Latest / The Catholic Current / LTACL: Still Deadly Sins? | Fr. Robert McTeigue, S.J.

Transcript

LTACL: Still Deadly Sins? | Fr. Robert McTeigue, S.J. · The Catholic Current

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  Let me ask you this, what would you do if you were in my shoes?
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  What would you have said?
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  I was a new priest, I was preaching a mission at a parish, it came time for confession.
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  This woman came up to me and she said, you know, Father, I haven't been to confession
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  in 17 years, but it's okay because I'm basically a nice person.
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  What would you have said?
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  Stay with me.
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  I've got a story to tell.
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  Hi, I'm Jesuit Father Robert McTague, your host every day here at the Catholic Current,
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  coming to you from the Station of the Cross Catholic Meeting Network.
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  Let's take a closer look.
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  Glad you're here.
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  There's a lot of misunderstanding of sin these days.
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  Sin is what other people do.
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  Sin is everybody else's fault.
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  Sin is what makes me cry out and point at you, see what you made me do?
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  And then there's sin that's sins of groups.
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  There's structural sin, there's social sin, but nobody talks about what I did in my sin,
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  what you did in your sin, and what our sin as even as individuals does to ourselves and
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  our relationship with God.
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  Sin has been on my mind lately because I have this sneaking suspicion that a lot of sin
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  or a lot of what had been called sin is going to be swept under the rug or it's going to
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  be relabeled as a virtue and who knows, maybe even a sacrament.
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  Why do I say that?
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  Well, because our old friends from study group number nine have been busy.
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  You know, when we had the Synod on synodality, there were study groups and one of the busiest
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  study groups was number nine.
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  And I have in mind their recent report, and my goodness, this is a mouthful, I'm going
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  to take a deep breath, Theological Criteria and Synodal Methodologies for Shared Discernment
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  of Emerging Doctrinal, Pastoral and Ethical Issues.
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  Now I've been around the block.
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  I've been around a lot of bureaucrats.
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  I've been around a lot of academics and a lot of clergy and religious.
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  When they get together in groups and talk like that, you can expect mischief.
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  So I thought to myself, hey, you know what?
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  Maybe we need to spend some time talking about sin and in particular, the deadly sins.
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  Remember the seven deadly sins?
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  Or if your hair doesn't look like mine, I should probably ask, have you ever heard of
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  the seven deadly sins?
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  Well, they're actually easy to remember.
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  If you can recall this acronym, PALEGAS, P-A-L-E-G-A-S, that's for pride, anger, lust, envy, gluttony,
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  avarice, and sloth.
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  I think we need to talk about them and not just go to the museum of quaint theological
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  notions.
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  We need to talk about why those deadly sins are deadly and how they are lived in a familiar
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  way, a way that any demon would recognize, but also in new ways, in creative ways, given
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  the strange world we live in in 2026.
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  So here's my offer, my invitation to you.
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  I am going to do an ongoing series on the seven deadly sins and in the spirit of synodality
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  and accompaniment and participation, which is apparently now the new trinity these days,
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  I'm going to invite you to work with me in addressing the seven deadly sins.
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  So which sin do you want me to treat first?
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  Is it pride, anger, lust, envy, gluttony, avarice, or sloth?
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  Let me know in the comments section below, or write me at thestationofthecross.com slash
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  askfather.
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  Let's do this good work together.
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  Meanwhile, think on these things today, take them to prayer, and talk about it with those
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  you love.
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  Go in peace and please do pray for me, for I am a sinner.