Well into the twentieth century, the Catholic Catechism listed “the sin of Sodom” – along with wilful murder, and defrauding the poor of their wages – as a “sin crying out to heaven for vengeance”.
It still does (1867):
The catechetical tradition also recalls that there are "sins that cry to heaven": the blood of Abel, The sin of the Sodomites, The cry of the people oppressed in Egypt, The cry of the foreigner, the widow, and the orphan, injustice to the wage earner.
The description is Biblical, so it's not surprising that it's still there. I suspect that if there's any difference, it's that Catholics would be more likely today to interpret the phrase "the sin of Sodom" as a species of rape. I've discussed the list briefly before.
Incidentally, these are the instructions for searching the text of the Catechism at the Holy See's own website:
To search for a word, e.g. "home":
* click on the letter in the alphabet list corresponding to the first letter of the word: e.g. "H"
* press the Control and F keys;
* type in the search word: e.g. "home"
* click on the "Find" button. (The button may have a different name in your browser )
The computer will find and highlight the word you are searching for. (If the word is not found, a message will appear).
* Now click on the word to access its concordance.
Which has to be the most dimwitted search function I've come across in recent times, particularly since you have to find the alphabetical word list first, which they don't make entirely easy; on the instructions that tell you to find the alphabetical list, they don't even bother to link to it! And surely it wouldn't be all that difficult to set up some sort of Google search for a reference as important as the Catechism?
Kenny's review is good, btw. I also recommend Eagleton's.
