Name______Per._____Date______

Seven Deadly Sins of

The Catholic Church

Wrath

Wrath may be described as inordinate and uncontrolled feelings of hatred and anger.

  • Desire to aggressively take the law into one’s hands
  • Crimes against humanity
  • “Love of justice perverted to revenge and spite.”—Dante Alighieri

Examples of the Sin:

  • Denial of truth
  • Impatience (with the Law)
  • Vigilantism
  • Murder
  • Assault
  • Genocide
  • Revenge
  • Self-denial

Pride

It is identified as a desire to be more important or attractive than others

  • Most serious of all capital sins.
  • Self-love; loving yourself above all others, especially God.
  • Failure to give compliments to those who are deserving
  • Repetition of accomplishments and successes.

Examples of the Sin:

  • Vanity
  • Arrogance
  • Narcissism
  • Conceitedness
  • Superiority Complex
  • Egotism

Envy

Those who commit the sin of Envy desire something that someone else has which they perceive themselves as lacking.

  • More general than greed—ex: feelings and emotions.
  • Not necessarily characterized by material goods.

Examples of the Sin:

  • Jealousy
  • Malice
  • Spite
  • Malevolence
  • Vindictiveness
  • Covetousness

Greed

Greed is the selfishdesire for the pursuit of money, wealth, food, or other possessions.

  • Wanton desire for excess (more than you need!).
  • Denies the same goods to others.
  • “Man condemns things eternally for the sake of temporal things” (favoring the things of earth, rather than the promises of what is to come in Heaven).

Examples of the Sin:

  • Disloyalty
  • Deliberate betrayal
  • Treason
  • Bribery
  • Theft or Robbery
  • Trickery
  • Manipulation
  • Simony or crimes within the Church

Gluttony

Gluttony is the over-indulgence and over-consumption of anything to the point of waste.

  • Enjoying something too much to the point of excess
  • Excessive desire of food leads to withholding or starvation of the needy.
  • Comes from the Latin word “Gluttire” meaning to gulp down or swallow.

Examples of the Sin (Thomas Aquinas 13thcentury Catholic Priest):

  • Eating too early
  • Eating to expensively
  • Eating too much
  • Eating too eagerly
  • Eating too daintily
  • Eating to enthusiastically

Sloth

Sloth was first called the sin of sadness

  • Refusal to enjoy the goodness of God and the world He created.

Sloth is a sin of laziness, of an unwillingness to act, an unwillingness to care

  • Failure to utilize God given gifts and talents.
  • Excessive laziness and idleness.
  • Poor health or sickness due to excessive laziness
  • Content with mediocrity.

Examples of the Sin:

  • Apathy
  • Depression
  • Joylessness
  • Sadness
  • Laziness
  • Sleeping too much
  • Relaxing too much
  • Absence of love

Lust

Lust is usually thought of as involving obsessive or excessive thoughts or desires of a sexual nature.

  • Sexual addition or compulsive thoughts about sexual matters.
  • Excessive love of people; love for God becomes secondary.

Examples of the Sin:

  • Adultery
  • Rape