truth.

While I may not find it particularly easy to follow God's laws and rules, I am not one to dispute them, either. After all, I wasn't the genius that created the earth and everything in it, now was I? If He was able to do all of that (in less than a week, too), then I feel confident trusting He knows what He is doing. Not to mention that if I had nothing greater or higher to trust in other than myself, life would be pretty depressing. Life was not meant to be that way. Thankfully God gave us the gifts of the Bible, prayer, church, friends, family, etc. to help us and love us through it all.

I'm no saint. Far from it. I don't frequent the Sacraments, I have my doubts (and many of them!), I do things I know are wrong. This post is not meant to make me sound saint-ish. This post, I hope, is meant to clarify that these are not "new" sins defined by the Church, but rather, the Church's way of defining possible sins in our day & age.