Bunkum

Oldest portrait of St. Francis, painted during his lifetime.

Are the stories about St. Francis bunkum, or was he just misled? I wonder why he would bother to preach to the animals if they are soulless.

I am delighted to add the work "bunkum" to my vocabulary.  There are quite a number of saintly stories to which it can be applied. St. Guinefort, who turned out to be a dog, springs to mind.

Let's get a few things straight about animals. You can tell that none of us (with the possible exception of vegans and I believe even vegans would put the dog down when the time came) believe that animals have immortal souls.

Let's take an mammal that does have an immortal soul and treat it like animal. Your Aunt Louise. We will keep Aunt Louise in a cage. We will take her eggs and have them for breakfast.  We will raise the children of Aunt Louise and then slaughter them and eat them, happily roasting their flesh on the grill during summer parties.  We will make coats and shoes from their skins.  We will make shawls with their hair. If we can't afford to fix Aunt Louise's health problem, we'll take her behind the barn and shoot her. Or maybe, if she's too old to walk, we'll have a doctor give her an injection.  If she's small enough, we might just flush her carcass down the toilet.

We do all of these things and many more to animals, precisely because we do not believe they have immortal souls.

On top of that, animals can't pray or do penance.  They can't sin, but their 'goodness' is not a choice. It's instinctive behavior and/or training.

That said, St. Francis did actually preach to animals. It's not bunkum.  Did he preach to animals in order than they better themselves and get to Heaven? No.  The stories of St. Francis in regard to animals (bees crawling to him to be fed, conversations with wolves) are...bunkum-ish. They are  just legends.

And before I have to listen to everyone screech, "But Sister! He called them Brother Bird and such and told them to praise God!", please keep in mind that he also said the same thing to "Brother Sun".  Is the sun going to Heaven?

St. Francis may have called the hen "Sister Chicken", but he also had her for dinner.

Let's step back a moment and examine St. Francis' love of animals and nature in its proper context.
"If you have men who will exclude any of God's creatures from the shelter of compassion and pity, you will have men who deal likewise with their fellow men." St. Francis of Assisi.
This about sums it up. There was actually a wolf who had eaten some sheep. St. Francis asked that the people to understand that the wolf was God's creature and that it ate the sheep because it was hungry.  It's the kind of compassion and understanding that God asks of us.

St. Francis was not a particularly educated person. He had a simple childlike nature and he believed that since we are all from God, we are all kin. But he included in this all manner of animate and inanimate objects. His love of creatures rose from a deep and abiding sense of God in all of His Creation.

Over on catholic culture .org they display the blessing of the animals. One line is: And animals share in Christ's redemption of all creation. Might animals then, be included in the new earth? If they just die and are gone, what is being redeemed? Or what is meant by redeemed here?

You've taken that line a bit out of context. The whole blessing mentions that God often uses animals to get His message across. (Think Jonah in the whale.)  What is being redeemed here? You are. We hope.

Here is what we say when we bless the animal:

 "N.(name of animal, i.e. "Smokey", not cat/dog) may you be blessed in the Name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. May you and N. (the name of the guardian) enjoy life together and find joy with the God who created you."

Yes, we bless animals. We also bless rosaries and cars.  We hope that through your animal, just as Francis thought, we would come to see God through His creation and feel God's love for us by all He has given us.

We bless animals. We don't baptize them. That should tell you something.

You Can't Make This Up

Here are two responses from prior posts that have a lot in common.

On animals in Heaven:
I personally don't believe that animals don't have immortal souls. I know that's problematic because I'm an omnivore, and if one does, don't they all? I'm not saying I've got the logic completely down. I'm just saying that my dog shows me God's love for me because he loves me no matter how crappy I am. There's something eternal to that, and I like to think it's God manifesting in some way to remind me how dear I am to Him. If I'm wrong, and I make it to the right side of the gates, I'm betting that'll no longer be a concern. And given the amount of other things I could be wrong about, I think it's a forgivable one.

And this one, a response to all the hand holding and arm raising and wording and what gets sung and what doesn't  at Mass:

@NC SUE, you said "If we're striving for unity, should we allow such petty things to separate us for the others in the congregation?" My answer is YES, YES, YES!!! In the military groups of soldiers are formed into UNITS. UNITS wear the same uniforms with the same patches and everyone ahderes to the same rules of conduct and follows the same orders hence the name UNIT. Holding hands during the Our Father and clapping during Mass are not found anywhere in the GIRM. Neither one is part of the Mass and therefore both are abuses of the Mass, it's just that simple. It's no different than if 2 soldiers in a unit decided to start holding hands in formation of if I decided to start responding with ALLELUJA when receiving communion instead of saying AMEN. UNITY means ONE, if all are ONE that means ALL are are following the same guidelines. If parishes all over the world introduce their own unique innovations and twists on the mass pretty soon there is no unity. 

Believe it or not, these two responses have a lot in common.  What do we believe? 

I personally don't believe that animals don't have immortal souls. I know that's problematic because I'm an omnivore, and if one does, don't they all? I'm not saying I've got the logic completely down. 

Yes, there is a name for that: Cognitive Dissonance.  That means you have two thoughts in your head, you believe them both, and they contradict each other utterly.  YOU CAN'T EAT SOMETHING THAT HAS AN IMMORTAL SOUL.  You can't cut off it's skin and make shoes and purses, lock one  in  a cage and steal its unborn baby, or make pate out of its liver.  If your dog has an immortal soul, so does a chicken and eating its eggs would be a mortal sin.

What you personally believe is not relevant. And your thinking is nonsensical. Another good reason to pay attention to what the Church says is true.

And here is where the two questions meet: what you personally believe is not relevant to this discussion. What the church teaches is. The church teaches that animals do not have immortal souls. That's why you're wearing some of them on your feet. When we start wearing each other on our feet, we'll talk.

So responder two is 100% correct. It's why we have a ritual called a Mass. We are indeed a unit. In fact, we are called The Church Militant. We are soldiers for good.

Which is also why we can't lose sight of the Big Picture. It isn't good to get our knickers in such a big twist over what someone else is doing, as long as that something isn't murder or unkindness.

While I fully agree with our second reader, I caution against the anger and judgment that seems to arise out of these discussions. Suddenly we have sinning at Mass, not because someone held hands when they shouldn't have, but because someone is grinding their teeth about it.

You know, nuns have two favorite mottos.  "Offer it up!" and "Mind Your Own Garden".  Both would be useful at Mass.

Half Nelson

My last post on Blessed Soon to Be Saint Kateri prompted several people to also pipe up with their hopes for the future canonization of another local hero, Father Nelson Baker. I have heard that name floating around in the saintly ether, but I must admit I didn't know beans about him.  There are a zillion saints and would-be saints. I can't keep up with them all.

Now is as good a time as any to bring us up to speed on Father Baker, who is on the bottom rung of the sainthood ladder, having been pronounced "Servant of God" by that wonderful Servant of God, Pope John Paul II.  That means Father Baker's cause for sainthood is on the move.

Nelson's dad was a Lutheran and his mom was a devout Catholic. It always helps a person to have a devout Catholic in the family, doesn't it?  Nelson worked in his dad's grocery store. His dad was a tremendously good businessman and taught Nelson how to be one as well. Nelson opened a dry goods store with a partner.

He was terrific at it. 

But something was missing. He took a little trip and came back to announce that he was going to become a priest. 

He was terrific at that, too.

Not only was he a wonderful compassionate man who took care of tiny babies, orphans, old people and care givers with his own personal attention and care, he managed to do all of that because he was a terrific fundraiser. Better even that Mother Frances Cabrini, which is really saying something. Good old Frances could squeeze coconut juice out of a rock.

He was a terrific fundraiser because of his experience as a successful business man.

Here he had a simple model for making sure his orphanage was funded. He went to the Post Office and asked them for a list of all the Catholic women for miles around. He sent them all a letter and asked them to join the "Our Lady of Victory" association.  (Our Lady of Victory is one of the 1000 names for Mary, based on a 16th war against the Muslims in Europe.  Praying the Rosary won that war and the Pope gave Mary yet another name. Our Lady of Victory is also the name of the Parish in which Father Nelson landed.) He asked everyone to join for one year at a time by paying dues and told them how the money would be used.  The cost $.25. 

This was at the turn of the century. I wonder how much $.25 bought back then. A lot.  At least 50 pieces of candy when I was a girl in the 50's. 

I suppose he had some Bingo going, too.  Doesn't everyone?

But my favorite thing about Father Nelson....he was a Civil War vet.  He didn't become a priest until after he served in the Union Army, worked in his dad's store and ran his own successful business.

Father Baker is going to need two miracles for move all the way to canonization. One to be beatified and one to be canonized.  That's your job.  If you need a miracle, ask for his intercession. And if you receive a miracle, let the Father Baker advocates know!

Miracles rules:
1. Spontaneous.
2. Unexplained.

Winning the lottery, as miraculous as it may seem, would not be a miracle. There is an explanation: you bought a ticket and you won.

I explain it with this true story. There was a man here in Santa Monica, CA who was sitting around his house one afternoon when he had the inexplicable urge to walk his dog. It was not time to walk the dog. He simply felt compelled to do so. Out he went.

While he was gone, his house exploded due to a gas leak. 

Miracle? No.  If, however, he had left his house walking the dog and he was blind when he left the house and came back and seen that the house was blown to splinters, that would be a miracle.

Drums Along the Mohawk

Before this week swallows me whole, I just want to ask: Why didn't someone tell me? What rock have I been under? I feel like someone who has just returned from a gala party only to look into the mirror and see spinach stuck in my teeth from the appetizers I chomped the moment I arrived. "Why didn't someone tell me I had spinach on my teeth all night?  I was talking to the Monsignor!"

Yes, that happened once.

Now I know to always bring a sidekick for spinach checks.

So I just read, what is apparently old news, that Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha is being canonized this fall! Why didn't someone bring this to my attention? This is thrilling news.

Poor little Kateri has been languishing around with her one miracle for decades, or so I thought, patiently awaiting her second on her road to the golden wall of names behind the pearly gates.

Unbeknownst to me (like a lot of things, some of them green) Kateri actually does not have a first miracle. I'm sure this must not be the first time this has occurred during the canonization process for saints, but it is the first time I've heard of it. Pope John Paul II, who canonized more people than any Pope in history, waved off her first miracle like a plane that was about to miss the deck of an aircraft carrier.

Perhaps that wasn't a good analogy.

In any case, she didn't have any miracles going on when she made up way up the canonizing ladder to "Blessed".

Now she has a doozy of a miracle. I think it's worth two miracles.

In 2006, a 6 year old boy cut his lip during a basketball game. Overnight, his lip swelled and before you could figure out how to pronounce "Tekakwitha",  he developed a flesh eating bacterium.

What is scarier than a flesh eating bacteria? Not much. Zombies, maybe, but they don't exist.

 The horrible bacterium destroyed his lips, cheeks and forehead and the doctors said the little boy was not going to live.  The parish priest asked the congregation to pray for the intercession of Kateri. He chose her because of her facial scars  and because she was a Native American. The little boy is half Lummi Indian.

I say, "is" half Lummi because as the prayers poured in from around the world, a representative from the Society of the Blessed Kateri placed a Kateri medal on the boy's pillow. The infection stopped the next day and the little boy recovered.

Instantaneous and, a definitive miracle.

I think it's worth two miracles, not only was the boy cured, it throws open the doors of Heaven for all of us when we think of the patron saint of Native Americans. Fabulous!

I also think that St. Kateri will be a good patron saint for the near sighted. Kateri survived small pox which left her scarred and sight impaired. "Tekakwitha" means "she who bumps into things".

Some Comments and a LIttle Can of Worms

Of course, I can do a whole post on comments about people misbehaving in various ways at Mass. Maybe tomorrow. Or never.

No, I'll post a few. The varying points of view make my head spin.  Which is probably a good thing, because I have a head cold.  My head is spinning anyhow. Maybe the centrifugal force will clear my sinuses.

Meanwhile,  here are a couple of recent thoughts from our guests.

O.P.T.C.J. Oh Sister, how glad I am to have found your site. May I please ask one favor? Would you consider adding the "gadget" to allow subscription via email?

I did that for you! It's in the sidebar there someplace. Just scroll down until you see it.

You may remember a few posts back a reader looking for the patron saints of headaches. She wrote and interesting follow up to let us know what's happened since.

Thanks for the tips, everybody. I go to the neurologist on Monday, and we'll see what s/he says. Meanwhile, my friend Ray's experimental brain surgery for cluster headaches...failed. He posted this the other day: "Time to face the reality that the physical world is never going to go my way anymore, and I have been reading much about how some of the great saints handled extreme pain and debilitating illnesses. I intend to stay around this beautiful little Earth as long as I can, but the spiritual realm will now be my focus. I cannot help myself physically, but if I can help others through my journeys into faith, pain and love, I will endeavor to be the best debilitated person for God and for others that I can be." It made me cry.

Way to go, Ray!  Time to switch patron saints for Ray. St. Bernadette steps up to the plate.  You may recall that when Our Lady showed Bernadette the healing spring, Our Lady expressly told Bernadette that the spring was  not for her.  That must have been a blow. Bernadette lived a life of pain, too.  She is the patron saint for chronic illness.

Chronic sounds better than 'acute', doesn't it? It isn't. Acute refers to a temporary problem. Chronic refers to one that isn't going anywhere.

So....one last new one. A question that I've already answered but that will no doubt cause a big uproar again:

When my mother spoke to our priest about the guilt she felt for putting our family dog down, he told her it was not a sin because dogs have no souls. Do Catholics believe this? Will there be no dogs in heaven?

Yes! Thank you, Father!  The difference between animals and people is that animals do not have immortal souls. If they did, you wouldn't be able to have them for dinner or put them out of their misery.

The question of whether or not there will be dogs in Heaven remains a mystery. Some very learned people think that, because we love our animals so much, we will be able to see them again behind the Pearly Gates where they are permanently safe from the vehicles that put them there.

I personally think this is nonsense.  Because your dog DOES NOT have an immortal soul, if your dog is in heaven, it's just some kind of hologram dog, because your dog's soul did not live on as yours will.  If you think about it, it is drastically unfair that your dog gets to go to heaven because he had a bowl with a name on it. If he gets to go, then every slimy creature and insect and badger and skunk that every lived...EVER...should also get to go. And the idea that that would happen seems extremely silly to this old nun. And I actually love dogs.

Living with God for eternity isn't enough for you? You have to have Mr. Poofy and his little dog bed for eternal happiness? Please.

That's Gratitude for Ya

We've had quite a lot of comments piling up on previous posts. Tomorrow I'll put some of them up so we can wake up the sleeping dogs and stir up controversy.

Be It Ever So Humble

Meanwhile a reader is not doing so hot:
I'm currently waiting to sign a lease for an apartment. I've been praying more than usual because things are pretty tough right now. I've been waiting since February, it is now July. Not only has my patience been tested so has my faith. As a Catholic and having been born raised and even blessed with going to Catholic schools, I'm wondering if there is a patron saint to restore faith? I feel as though I've hit rock bottom and I'm trying to keep it together for my son. Thank you in advance. 

Yes, of course there is! But before we get to that, can we pause for a moment and think about all the wonderful things you said?

You have a son.  You live somewhere that is not a box in an alley or a car or a shelter. Someone sacrificed to send to Catholic school, we we know there are at least a handful of people who love you.  In fact, everyone in the Catholic Church loves you.

We're not the "Church Suffering" (that's the Poor Souls in Purgatory).  We're the Church Militant. It's our job to live up to the commands Jesus gave us.

Here's one: "Consider the lilies, they neither toil nor spin.

I'm not so sure you need a patron saint for lost faith as a saint to help you find your gratitude.  I suggest St. Therese the Little Flower.  She is a Doctor of the Church, so she can do double duty on finding your faith, as well.

St. Therese desperately wanted to be a missionary but she was too sickly for that. She never went anywhere but the cloister.  She decided to do everything as though she was doing it for Jesus, Himself.  She washed the floors as though He would be walking on them, for example.

I've always thought of her as a bit like Pollyanna. You remember her? She was always playing "the Glad game."  Let's face it, it was a little irritating. Pollyanna's dad was a missionary.  She so wanted a doll, but instead of a doll, someone sent crutches. Pollyanna was glad she didn't have to use them.

Yeah, right.

No, really, she was. That's why everyone loved her.  Everything worked out fine for her. We think. She fell out of a tree and was paralyzed.  But she had a rich aunt to take care of her and send her to the best doctors. I think. I'm a little fuzzy on the ending. It someone has a happy ending even though she falls out of a tree. For one thing, her crabby aunt feels terrible about pushing her away and finally realizes how much she loves the child.  That's something to be glad about.

I suggest you play this game: every day, think of five things for which you are grateful.  No repeats. I didn't make this game up and neither did Pollyanna. Oprah made it up.  Good for her.

We're grateful.

The Patron Saint of the Fourth of July

Since it's the Fourth of July, I thought I'd let you know, we have a patron saint for that. Yes, there is a patron saint for fireworks, St. Barbara. 

I always think of Rapunzel when I think of St. Barbara, but apparently a lot of people think of a lot of things when they think of her, including fireworks.

Her story right quick: A holy girl with a crazy father who was trying to keep the boys away from her. He kept her locked in a tower during his absence. There were two windows in the tower and since Barbara was actually a holy girl who really just prayed in there, she had a third window cut into the tower as a symbol of the Holy Spirit. When her father came home he was instantly convinced that she had the third window installed to let the boys in. I don't know why the other two windows weren't enough for the boys. Maybe the new one was considerably lower.

Rhoda gets hers.

In any case, he dragged Barbara out of the tower and killed her.

Where do the fireworks come in? The second he killed her, he was struck down by lightening. Like that little girl at the end of "The Bad Seed".

So, while I'm thinking about Rapunzel, other people are thinking about barbiturates (named after her because they were invented on her feast day), fires, firemen, storms and sailors (because her tower reminds people of a light house).  Because of the lightening and fireworks, she became associated with artillery men and bombers and explosives and people who work with explosives and because of the sailors, the Navy. And because of her sudden death, she is the patron of receiving Last Rites and sudden death and explosions and storms at sea that can spring up out of nowhere and kill everyone on board ship.  Which is why the city of Santa Barbara is named for her, because of a Spanish sea captain who nearly sunk off the shore of California in a sudden storm, but was saved by invoking her intercession.

While you're enjoying the nighttime displays, sparklers, bottle rockets and burning snakes, give a quick salute to St. Barbara while you still have all your fingers.

A Holiday Gift for You!

So last year there were no fireworks. Due to the sad economy, whoever pays for the fireworks over the harbor decided not to spring for it. We thought it was a poor decision, as the previous year drew the biggest crowd we have ever seen.  We love walking down to the pier and watching the fireworks. Someone had the bright idea of syncing the whole thing up with music via the radio, so the cars parked there crank up the sound and we have a patriotic extravaganza.  We sing along. Kate Smith smiles down from Heaven. If she's there. We hope she's there.

If she's in Purgatory, then we could have offered up our sufferings of missing out on the only fireworks around for Kate Smith.

How many of you even know who Kate Smith is any more?  She famously belted out "God Bless America".  When I think of that song, I think of Kate Smith. She looked like a refrigerator dolled up in a dress.

I digress.

This year the fireworks are back! We are thrilled. I can't tell you how much fun it is to see so many people walking in the same direction, lined up along the bike path, standing along the waterfront, camped out on blankets in Chase Park.  If you walk far enough you can see the boat out in the water where the fireworks are coming from.

And the weather has been clear. Some years we have a cloud cover and the fireworks shoot up into the clouds.  You can't see them AT ALL.  It just looks like colorful lighting.  It's a sad thing.  Very sad for whoever paid for them.

So we're tickled pink about this year's festivities.

Here's something else I'm tickled pink about: you can listen to St. Hildegarde!  You can download her tunes! Can you believe it? Is technology more wonderful than not? You can purchase the whole album or you can download one tune at a time. And you can have a listen first.

Fireworks for me. St. Hildgarde for you.  Happy holiday.

Hmmmm......rather make everyone say "Merry Christmas" instead of "Happy Holiday" we need to come up with another name for days when we celebrate and take a break that are not religious.  I never understand when people are mad about saying Happy Holidays during the Christmas season, as the word "holiday" actually means "Holy Day".  It's like "Good Bye", which is just old English for "God Be with You".

The Fourth of July is not a holiday, other than that we try to make each day holy.

Happy Fourth.  And Good bye!

Blessed Sacrament and Blessed Eva

I love it when the questions are super easy to answer, especially in the summer!:

I have a question, and I'm hoping wildly that this isn't disrespectful or wrong. I'm in the process of becoming Catholic and OH, I am wrong so often these days.
As I said, I'm becoming Catholic - finished RCIA and am waiting and praying for my husband's first marriage to be declared null so I can finally come home. During the RCIA process, one of the events that changed my thinking from "Oh, I suppose I can do this Catholic thing to make my husband happy" to "Oh please. Only say the word and my soul shall be healed. Please may I come home?" was a miscarriage. I lost my fifth child at four months gestation, and it all but broke me. I am still so very sad.
The day we found out she'd died, my husband and I went to the Adoration Chapel, a place I'd always felt very uncomfortable in. That day I was just so shocked and sad. I knelt and prayed and wept and shook. And then I looked up and realized that Jesus was there. Not like "I feel Him here," he WAS THERE, because he said he would be. Not because I deserved it or asked Him the right way, because He promised. It totally spun my thinking around on the Real Presence.
I told a friend about that, and she said, "You know what that was? That was your daughter, praying for you, and taking you by the hand into the Truth."
So this leads to my question. We named our daughter Eva. And since losing her has made this whole process of conversion so much more real and personal to me, I want to take Eva as my patron saint. From what I can tell, there was a Saint Eva, from the third century, who was a mother with four children, no less. But really, I mean it in gratitude for the life of my little one and what her loss has taught me about what really matters. Do you think that would be okay?
Thank you for what you do here. I'm a little scared of you, but much more grateful for your insight.

On come on. I'm not that scary. Unless you're under the age of 7.  Then I'm terrifying.  Even if I'm smiling. Perhaps, then even more so.

Welcome to the Church!

Now to your question. You can have anyone you want as a patron saint.  Oh, wait...did you mean you want to take your daughter as your patron saint?  That would be okay, I guess. We know she's in Heaven, which is the definition of a saint.

However, when we look to find a patron saint, we look for someone to help us through our struggles. That's why we first make sure a person had heroic virtue--virtue above and beyond the call of duty--for the cause of a saint. We generally don't call on the non canonized as patron saints.

Your St. Eva from the third century was a martyr, but I'm not sure the children who died with her were her children. She died with a rather large group of people, five of whom were children...four children and a toddler.  But that's okay. Martyrs go straight to Heaven and are automatically saints. (The only time we argue over the sainthood of a martyr is when we're not sure if the person's demise was in fact a maytyr's death.  Such is the case with St. Theresa Benedicta of the Cross, better known as Edith Stein.  She was both Jewish and then a nun, so there was considerable argument over whether her death at the hands of the Nazis made for a martyr's death, since she might have been murdered because she was Jewish, as opposed to being murdered because she refused to renounce Christ.  She was canonized, so the controversy has been resolved.)

So, that St. Eva from the third century is fine. But....this will tickle you!  There is another Eva, not a saint yet. Blessed Eva.  That means she is worthy of our veneration and has one proven miracle. She's waiting for another before she makes it to 'saint'.  Here's the part that you'll appreciate: she was instrumental in making the Feast of Corpus Christi and feast day!


The Feast of Corpus Christi is the day the whole Church celebrates the fact that the Blessed Sacrament is the True Presence.  Blessed Eva didn't start the ball rolling. Her superior, St. Julianna did that. St. Julianna had a vision of the moon with one dark spot on it, a symbolic depiction of the one missing feast day in the Church calendar.  She had this vision for twenty years but never told anyone about it, except for Blessed Eva.  St. Julianna didn't know what the vision meant for the longest time, and when she finally came to understand its meaning, she still didn't tell anyone about it because she didn't think there was anything she could do about it.  When she finally told her confessor, he took the information to the Bishop and the Bishop made the feast day happen, but just locally.

It wasn't until St.  had died that Blessed Eva took up the gauntlet and worked tirelessly until the Pope made the Feast of Corpus Christi a feast day for the universal Church.

How's that for a kind of perfect patron saint for you?  I hope it tickles you as much as it tickles me!

What a Headache

Dear Sister: I've been struck lately by severe headaches--the kind that are only gotten rid of by going to the emergency room and getting hooked up to IV painkillers. Coincidentally (literally--he went to the hospital in Cleveland at the same time I went to the hospital in DC) a friend of mine across the country is undergoing experimental brain surgery for his own crippling cluster headaches. I thought we could both use the intercession of a saint at this point, and found two names mentioned as patron saints for migraine suffers: St. Teresa of Avilla and St. Gemma Gelgani. Which has raised two questions in my mind: 1. Which one is it? St. Teresa or St. Gemma? And, more existentially, 2. Does it matter? I don't mean does praying for a saint's intercession work, because I know what you'll say about that. I mean, if I pray for the wrong saint's help, won't the saint I pray to still give me the hand up I need? Isn't that kind of part of their job definition? Or is it less effective if I invoke...I dunno...St. Joseph of Arimathea, who doesn't have any particular history with head or headaches than the headache sufferers official patron saint?

Thanks!

P.S. A third, half-facetious, half-serious question: 3. Will praying to the proper saint help us pay for our treatments? Insurance won't pay his $100,000 bill because the surgery is too experimental, and my own insurance has told me it won't pay for prescription refills in a timely manner.

Oh, you poor thing.  What a terrible hardship.

At the risk of giving you a headache, there is a third patron saint for headaches, St. Stephen, the first martyr.  He was killed by having rocks thrown at his head, so I think he's a very good choice.

There are several saints for specific problems in many cases. St. Francis of Assisi, because he preached to birds and squirrels and "Brother Wolf" is the patron saint of animals and animal lovers, but  so is St. Martin de Porres, because he was an amateur veterinarian. St. Rock is the patron saint of dogs and dog lovers and St. Gertrude is the patron saint of cats and cat lovers.  

St. Christopher is the patron saint of travelers, but so is St. Joseph.

So let's back this truck up a second an take a look at what the deal is with patron saints in the first place.  The idea of having a patron saint for something is that in some way the saint had to deal with the same problems that you have. St. Martha had that unfortunate incident where the disciples descended on her house and her sister wouldn't help her get dinner on the table for them all. That's why shes is the patron saint of cooks and waitresses. Sometimes the patronage is rather a leap.  A really big leap.  Like St. Blaise.  He is the patron saint of sore throats because he once blessed the throat of a young lad who was choking on a fishbone. So that makes perfect sense. But he is also the patron saint of knitters, because he was tortured with wool combers.  He never knitted a thing.  That's a bit of a....an extrapolation.

I can't figure out why St. Teresa of Avila would be the patron saint of headaches. I do not believe that she was a headache sufferer.  Perhaps one of our dear readers would know.  I suspect that she is the patron saint of headaches because she was one.  St. Teresa was put into the convent by her very strict father because she was a rebellious teenager. At that time, the nuns in the convent were often other rich girls who wore their veils as a fashion accessory and brought their jewelry, not for the convent to use to buy food, but to wear.

Teresa didn't take to nunness right away. And even when she did begin to embrace the religious life, she was still a bit of a "how do you solve a problem like Maria" type.  She didn't care much for praying, for one thing. Ironic, since what made her a Doctor of the Church eventually was what she had to say about prayer, among other things.

Even after all of her sighing and eye rolling about prayer, Teresa began having mystical experiences including visions and ecstasies and levitation.  She changed her mind about prayer.  And the convent. She didn't leave, she called for reform and founded the Discalced Carmelites.  She was not popular and faced the prospect of the Spanish Inquisition twice. That would be headache inducing, I suppose.

Meanwhile, St. Gemma spent most of her life really sick in bed. She did have debilitating headaches, but then, she had debilitating everything. She had a really miserable time of it.

Your dilemma is simply to pick the saint to which you feel the most connected, for whatever reason.  So no, it doesn't even matter if the saint has that patronage assigned to them.  Why do we pray for intercession at all?  We are asking the saints to pray for us, just the way we ask each other for prayers. The saints, however are right there in Heaven.  They have got to be just the best at praying. It absolutely astounds me that there are people who think that asking for saintly intercession is some kind of time waster.  I hope they don't go around asking other people to pray for them either, but that kind of logical consistency seems to escape them.

St. Joseph of Arimathea seems like a very good choice to help with the financial end of things! He did after all, swoop in and take care of business when everyone else was too stunned and impoverished to figure out what to do with Jesus' body.  The Infant of Prague is also a good choice.

Oh wait! there's here's another idea for the headache patron! You could go with St. Joseph! He has his own aspirin.

Music to My Ears

I wonder if you would do a post on St Hildegarde, one of the new Doctors of the Church?

I would love to!  Besides that fact that St. Hildegarde is a fascinating person, her new status in the church is also something to talk about.

She wasn't a saint, officially. Four attempts have been made to canonize her, but the process took so long that it was abandoned.  She had made it to "Blessed", which means she lived a life of heroic virtue and a miracle had been attributed to her intercession.

Now she is officially a saint by what is called "equivalent canonization"  , which basically means she is a saint because the Pope says so.  There's a little more to it than that. The Pope doesn't go around calling people saints by osmosis.  That makes her all the more very special and worthy of our attention.  Next October she will become the 35th Doctor of the Church.  There are only 3 women who hold that title (St. Catherine of Sienna, St. Teresa of Avila, and St. Therese the Little Flower). Now there will be four.

Hildegarde experienced visions at a very early age, so by the age of eight--or maybe fourteen--she was sent off to the cloister with to be "enclosed" with and older nun name Jutta. And there she remained for 24 years until Jutta passed onto to her heavenly reward and Hildegarde was put in charge.  During this time, Hildegarde was a prolific, writer, poetess and singer.  She also was an herbalist and healer.

And the visions never stopped. This isn't a picture of an octopus attacking St. Hildegard. This a rendering of her receiving a vision in all five senses, which is how she described the experience.

Because 69 full compositions remain for us to enjoy, Hildegarde claims one of the largest repertoires of medieval music.  She wrote what is considered to be the first, or at least the first surviving, morality play. A musical, it has many parts and a speaking role for the Devil. She wrote buckets of music of all sorts, and of course many hymns.

She wrote down her visions. She corresponded with Bishops, Abbots and Popes. Nearly 400 letters survive. She wrote two volumes on herbs and medicinal cures.

She also did four preaching tours. Her writings about the Scriptures were so profound, stemming as they did from her visions, that she was the only woman around during that medieval time who was allowed to give speeches at all, let alone speak on the Bible.  She had ardent fans.

And if that isn't enough for you, she has an asteroid named after her. Asteroid 898, is called "Hildegarde".

I  am personally thrilled by her canonization, because it means we finally have a great saint to be the patron saint of musicians. Not that St. Cecelia isn't a great saint. It's just that she really had nothing to do with music at all and St. Hildegarde was a truly great composer, breaking the boundaries of medieval music.

Yes and No

 There was a time when I did lectures and fielded questions. That brief time is in part what spurred me to start this blog, because the questions were always very interesting and heartfelt and sometimes kind of funny and sometimes surprisingly misguided. I thought it all might make for a good read.

One time I got this question from the floor and just the other day here it is again from a reader:Hello Sister. I just have a quick question. I am a Protestant and my Catholic friend told me that according to Catholic Church teachings I can still get into Heaven. I did not think that was the official position of the Church. So what's the verdict? Can Protestants get into Heaven? What about non-denominational Christians? Mormons? I tried consulting the Catechism on this subject but it confused me a bit.

When I got this question from the live group there was a priest sitting in the front row.  I told the lady who asked  the question, "The Church believes that only Catholics can get to Heaven."

The priest nodded his approval.

"But the Church doesn't believe that only Catholics can get to Heaven."

The priest nodded again.

"So only Catholics can get to Heaven, but non Catholics can get to Heaven, too.  Right, Father?" I said.

He nodded again. Smiling.

And you say the Catechism confused you? I understand. You have to read between the lines.
 First of all we have this:

"Those who die in God's grace and friendship and are perfectly purified live for ever with Christ."

That would indicate that non Catholics will see the welcome mat at the Pearly Gates. But the Catechism goes on to state:

"By virtue of our apostolic authority, we define the following: According to the general disposition of God, the souls of all the saints . . . and other faithful who died after receiving Christ's holy Baptism (provided they were not in need of purification when they died, . . . or, if they then did need or will need some purification, when they have been purified after death, . . .) already before they take up their bodies again and before the general judgment - and this since the Ascension of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ into heaven - have been, are and will be in heaven, in the heavenly Kingdom and celestial paradise with Christ, joined to the company of the holy angels. Since the Passion and death of our Lord Jesus Christ, these souls have seen and do see the divine essence with an intuitive vision, and even face to face, without the mediation of any creature. "


So, now we're also talking Baptism. Okay. The other Christian denominations have Baptism, too. So we've closed the gate on the Wiccans and Buddhists, but there's still a turn style for Baptists and Presbyterians. 

But then the Catechism goes on to say:

"This perfect life with the Most Holy Trinity - this communion of life and love with the Trinity, with the Virgin Mary, the angels and all the blessed - is called "heaven."

The Virgin Mary, the angels and all the blessed--that would be saints--that's Catholic.  And maybe Episcopal, a little bit. 


I think if we had a priest sitting in front of us, he would nod if I explained it this way:


We know that you can only get to Heaven if you are a follower of Christ, because Jesus said that you could only get to Heaven through Him. So that much is a given.  And we, as Catholics, believe that the most perfect way to be a follower of Christ is to be a Catholic. The Catholic Church is 100% on board with that line of thinking. The Catholic Church is the church that Jesus Himself founded while he was alive on earth.  He didn't found the Mormon Church, He didn't found the Episcopal Church and he didn't found the Jehovah's Witnesses.


That's why the Catholic Church basically believes that you have to be Catholic to get to Heaven.


But....

The priest is already nodding...


It's up to God who gets in.  If God feels that you are in His friendship and grace, you're in.


But since we know for a fact that Jesus founded a whole church so you could achieve that, why would you take the chance that God wouldn't think, "Say, listen here, I went through a lot of trouble to send my Son there and He went through an awful ordeal to set up this channel between Me and you.  Don't watch this movie on your cell phone when you have a big flat screen TV."


So the answer is Yes.  and No.  but Yes. But not really. But Yes. But ....

Simply Put

This is the toughest question I have ever had.

Dear Sister,
 I am looking for a saint that can help me with rest, relaxation, and the pursuit of pleasure. I am a workaholic and type A personality. I'm also co-dependent. All of this adds up to me coming in last in my life. I absolutely have to change this and I need some help. I thought if I had a patron saint of pleasure and/or relaxation, I could ask him/her for help everyday until I develop some healthy life balance. Thank you!!

Before I address my own problem in answering this question, let me assure you that what I'm about to say is not an admonishment to the dear reader who posited this in clear need of "healthy life balance". You can't help anyone if you are completely burned out and have no time to recharge your batteries. If you have children, it's not even safe.

The problem for me is finding you a patron saint. Because basically, I can't think of any saints who put themselves first in any way, rested, relaxed or in some cases, even slept much.

St. Catherine of Sienna only slept for about 2 hours a night. She fasted continually, sometimes surviving on only the Host. She didn't live long at all.

The Apostles walked as far as their feet could carry them, non stop, until they were stopped by martyrdom.

St. Sebastian spent all his time preaching to soldiers to lay down their arms, stop warring, turn the other cheek and all the other things we like to pretend Jesus didn't say because we're too weak to find another way to solve our differences. They got sick of Sebastian and shot him full of arrows. He survived.  Then he went back to tell them a few more things and they clubbed him to death.

Penniless St. John of God found a house, begged for money to rent it, begged for sheets and mattresses and supplies and medicine AND took care of the sick people who came there.  If they couldn't come or didn't come, he went and got them and carried to the his hospital. When it caught on fire he carried everyone out and then went back for the precious mattresses and bedpans.

I don't recall Mother Teresa having any spa time. And Jesus Himself washed the feet of His disciples.

Even the saints who actually didn't help anyone but themselves, the desert hermits who eshewed living in society because they found they couldn't stay holy and pure living among other people and the temptations there, spent all their time praying and fasting, devoting their every thought to God.

I just can't think of a single saint who knew how to relax. That's pretty much what made them saints. Work for God on a heroic level.

I do think you need to relax and recharge.  I just can't think of a saint who was into that. If anything, reading the lives of the saints will make you feel like you should be doing more. A lot more.

So let's take a step back and think about what you're doing.  You're a doormat.  What are you helping people do?  Are you helping them find money for their chemo treatments? Or are you doing their homework for them?  If you're doing the later, you're actually not helping at all.  Are you feeding the hungry? or are you making the kids afterschool snacks?  They can get their own snacks.  They can get you a snack. That would be more helpful to them because they should learn to do for themselves and others.

Are you helping the least and the last? or are you helping people who could do whatever it is you're doing for themselves.  Because if they could do those things for themselves, they could also be training themselves to help the least and the last. Are you following this?

Put simply, don't help people be lazy.

Is your workaholicness stemming from ego?  Is it that no one can do it as well as you, so you just do it yourself because you want it done a certain way?  Get over yourself. You might actually be robbing someone else of a simple pleasure, like making a nice sandwich or washing the car with the kids.

You're probably doing a lot of things that don't even need doing.

A saint for you? Let's try St. Francis de Sales, who had a lot to say about something that you desperately need: simplicity.

When a simple soul is to act, it considers only what it is suitable to do or say, and then immediately begins the action, without losing time in thinking what others will do or say about it. And after doing what seemed right, it dismisses the subject; or if, perhaps, any thought of what others may say or do should arise, it instantly cuts short such reflections, for it has no other aim than to please God, and not creatures, except as the love of God requires it. Therefor, it cannot bear to be turned aside from its purpose of keeping close to God, and winning more and more of his love for itself. -----St. F. de Sales.

Rakes and Brooms

Wheeeee!  It's been a whirlwind week doing absolutely nothing new and everything exactly the way we always do!  How does every moment get taken up so thoroughly? Ordinary time is never ordinary.  We have added gardening back into the schedule.  Getting the dirt out from under our nails has certainly taken up some extra time.

Now to clean up the mess I've left with the last few posts.

One reader points out that I said mortal sin "kills the soul" and that the soul cannot be killed. The soul never dies.  She is 100% correct. I was being dramatic it seems.  Mortal sin kills one's relationship with God, shuts down the channel of grace.  The soul lives on, which is exactly why you don't want to find yourself in a state of mortal sin, because your soul will indeed  live on throughout eternity...in Hell.  No one wants that. Oddly, people do choose it.

Another reader thinks one can't die from the D.T.'s. Au contrare.  One certainly can.  Just another reason to not head down that road in the first place.

Dear Sr. MM....where to begin...... I worked on a drug that was genetically engineered to cure breast cancer. I also worked on a pediatric drug that was genetically engineered to immunize millions of children in developing countries. Now I am finding out I have committed 2 mortal sins.......so should I die tonight, according to the Church, I am straight off to hell!? Perhaps I am being slightly facetious, but not really.......Personally I think St Francis' example is all I need, but now all these new sins worry me somewhat......especially since I am not about to leave my field.......

No you haven't committed any mortal sins at all.  Thanks for your hard work! We all appreciate it. We're not Christian Scientists.  The Church is talking about genetic engineering of people: choosing the sex of a baby (if and when that becomes possible), say, or in vitro fertilization.

I do worry about thinking that the example of St. Francis is all you need. Although that is a lovely thought, if you really want to go there, you have to trade your clothes with a homeless person and not work at a job at all, just beg for what you need.  And, no shoes.... 

 Why is it impossible to pray for anyone or anything besides oneself when in a state of mortal sin?

Mother Teresa was on board with this line of thought.  You have turned your back on God.  It's as though, by committing a mortal sin, you've said to God, "Ha! I need to go ahead and do this and I really don't care what You think.  I think You're crazy to think what I'm doing here is even wrong! Okay, maybe it is wrong, but I just really want to do it and you can take a hike."

You've wished yourself into the cornfield.  Anything you do besides try to get yourself back in God's grace is futile. 

I hope this clears out some of our weeds!

UnOrdinary

I believe I started our recent discussion by talking about Ordinary Time.  At least I think I did, since I can't actually remember what happened that far back.  I hope I never witness a crime, besides the fact that there would have been a crime committed and no one wants that, I would never remember what time I saw the robber leave the bank, or what day that was or what color his ski mask was.

But I digress.

We have to talk about one more thing in regard to the issue of what is and is not a mortal sin which is how actually ordinary things can fall under that category.  I believe the discussion also began because the question was about mortal sin being almost impossible to commit.

So not true, as they say.

Here's where the difficulty lies: some things that are mortal sins aren't sins at all. So there are the easy ones that are mortal sins, the end period. Pornography, murder, missing Mass on Sunday, premarital sex, dealing illegal drugs.  Easy to avoid, one would hope.  Or if not easy, like missing Mass, as least cut and dried.

But there are some things that aren't sins until they are.  It's not a sin to drink or gamble.  It's not a sin to shop or watch television.  But all those things could be mortal sins when done in excess. Excessive shopping is as destructive as gambling when gambling becomes an addiction.  If all you do is watch television, you've crossed into sloth, a deadly sin.

I mentioned that one of my favorite things about the Catholic Church is the road map that is provided by being a one of the faithful.  This includes a "Not To Do" list.  Following the map will help you stay on the road, but it will always be you and only you walking the path.

So I can tell you a million times that it's good for to give things up, offer things up, discipline yourself against bad habits and reserve your harshest judgment for yourself, but if you decide certain things are okay for you to do because you can 'handle it', you may be in for a rude awakening.

I'll offer you this thought: whatever it is, if it's potentially sinful and you do it everyday, you may be on the wrong road.  When does one beer everyday or a glass of wine become two, when does two become three?  Are you sober after one?  Are you sober after two?  Why don't you want to be sober?

When I was first thinking this all over, I was thinking about the Baptists.  As a child, I always thought it was kind of funny that the Baptists didn't allow drinking, card playing or dancing. Dancing? Really?  Canasta? Come on.

Now I can make a strong case for all three.  Not all dancing, certainly. But you see the problem we can have with dancing.

And before you laugh and say, "Yes! Nowadays! That dancing is sinful to watch, let alone, well, dance!", consider that when the waltz was invented it was scandalous because the man held the woman in his arms while they danced.  That could lead to lust.  Even today.  Maybe those Baptists are onto something.

So before we move on to a couple of questions that have arisen from these thoughts, let me leave you with this important information.  The reason some sins are called mortal sins is because they kill your soul.  Small sins turn your attention from God to other things.  Big sins cut you off from God altogether.  But it isn't God turning away from you. It's you turning away from God.  A mortal sin is when you turn away from God on purpose.

"Never!" you say.  Really.  Ask St. Peter about that.

Its Own Punishment

So yesterday we waded into the the "what makes a mortal sin" part of a reader's question.  Since that's not rocket science, we pretty much got through it.

There were some follow up questions, which we'll also get to, but for now, we're moving on to the really difficult part:

I also remember back in school days learning that habits or addictions may not be sinful. Why?

Let's take a deep breath.  Which habits?  Biting your nails? Not a sin.  Internet porn? Sin.

The problem we are facing in talking about addiction and sin is that when we say we are addicted to something, we are saying we are utterly powerless against the need to do whatever we are addicted to. And if that is actually true, then we are not sinning anymore.  So the question comes down to: is that true?

And all addictions are not created equally.  Being addicted to gambling or shopping (either of which are not sinful in themselves) is not like being addicted to meth, heroin or booze.  Drugs and alcohol alter the brain's chemistry in a way that actually can make you helpless.  You can actually die if you stop suddenly with no help.

But eventually, so can gambling and shopping alter your brain's chemistry, because the thing that was once a habit now releases dopamine into your brain and makes you feel better. So now your own brain has caused an addiction by rewarding you with a drug it has produced itself.  You have made yourself into a drug addict.  Addiction always brings with it diminishing returns, meaning, you have to have more and more of the thing to feel good.

Until you're not whole anymore.  St. Augustine said, "Sin is its own punishment."  How true.

The problem in defining the difference between addiction and sin is that at some point the thing that became an addiction was a choice.  You don't have a martini and become an alcoholic.  You don't drop a nickel in a slot machine and become a gambler who can't stop.  Even if you spend that evening dropping in nickel after nickel, you still have a choice: Don't go back tomorrow.

Obviously, the best thing to do is to just eliminate all bad habits.  The strength it takes to stop biting your nails will pay off when you have to stand up to some harder problems.  That's why the nuns were always on your case.


Your soul and your body are connected. They are one thing, which is you.  If you kill your body, you kill your soul, and if you kill your soul, you can also kill your body.  If you are destroying yourself, you are sinning.  That would be a mortal sin.

But what about the helplessness of addiction?  This is my own take on it and I urge you to get on the internets or go the library and read what wiser people have to say on the subject, especially wise Catholics who deal with addiction or addicts.  My own thought is that there does seem to be some point where a person is helpless against the sin of say, drunkenness.  Whenever that is, the drunkenness is no longer a sin.  Does that mean the alcoholic is no longer sinning?  I don't think so.  I think maybe the failure to get help becomes the sin.  The willingness to destroy yourself and those around you with no attempt to get yourself in check becomes the sin.  

But don't go by me.  These are just the conclusions I've drawn from my thoughts on the matter based on my understanding of the nature of sin, God's loving forgiveness, having been around a surprising number of various addicts and the daily struggle they face, and listening to the thoughts of people smarter than me.

I truly don't believe I have a full handle on the situation.  The medical community tells us new things about our mind body connection every day.  There actually are people who can become physically addicted to a substance right away because of their genetic make up. 

I will say that people who suffer from addiction face hell on earth, often on a daily basis, and sometimes well into their recovery.  They have to battle the urges, which are physical and mental, give up friends and family who drag them down, face the judgment and condescension of society hour by hour, day by day.

Let's pray for all of them.

Now You Know

It's spring and the world is as green as the priest's vestments at Mass. One of my very favorite things about the Catholic Church is that we don't have to flap around trying to figure out how to get closer to God.  We have a map all laid out for us called the calendar.  Where are we now. YOU ARE HERE.

In Ordinary Time.  Green days. Jesus has gone back to Heaven. The Disciples have been sent on their way. We are making our way through life with all the new information we've gained from living according to the map. A perfect day for this question:


Sister, My question is about sin. Someone told me recently that it is nearly impossible to mortally sin as three things have to be present. What is this person talking about? And in confession once the priest said that being angry isn't a sin. I kept on with my list and didn't think to ask why it isn't. And in that prayer during Mass we say we sin on thoughts, words, and deeds. How do you sin in thought? I also remember back in school days learning that habits or addictions may not be sinful. Why? Thanks.

That poor person.  Yikes!  She's right about the three things, but it's FAR from impossible to sin anyhow.

So let's do the easy one first: What the priest said.  Being angry is not a sin.  Staying angry is a sin. Harboring anger is a sin.  So, when you hear the statement that anger is a sin, being angry, as the priest said, is not a sin.  You are human and you will react as a human being and you will feel angry.  I once heard a psychologist say that anger is unexpressed hurt.  I felt that that was quite a revelation.

I thought about when I have been angry, the normal everyday flashes of irritation or slow boils. I've been cut off in traffic!  Yes, actually, you' there, cutting me off, you've been rude there and that kind of hurt my feelings if you get right down to it, that you would treat me that way, but I can't do anything about it but honk as you cheerily wave to me to indicate that you had to do that because you were on your phone and not as your best, driving-wise.  So now I'm angry.

If I stay angry, if I don't say a prayer and forgive you, I will be sinning.  I have to get my emotions in check and pull myself together.  And get your license plate number.

I'm kidding.  I'm not going to stoop to revenge. That would also be a sin.

It would not be a sin, however, if the reason you cut me off is that you were swirling around traffic, drunk as a skunk.  Then it would be my duty to call.

I hope that clears that all up.

Now onto what you need to do to commit a mortal sin.

1. The sin is a grave sin. Some of these are obvious, like murder. Some are not so obvious. We'll get to that.

2. You have to know it's a sin.

3. You have to do it anyhow.

My guess is that your friend thinks that #2 will get her off the hook.  You may commit a mortal sin, but you don't know it's a mortal sin.  But I'll bet her thinking takes her to the next step: "I don't believe this is a mortal sin." My guess is that she thinks that she gets to decide for herself what is and is not a grave sin. That's not the case.

Here is a perfect example. The Church has deemed it a mortal sin to miss your Sunday Obligation to attend Mass. Did you know that?  If you didn't, and you've missed Mass because you didn't feel like going or anything short of being very sick or buried alive, then none of your Mass missing, no matter what the cause was a mortal sin.

But I JUST TOLD YOU.  So now when you miss Mass, you are committing a mortal sin. It doesn't matter if you don't think it's a grave sin. The Church says it is.  It's not me making this up. You can look it up for yourself.

Now you are choosing to ignore what the Church to which you have pledged your faith has told you is a grave sin.

And since it's pretty easy to choose the Superbowl party over Mass....it's also pretty easy to commit a mortal sin.

Drunk driving is a mortal sin.  Premarital sex is a mortal sin.  Looking at dirty pictures is a mortal sin. Lust is a mortal sin.  In fact, the Vatican added some new sins to the list in 2008: polluting, genetic engineering, being obscenely rich, drug dealing, abortion, pedophilia and causing social injustice.

I can't imagine why abortion and pedophilia are on this list.  Those aren't new mortal sins. Those have always been mortal sins.  Frankly, although there has been plenty of argument to the contrary, so has being obscenely rich and causing social injustice.  That just leave polluting, drug dealing and genetic engineering.

 Bishop Girotti elaborated by saying that mortal sins also included taking or dealing in drugs, and social injustice which caused poverty or “the excessive accumulation of wealth by a few.”

To which I reply, "Since when is this news?"  Although I have read some pretty tortured explanations of why Jesus didn't mind if you don't share your money.  I think He was pretty clear on the topic of poverty and money. I have, in fact, staked my life on it.

I'm sure the readers will weigh in on our thoughts so far.  You question has a whole slippery slope second half.  So we'll digest part one before we move on.