Posted on 06/07/2008 3:13:57 PM PDT by NYer
ROME (CNS) -- The seven deadly sins are still key to understanding and healing the social and personal ills plaguing humanity today, said an influential Jesuit journal.
The capital vices of lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy and pride are not outdated and have not been made irrelevant by psychotherapy or other mental health counseling, La Civilta Cattolica said.
The journal cited a survey commissioned by the British Broadcasting Corp. that found most people surveyed felt the list of deadly sins defined in the Middle Ages no longer applied to modern-day life and should be updated.
The survey, released in 2005, said most respondents were more concerned about actions that could hurt other people and listed "cruelty, adultery, bigotry, dishonesty, hypocrisy, greed and selfishness" as the worst sins the world is facing today. Greed was the only traditional vice that respondents included on the list of so-called "new sins."
The Civilta article, written by Jesuit Father Giovanni Cucci, highlighted seven headlines from The New York Times illustrating how the seven deadly sins are still alive and well. The Rome-based biweekly journal is reviewed by the Vatican Secretariat of State before publication.
The headlines demonstrated greed as shown by a U.S. senator under federal investigation for corruption; the gluttony of millions of Americans whose deteriorating health was rooted in overeating, drinking, smoking and drugs; and sloth as shown by gang members who raped and fatally stabbed a woman 132 times because the assailants were bored.
The original seven sins do make up the nature of everyday passions, it said, and therefore it is worthwhile to reflect and elaborate on them further. Vices and virtues "sum up our whole existence -- who we are and want to be"; everyone can recognize a piece of themselves in them, the article said.
The seven capital virtues of faith, hope, love, prudence, fortitude, justice and temperance help the individual realize his or her purpose in life: to know and be in communion with God, it said.
The opposing vices distance people from their purpose in life and bring about "the moral, mental and physical destruction" of the person, it said.
The human condition entails facing this "insuppressible tension between the ideal and limitations, between vice and virtue, which make life human," it said.
It said the work of Sigmund Freud and the advent of psychotherapy did not usher in an end to the need for moral norms. In fact, the foundation of "psychology and psychoanalysis is extraordinarily similar to classic morality: indulging in vice leads to the disappearance of pleasure," it said.
"An ethical and spiritual approach" in therapy gives a patient "concrete hope for living life differently" and gives meaning to one's actions, it said.
The journal said the renowned Swiss psychologist and psychiatrist Carl Jung wrote that the root of most psychological problems is spiritual or religious in nature. Jung found that "the religious question always emerges in counseling or even becomes the key motivation that pushed the person to seek help," it said.
The journal said reflecting on vice is not pessimistic but hopeful because it presupposes a "great faith in the freedom and goodness of humankind," which is able to recognize good and act on it.
Your thoughts?
Jung was a neo-gnostic who saw psychology as a way for modern man to pursue a "spiritual path". Jung embraced modernism and relativism, philosophies condemned by the Church.
No, but you could make the argument that they've been "promoted" to virtues! ;-)
I doubt these people even knew what the seven deadly sins are. How can you say the original sins don’t apply and then come up with:
“cruelty, adultery, bigotry, dishonesty, hypocrisy, greed and selfishness”
What is adultery but a manifestation of lust, greed, and gluttony?
What is bigotry but pride and wrath?
What is hypocrisy but pride and gluttony?
It’s an inferior list put forth by the modern public, albeit over the telephone. Suffice it to say our medieval brethren thought through things more than I think most of us do. I doubt the public said these seven deadly sins no longer applied to us, either. My guess is that we’re just witnessing bad journalism or a very poorly designed survey.
I’ll stick to the medieval characterization. I don’t need the politically correct nonsense of “bigotry” hung over my neck, either. It’s but a mean word intended to intimidate.
1 Lust (Latin, luxuria)
2 Gluttony (Latin, gula)
3 Greed (Latin, avaritia)
4 Sloth (Latin, acedia)
5 Wrath (Latin, ira)
6 Envy (Latin, invidia)
7 Pride (Latin, superbia)
The original list is excellent, and as far as I can determine, inclusive of just about everything.
Greed is just gluttony, imho.
Ah, but the eighth of the grevious vices cataloged by St. John Cassian, self-esteem, it now upheld as a virtue. (The other seven grevious vices are listed in the West as the ‘deadly sins’.)
I think St. John Cassian’s distinction between self-esteem and pride is both psychologically and spiritually perceptive. While pride is more destructive, self-esteem is harder to recognize, equally hard to overcome, and far more common.
The capital vices of lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy and pride are not outdated and have not been made irrelevant by psychotherapy or other mental health counseling, La Civilta Cattolica said.
I remember the 7 Deadlies by this acronym:
PEGSGAL
Pride
Envy
Gluttony
Sloth
Greed
Anger
Lust
Yes, these are all Alive and Well in today’s society. And Pride leads MY list — because Pride is the Anti-God state of mind.
Pride is so crafty and devious that it has given itself a good name. People actually think that PRIDE is a something good. And some folks try to make a difference between False Pride and Pride.
But Pride (false or otherwise) is on the list for a reason.
Instead of being full of pride, one should strive to have an attitude of gratitude, an acknowledgement of being blessed. Acknowledging all good things came from the One who made us and presides over us. God doesn’t make too hard of terms for those who seek Him.
An excellent observation! And "self-esteem" is how our children are indoctrinated through the public education system. I would go so far as to say that many families also bolster this in their children, especially when limiting family size. Self-esteem, ultimately, can lead to pride as evidenced by many politicians today.
Thank you, Father Obvious.
Indeed! Especially in the public education system and definitely through the msm.
Love it! A pneumonic device for sin. I'll have to share this with my religious education students. Thanks!
Ha, truly they have been promoted. How/ why would they have disappeared? We all have the same ‘rats in the basement’ that humans have always had.
*******************
They've simply been renamed to excuse the sinner. :)
I agree! I always seem to come up one capital sin short, so this will help!
Do you know, “Arnold caught many pennies; he hid some.”? Animalia, chordata, mammalia, primata, hominidia, homo, sapiens!
Yes and most are committed by the priesthood.
Wrong. Take a good look in the mirror.
I haven’t settled for hundreds of millions of dollars for diddling small children. Look to your Jesuits for their sins.
I vaguely recall a mnemonic like that only it was GELCAPS, and either Greed or Gluttony (fairly sure Greed) was replaced with “covetousness”
bump
Your snide remark wasn’t even germaine to the conversation.
Pride is at the top of my list too.
**Yes and most are committed by the priesthood.**
Do you have a source for such a statement as fact?? Or are you merely stating your assumption?
Hmmmm.
I thought it was always the mother. I've been in counseling a couple of times and have had friends do the same thing. I don't know anyone who brought up their religion. Mom, on the other hand...
Let he who is without sin cast the first stone. When the media came down hard and fast on the Catholic Church, it was the greatest blessing. It forced the Catholic Church to address a horrific crime. Those priests who were found guilty, were removed from the priesthood and, in certain instances, incarcerated. As a result, the Catholic Church has implemented a comprehensive program to prevent this from ever happening again. This includes background checks on ALL who come in contact with children.
Meanwhile, sexual abuse of minors continues unabated in the schools, camps and non-Catholic denominations.
The figures released to The Associated Press offer a glimpse into what has long been an extremely difficult phenomenon to pin down — the frequency of sex abuse in Protestant congregations.
Religious groups and victims' supporters have been keenly interested in the figure ever since the Roman Catholic sex abuse crisis hit five years ago. The church has revealed that there have been 13,000 credible accusations against Catholic clerics since 1950.
Protestant numbers have been harder to come by and are sketchier because the denominations are less centralized than the Catholic church; indeed, many congregations are independent, which makes reporting even more difficult.
Report: Protestant Church Insurers Handle 260 Sex Abuse a Year
If you are seriously concerned about ministers "diddling with small children", I suggest you organize a crusade against the Protestant, Jewish and Muslim clerics. Actions speak louder than words.
Locally, (middle Tennessee)there is a news story every other week about a Public School teacher molesting a kid...but no one attacks the public school system like they did the few Catholic perv priests!
It's no different here in NY or in any other state. The msm treat it as if it were any other local news story. Where is the public outrage?
Soliton, when you are finished with your crusade against the non-Catholic protestant, Jewish and Muslim clerics, perhaps you can tackle the Public School System. At least they have a central office, in Washington DC.
The difference is that child molesting priests were protected by the Church. That’s why the Church has had to pay hundreds of millions of dollars in settlements.
That is a very feeble argument. Who is protecting the protestant ministers? No one because there is no one in charge. The Catholic Church has taken action. When will you take action against the child molesting protestant ministers, teachers, camp counselors?
Thanks for admitting your argument is feeble. There is no protestant problem, because gays nprefer the Catholic system.
“Benedict XVI recently tied the Octopus Dei leash on the Jesuits at the Vatican by giving them some dog-food of praise — Matteo Ricci, Robert de Nobili, etc. — but what was not said — which we expose here is that — Benedict XVI had covered-up for the Jesuits for more than 30 years since the papacy of John Paul II are the Jesuit pedophile priests, especially one that molested an ENTIRE Alaskan village boys!”
http://jp2army.blogspot.com/2008/03/jesuit-in-alaska.html
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