The following comes from an Apr. 14 column by Msgr. Charles Pope on the Washington D.C. archdiocese website.
Over the years, as I have taught on the matter of sexual morality to both young people and couples preparing for marriage, I have noticed a pattern in the Biblical texts: sexual immorality is quite often linked to or closely associated with greed and theft. This link has become clearer and more understandable to me over the years.
Greed is the excessive desire to possess wealth or goods; it is the insatiable desire for more. This is closely linked to lust, which is an inordinate desire for the pleasures of the body.
Thus, the lustful, sexually immoral, unrepentant person says, in effect, “I want sexual pleasure for myself. I do not want to pay any ‘price’ for it by having to see it in relationship to other goods and people. I do not want to see it in relationship to the institution of marriage, or to the love of a spouse, or to family, or to children. I do not want commitments or responsibilities. I want to indulge in sex because I want it. All that matters is that I want it.”
Many go further in accepting few, if any limits on what they want, despising norms that in any way seek to limit their access to sex, or to place it in a wider, more responsible context.
For many today, sex is simply something they want. And the mere fact that they want it makes it right. Never mind that lust and sexual immorality have had devastating effects on marriage and family, that as promiscuity has soared so have divorce rates, abortion, single parent families, children without intact families, AIDS, sexually transmitted diseases, broken hearts, and the like. Never mind all this. For many, wanting sex makes it right, and precludes anyone from “telling them what to do.”
And this is greed, the insatiable desire for more, or the inordinate desire for things such that they are considered apart from wider norms that limit desires within the boundaries of what is reasonable and in service of the common good. Greed cares little for the common good, for the needs and rights of others. Greed just wants what it wants. Lust is very close to greed in that it is also an inordinate desire, one for bodily pleasures apart from any consideration of the needs of others or of what it just, right, and reasonable….
To read the entire story, click here.
All vice (as all virtue) is one piece. As a dam or levee breached at one point and left unattended will lead to the erosion of neighboring sections, so a serious breach of moral conduct leads to other breaches.
What ? ? ? ? ?
Is this Priest trying to cause confusion?
Has he read the CCC lately?
Inaccurate teaching by any Bishop or Priest is another good reason each of us must own a CCC.
CCC: ” 2351 LUST is disordered desire for or inordinate enjoyment of sexual pleasure. Sexual pleasure is morally disordered when sought for itself, isolated from its procreative and unitive purposes.”
CCC: ” 2529 The ninth commandment warns against lust or carnal concupiscence.”
CCC: ” 2536 The tenth commandment forbids GREED and the desire to amass earthly goods without limit. It forbids avarice arising from a passion for riches and their attendant power. It also forbids the desire to commit injustice by harming our neighbor in his temporal goods:
When the Law says, “You shall not covet,” these words mean that we should banish our desires for whatever does not belong to us. Our thirst for another’s goods is immense, infinite, never quenched. Thus it is written: “He who loves money never has money enough.”
SEXUAL SINS = LUST.
SINS TO DO WITH MATERIAL THINGS = GREED.
Sins should not be blurred or confused.
When someone goes to Confession if he merely states I have been “greedy” after committing adultery or fornication, or homosexual acts – then he or she is a liar. And this Priest is adding to confusion.
He didn’t say they are one and the same; he said they LINKED.
Since so many Catholics are not encouraged to read the “Catechism of the Catholic Church, Second Editon” at home by Bishops and Priests,
and therefore many Catholics don’t bother to even own a CCC,
it is easy to confuse them, to give them inaccurate information – accidentally or on purpose, and then they will believe the falsehoods.
These sins are not linked. It is easy to be greedy for material things without committing sexual sins.
It is easy to commit sexual sins without concern for material things.
Please read CCC 2069 (it is repeated in brief in 2079.)
Also 579.
See also James 2:10-11
Father is making an analogy so that it is easier to understand. He is being very informative, enlightening, and educational which is the role of our priests. Do not take it upon yourself to dare criticize him. Your job is to listen.
The Priest is mushing different sins together.
This causes confusion amongst the uncatechised.
Why doesn’t he merely use the CCC, which is very very clear on the various types of sins ?
Maddie, did you read the entire article? The link between greed and sexual immorality is true!
Maddie and Ed,
Please explain your attacks on Msgr. Charles Pope. I don’t follow your criticism of him at all!
May God have mercy on an amoral Amerikca!
Viva Cristo Rey!
Yours in Their Hearts,
Kenneth M. Fisher
Msgr. Charles Pope is a gift from Our Lord….to teach His Truth with clarity, conviction and humility. Keep praying for this wonderful servant of God!
Time to be quiet and listen……shhhhhhh
CCC: ” 2396 Among the sins gravely contrary to chastity are masturbation, fornication, pornography, and homosexual practices.’
Of course “Thou shall not commit adultery”.
I think Msgr. Pope who wrote this article is exactly right. Promiscuity usually is a form of greed, so is polyandry and polygamy — having more than one husband or wife while others can only afford to have one. Many young men have left polygamous religions because all the rich, usually older, men have taken most of the young women and made it hard for them to find a wife.
There is nothing in the “Catechism of the Catholic Church, Second Edition” that confuses greed for material things, with sexual sins.
Priests need to stick to the CCC.
Could people commit sins of a sexual nature, and of greed – of course. But these sins are not related.
“Maddie” is correct. The good Msgr. Pope, perhaps unwittingly, is mouthing the linkage of today’s Vatican which sees all sin as economic in nature. Sexual immorality, in and of itself, is part of the human condition, and, thus, is understandable. That is, circumstances often dictate the immorality of sex: a lonely priest, especially if serving the poor in Latin America, that has a sexual relationship with a widow in the slums is OK (it connects him to “humanity” and takes the edge off of loneliness), while a wealthy man who plows through attractive women (married or not) is “greedy” and therefore evil. Nope. Both attitudes are wrong and both sets of immoral sexual acts are mortal sins. Mgr. Pope’s view is seen in a great many things coming out of the mouth of Pope Francis and the Vatican today. They see the good/evil battle waged between social forces fueled by money and the desire for more, and the poor/hungry who want and need more. This kind of thing is not really what Christ talked about when He said that He came for the “poor”. Of course, Msgr. Pope and Company can forgive a lot of sexual sins if economics play no role, particularly homosexual sexual acts. Query to the Readership: does the Monseigneur’s definition fit David and his desire for Bathsheba? He could not be greedy, in the economic sense, as he was King and immeasurably wealth and all-powerful. He definitely was lustful and committed a handful of mortal sins.
St. Christopher, David had many wives. He was greedy for wives. That does not make his sins of adultery and murder any lesser. After all did not the Prophet Samuel tell David a story about a man with many sheep (in reality wives) who murdered a poor man for his one sheep (wife)? Oh, yes he did, and King David did not catch on at first that the man in the story was him. So not only adultery was involved, but coveting and greed. Tom Byrne has the right idea about this, one serious sin can lead to many other serious sins and often several serious sins at a time are involved.
Nathan, not Samuel.
I am sure you are right, Dave N. I did not have time to double check in a Bible. Samuel do not sound like the right one, but I was in a hurry and still am, so I will take your word for it.
Looked it up, and you are right. Thank you for the correction.
Separate sins each of which need to be Confessed separately.
Not the same sins.
That is true, Pete, but what Mgsr. Pope is saying is that most often greed and lust take place at the same time. Both can be involved at the same time, and quite often are. I would add coveting. One cannot commit fornication or adultery with someone else’s husband or wife if one has not coveted first.
Same-sex lust fits right into this message.
The way the Priest describes things almost all sins are greed. This does not make sense, and not what the Church teaches.
Greed has to do with material things.
Lust has to do with sins of the flesh.
Things and people are not the same.
Tom Byrne, yours is a great post yesterday at 2:16 pm. It explains the meaning of the article quite well.
A happy and blessed Eastertide to all the Faithful, too.
A few years back I read two different articles in same issue of the Tidings. One was an essay on Chastity (which I agreed with) while the other was a sympathetic essay on Illegal immigration (which I disagreed with). After reading the two articles the lightbulb went off in my head and for the first time I too linked greed and covetousness with unchastity! Msgr. Charles Pope has also seen this truth! Praise be to God! Our Lord has placed him in a position of authority, so this is great news indeed!
This definition of “chaste” might help with understanding the connection Father was making.
Chaste — Morally pure; modest.
Both the very wealthy (and the very poor) can commit mortal sexual sins (lust), which have nothing to do with greed.
If Jesus and His Church wanted these to be blurred together, he would have taught that way.
Nan, it is true that many poor men and women commit adultery. Nevertheless, they must be guilty of coveting (which is a form of greed) before they commit the act. Greed can be taking something that you do not have the right to have. Taking another man’s wife or another woman’s husband can be a form of greed. No one is saying that is always the case, but most often it is. It is possible and does happen that a more beautiful poor woman will covet a rich woman’s husband and try to take him away from her. Poor men can do the same.
Two separate Commandments of God. Not the same.
Pete no one is saying that they are the same Commandments, but that they are quite often done at the same time, and therefore connected.
If you click the link and read the whole article, he has the Scripture readings that prompted his observations.
I see what you mean, Pete. I should not have written that coveting itself is is a form of greed. It can be at times but is not always.
And often it is done for the money, which is definitely greed. Have you never heard the expression “gold digger”.
Is it really necessary to show a topless woman?
Anonymous, that picture is a classic piece of art from the story of Suzanna in the Bible. You can find it in many Bibles.
There are no boobs in my Bible.
Wow…you guys are not only more Catholic than the Pope, but now, more Catholic than Charles Pope….
Well, Brian S., you could not have meant me since I think Msgr. Pope’s article is just fine.