ANI

London, Mar 10: If you live an extravagant life thanks to your unending wealth, the chances are high that you will spend eternity in Hell, for the Vatican has come up with an updated version of the Seven Deadly Sins which include — being obscenely wealthy and causing social injustice.

Monsignor Gianfranco Girotti, a close ally of the Pope and the head of the Apostolic Penitentiary, one of the Roman Curia's main court has announced the sins, which include — polluting the environment, failing to recycle plastic bags, being obscenely wealthy, taking or dealing drugs.

The ‘sins of yesteryear’ — sloth, envy, gluttony, greed, lust, wrath and pride — have a ‘rather individualistic dimension’, Girotti said.

The new seven deadly, or mortal, sins are designed to make worshippers realise that their vices have an effect on others as well.

Mgr Girotti said genetic modification, carrying out experiments on humans, polluting the environment, causing social injustice, causing poverty, becoming obscenely wealthy and taking drugs were all mortal sins.

"The sins of today have a social resonance as well as an individual one. In effect, it is more important than ever to pay attention to your sins," the Telegraph quoted Mgr Girotti, as saying.

According to Roman Catholic doctrine, mortal sins are a "grave violation of God's law" and bring about "eternal death" if unrepented by the act of confession.

The list, published in L’Osservatore Romano, the Vatican newspaper, came as the Pope deplored the “decreasing sense of sin” in today’s “securalised world” and the falling numbers of Roman Catholics going to confession.