says this was the point of the Vatican statement on social sins last week, that things such as polluting, genetic engineering and obscene wealth were as bad as pride, lust, anger and the rest.
"Sin is the things we fail to do, we don't live up to our responsibilities. Certainly theft, murder, rape, things people do are sinful and harm one another but - and this was the Apostolic Penitentiary's point - it's the more subtle ones where we fail through our self-centredness."
If people are to reclaim greater moral responsibility, the concept of sin may be central, even if the word itself now carries too much baggage. Non-Christians who deride original sin can still accept that humans are all frail, fallible, occasionally weak-willed, inclined to be selfish, and that there is often a gap between conscience and action.And, for Christians at least, the idea of sin leads to the idea of hope. Easter is about sin, but even more it's about hope.
"It's about God's redeeming love, that no matter how far away we seem there is a loving God who has reached out,"
Uren says. The wages of sin doesn't have to be death. "It's a revolutionary message. It means that in the vicissitudes of life that sin and failure aren't the end."
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