The Catholic Church is not alone in giving new attention to degradations of the planet and other environmental trouble. The Southern Baptist Convention this month announced plans to fight global warming, and the California diocese of the Episcopal Church recently appointed its first canon for environmental ministry.
For the Vatican, going green is a relatively new phenomenon. Church hierarchy had been divided, and many priests saw ecology as a concern of rich, developed countries, not the poor regions of the world. But scarcity of resources and natural disasters are hurting the poor, others have pointed out, making care for the environment a moral responsibility for all the faithful.
Girotti's discussion of "new sins" (though many were not exactly new) was also an attempt to appeal to the modern Catholic and show the relevance of church teachings and guidance in the globalized world.
"The Vatican's intent seemed to be less about adding to the traditional 'deadly' sins [lust, anger, sloth, pride, avarice, gluttony, envy] than reminding the world that sin has a social dimension and that participation in institutions that themselves sin is an important point upon which believers needed to reflect," Father James Martin, acting publisher of the Jesuit magazine America, said in a blog he operates.
"In other words, if you work for a company that pollutes the environment, you have something more important to consider for Lent than whether or not to give up chocolate."
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wilkinson@latimes.com
