The Vatican has released new mortal sins, including causing environmental blight.

I, for one, am relieved. I have always felt that as Christians we have a responsibility to the planet that is in our care. Some people say, “but God gave it to us.” For them I have a question: if your father gave you a brand new care and said, “I give you dominion over this car”, and then you trashed it and never cleaned it and the interior was totally stained and the exterior was indistinguishable from a sandstone bar- would your father be pleased with you? Would you expect a lecture on the responsibility we have to those things that we are given?

The morality I was raised with says that possession is a sacred trust. You are to take care of the things you have. Keep your house clean, take care of your cars, don’t trash things. Be responsible. Doubly and triply so with things that will be handed down to others. You don’t gouge holes in the heirloom cherry table top. You don’t rip the fabric on mom’s Italian leather sofa. You don’t go digging for worms with Grandpa’s antique staff from WWII (really, you don’t- not unless you wanted to get spanked with the rapier that twists out of the handle.)
God has given us this planet, and we need to give it to our children. They need to give it to THEIR children.

Simply because something is ours doesn’t mean we have the right to destroy it- after all, if we destroyed everything within our possession, what would we be left with?  Nothing.  Absolutely nothing.

Causing blight is, indeed, a sinful thing.