I've Just Found Another Sin

I've just learned that for the last five or six years I've been labouring under a misapprehension.  Ever since at the age of 5 at Prep School I've been able to recite, amongst other things, the Seven Deadly Sins: pride, covetousness, lust, envy, anger, gluttony and sloth (the language wasn't archaic when I was 5!).

I happened to be looking for some information on mortal and venial sins (don't even ask) a few days ago when I came across the information that in March, 2008, Pope Benedict XVI added the 8th Deadly Sin of ‘Excessive Wealth’ to the list of Deadly Sins.

What is excessive wealth?  It must be a relative concept.  So who determines it?  I have excessive wealth in that I have far more than I require for my basic needs.  So, in all probability, do many who are reading this post.  Especially compared with the 900 million or so of the world's population who woke up hungry today.

I did wonder, too, whether, if excessive wealth was a Deadly Sin for individuals, then what about for organisations?  Most of big business may be said to be enjoying excessive wealth and most religious organisations are very wealthy and indeed some of the larger religions are amongst the wealthiest organisations in the world.

Hmmmm.

Pride

A few days ago Scriptor Senex blogged in answer to the question "What is your greatest source of pride?" posed in C Beth’s Blog the One Minute Writer the previous day.  It is rare for my opinions to differ from SS's to an extent which might warrant a comment but on this occasion I'm not sure that I go along with his views 100%.

The headmistress of my (and SS's) Prep School was a Roman Catholic.  As such she ensured that, despite the fact that the school was, in theory, non-denominational (I was brought up in the Church of England) we had a good grounding in scripture by rote and, in particular, the Seven Deadly Sins (which I can, of course, still recite).  At the tender age of about 7 we would be told that 'Pride' was a sin and in the next lesson (or the next sentence sometimes I'm sure) we would be told to have Pride in our work.  This confused my simple, youthful mind.  But when I asked for an explanation I was told not to be impertinent. 

I think that, all these years later, I understand the issue a little better.  

My understanding of pride is that it includes a pleasure or satisfaction taken in something done by or belonging to oneself or which reflects credit upon oneself, for example, civic pride.  I rather think that my close family in general fall into that category.

I am proud of my children (I'm unsure about the grammatical way of expressing that now that Andrew is dead).  I'm proud of their achievements.  I'm proud of their independence.   I'm darned sure that their Mum feels the same.