Catholic Church Official Lists Drug Use as Sin
A list of “new sins” enumerated by a top Vatican official include use of mind-altering drugs, pollution and genetic experiments in addition to old standards like lust and greed, the Associated Press reported March 11.
In a newspaper interview, Monsignor Gianfranco Girotti, the head of the Apostolic Penitentiary, said that drugs “weaken the mind and cloud intelligence.” Last year, the church included alcohol abuse and road rage in a list of sins revolving around highway accidents.
“If yesterday sin had a rather individualistic dimension, today it has a weight, a resonance, that's especially social, rather than individual,” said Girotti. He also stressed that societal inequities also constitutes a type of sin, saying, “The poor are always becoming poorer and the rich ever more rich, feeding unsustainable social injustice.”
