UPDATE: Who's Watching The Vatican? Thou Shalt Not Call The Kettle Black

UPDATE: Now the Vatican is denying that it had seven new sins. including paedophilia, pollution, being too rich, and cloning. The conference maintained that it was the opinion of Bishop Gianfranco Girotti not the Vatican and was misinterpreted by the media. Don't church officials have to get permission before speaking to the media?

Reports that the Vatican has published a new list of the seven deadly sins of modern times that includes littering and economic inequality is simply not true, affirmed the episcopal conference of England and Wales. The conference released a statement today clarifying that an interview published Sunday by L'Osservatore Romano with Bishop Gianfranco Girotti, regent of the tribunal of he Apostolic Penitentiary, was misinterpreted in the media as an official Vatican update to the seven deadly sins, laid out by Pope Gregory the Great in the sixth century."

The Vatican has not published a new list of seven deadly sins; this is not a new Vatican edict," said the conference. "

The story originated from an interview that Bishop Gianfranco Girotti gave to the L'Osservatore Romano in which he was questioned about new forms of social sins in this age of globalization."

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In a move to modernize the ten commandments, Monsignor Gianfranco Girotti has given his opinion on the new sins. Now what possibly could be a sin these days?

You got it: Capitalism, Free Enterprise, and the infamous Inconvenient Truth: Pollution. The ivory tower church official stated, let me paraphrase: "Its' a sin for the pot to call the kettle black" when asked about the church's own scandalous sins, referring to the media's attack on the Catholic Church's as discrediting it. I'm sorry but the Church did that to themselves, not the media. There were many sins committed in the paedophilia cases by many church officials.

Also receiving fresh attention by the Vatican was social injustice, along the lines of the age-old maxim: "The rich get richer while the poor get poorer."

It couldn't be because socialism and welfare are bad for people? Although not biblical scripture, it's an intrinsic truth that "God helps those who help themselves."

In the Vatican's latest update on how God's law is being violated in today's world, Monsignor Gianfranco Girotti, the head of the Apostolic Penitentiary, was asked by the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano what, in his opinion, are the "new sins."

He cited "violations of the basic rights of human nature" through genetic manipulation, drugs that "weaken the mind and cloud intelligence," and the imbalance between the rich and the poor.

"If yesterday sin had a rather individualistic dimension, today it has a weight, a resonance, that's especially social, rather than individual," said Girotti, whose office deals with matters of conscience and grants absolution.

So, it's not the Devil made me do it, it's blame everybody for the sins of one. Where is the common sense of Aesop's Fables of the ant and grasshopper when you need it?

It's not the first time that the Vatican has sought to put a modern spin on sin. Last year, the Vatican took on the problem of highway accidents, issuing a kind of "Ten Commandments" for drivers against the sins of road rage, alcohol abuse and even rudeness behind the wheel.

I would love to see a poll of priests saying that road rage and rudeness behind the wheel have taken over the top spots on the confessional list. I doubt it.

Vatican officials, however, stressed that Girotti's comments broke no new ground on what constitutes sin.

On the environment, both Pope Benedict XVI and the late Pope John Paul II frequently expressed concern about the fate of the Earth. During Benedict's papacy, Vatican engineers have developed plans for some Holy See buildings to use solar energy, including photovoltaic cells on the roof of the auditorium for pilgrims' audiences with the pontiff.

While it's good to see the Church upgrade it's technology to derive financial benefit from solar energy, Environmentalism has become sanctified. It is the new religion of liberals.

John Paul also dedicated much of his long papacy to condemning the gap between have and have-nots in speeches in his travels throughout the world as well as in writings.

"The poor are always becoming poorer and the rich ever more rich, feeding unsustainable social injustice," Girotti said in the interview published Sunday.

Jesus said the poor will always be with us, here as well. I would like to see the Church living more humbly and less palatial, giving us the example we need to be more Christ-like. It's easy to say "You do it."

Closer to home, Girotti was asked about the many "situations of scandal and sin within the church," in what appeared to be a reference to allegations in the United States and other countries of sexual abuse by clergy of minors and the coverups by hierarchy.

The monsignor acknowledged the "objective gravity" of the allegations, but contended that the heavy coverage by mass media of the scandals must also be denounced because it "discredits the church."

The response to the paedophilia turpitude question was incredulous! Is this official saying that the media is sinful as well in trying to discredit the Catholic Church because the Church tried to hide its sins? But that's exactly what the Catholic Church did - and tried to pay its way out of its own crimes.

Benedict has been leading the Vatican's campaign against abortion, and Girotti was asked about the "widespread perception" that the church doesn't consider the "difficult" predicament for women.

Girotti rejected that view, saying that Catholic organizations help unwed mothers, educating "their children who come into the worth because of their lack of foresight" and facilitating adoption.

If the Church was truly serious in modernizing sins, rather than giving us "hip" service, it would declare that giving birth was worthy of receiving sacramental grace. Women would have higher respect for being co-creators of life, equal with men in their ability to have seven sacraments in which to obtain grace, and maybe young girls would have more respect for themselves and young boys would know the impact of staying virginal and keep themselves for marriage.

That would bring the Church and the issue of modern day sins into the 21st century - not choosing cafeteria solutions to modern day interpretation of mankind's sins.