Religion: Guidebook to Sin

A surprisingly popular book in Italy (a 5,000 first printing has been almost sold out) is 913 pages long, costs $11.30, and is directed mainly to theology professors. Its success may have something to do with its title: Il Peccato (Sin).

Editor of Sin is 47-year-old Msgr. Pietro Palazzini, the Vatican’s secretary of the Sacred Congregation of Council and author of numerous books, including a three-volume Principles of Moral Theology. His new book consists of 37 articles on man’s sinful behavior, written by 36 authors (he contributed two). Most of the sinning in the book runs the familiar gamut from adultery to zealotry, but the special sins of the modern world make earthier reading. Moviemakers, writes the Rev. Salvatore Casals, should be careful to distinguish between evil and sin, and to depict sin as something more than inconveniently illegal. Worst offenders are those modern films which ignore the existence of sin, but even family life is often dealt with deceptively—and therefore sinfully—on the screen (“Child-rearing is absent from many films, or reduced to a single child”).

Contributor Giacomo Perico would have people develop a more acute sense of “highway sin.” Perhaps the biggest highway sinner of all is the driver who takes chances and trusts to luck. If he has an accident, the church cannot absolve him until he has made good all damages, aided any victims and avoided perjury in court. If he gets himself killed, he has in a sense committed the sin of suicide. Father Perico would slow down drivers with a campaign of highway slogans. Samples: HURRY is ALMOST ALWAYS A SIGN OF PRIDE AND EGOISM, and HIGHWAY IMPATIENCE IS A SIGN OF LITTLE EDUCATION AND INFANTILISM.

Three fundamental modern attitudes toward sin, writes Father Ivo Cisar, are the pessimist’s “I cannot avoid sin because it is inevitable,” the optimist’s “I cannot sin because sin is a myth,” and the expert’s “I can sin because sin is only weakness.” The Christian’s attitude: “I can avoid sin.”