14 DAY TRIAL // Coming to settle the century-old question of why people sin, an article in the Vatican’s official newspaper L'Osservatore Romano, called “The Unsuspecting Resources of Weakness” offers a simple and straightforward answer. In the piece, Monsignor Wojciech Giertych, the Pope’s personal theologian, notes that men are more prone to commit sins of lust, while women of pride.
Although Monsignor Giertych makes no mention on how he has come to the conclusion or how long it has taken him to reach it, the report seems to offer very factual information as to the ranking of all the sins that lead males and females astray.
Neither does it mention any of the factors that draw men and women to sinning, but it does say that the nature of it depends on each of us.
“When one looks at capital sins not from the view of their opposition to grace but at the difficulty they create, it is clear that men experience them differently from women. For men, the most difficult to take on is lust, followed by gluttony, sloth, anger pride, envy and avarice. For women the most dangerous is pride and then envy, anger, lust, gluttony and the last is slothfulness.” the report relates.
“In convents, sisters often live enviously of little things, but they all go to the chapel to sing vespers. Brothers however are not interested in one and other, they are not jealous but when the bell rings only a few participate in common prayer. From the point of view of social consequences or for complications in personal lives, sins against chastity are the most dangerous.” Monsignor Giertych further explains.
Reports in the Italian media note that Monsignor Giertych’s study was published at the same time that the Vatican’s Apostolic Penitentiary revealed that the number of confessions had dropped significantly. While 30 percent of Catholics said it was unnecessary to confess their sins, 10 percent saw it as an obstacle in the dialog with God, and 20 percent stressed it was very difficult for them to speak of their sins with someone else. Theologian Gianni Gennari tells the La Stampa newspaper that confession should not be confused with going to a psychologist.
“In fact if, as Saint Paul taught, in Christ there is no man or woman, Jew or Greek, then it means that in front of God all sins are the same, without making any distinction between who commits them.” Gennari maintains.