The state of sin: with Lent's springtime arrival, we asked U.S. Catholic readers what they're thinking about the perennial weeds in their spiritual gardens.

WHAT DO CATHOLICS THINK ABOUT SIN? Depends on whom you ask, a U.S. CATHOLIC Reader Survey on sin shows. But one thing many respondents agree on: Sin ain't what it used to be!

"What a sin is has changed in my mind as I have grown older," says Joann Simons of Spearfish, South Dakota. "Sin has become relational, more than 'breaking the law,' more connected to 'love your neighbor as yourself.'"

For many, this shift in focus has opened their eyes to the connection between personal sin and social injustice.

"I see sin not so much as what I have done but as what I have failed to do," says Jose Roca of Bradenton, Florida. "Sin is so often a failure to respond, to empathize with those who need our attention, a failure to seek justice for those who are exploited, and a failure to make peace with our enemies."

Respondents had a lot more to say, though, covering the bases from sex to shopping.

More fire and brimstone?

While readers agree that the Catholic understanding of sin has shifted, they aren't all on the same page when it comes to the strength of the church's message about sin. While 45 percent of respondents think the Catholic focus on sin is "about right," a healthy 38 percent think it is underemphasized.

"I can't remember the last time I heard a sermon on, or even an intelligent discussion of, sin," says Alston Fitts of Selma, Alabama.

"Priests are afraid to talk about sin and the importance of going to Confession," argues Barbara A. Lewis of Macomb, Michigan. "If they did, you wouldn't see the pews emptying every Sunday with people going to Communion."

Still, speaking for those who think the emphasis on sin is "about right," Therese Herbert of Green Bay, Wisconsin argues that the church is on track, with reservations: "I think the amount of emphasis is fairly balanced with other aspects of faith, but we still fail to emphasize some of the most important forms of sinfulness. As a church we have long been fixated on sexual sins while turning a blind eye to racism, abuse of power, and exploitation of those in poverty."

For I have sinned

No matter how well they think the church delivers its message about sin, readers are quick to acknowledge their own faults. A strong majority (63 percent) say they have plenty to recall at the beginning of Mass, when the priest invites the community to be mindful of the week's sins.

"When I consider the world's condition (war, famine, etc.) and the church's condition, I am smothered in sin," says Dennis Kirby of Bloomington, Illinois.

Another Illinois reader, Sallie Hane of East Dundee, agrees: "When I do think about sin, I realize that I should think about it more often!"

Specifics, of course, vary from person to person. When it comes to the Seven Deadlies--anger, envy, gluttony, greed, lust, pride, and sloth--pride and anger come out on top as the most troublesome, at 32 and 31 percent respectively. Lust comes in a distant third at 12 percent. At the same time, when readers are asked about society's most destructive sins, sex gets plenty of mention.

Many readers, for example, loudly lament that more and more couples live together and have sex before marriage. One Saginaw, Michigan reader, however, makes a more positive case for waiting until the wedding night: "My late husband and I agreed over and over that our very good sex life would have been tarnished if we had had sex before marriage."

A Missouri mother expresses concern with society's broader obsession with sex: "The glorification of casual sex is so troublesome. I can never get sufficient 'equal time' with my daughter."

The sin remains the same?

While lamenting the decline in sexual mores, however, a number of readers describe a change in their approach to sexual sin, with many revising views about artificial contraception, masturbation, and homosexuality in particular. At the same time the large number of anonymous responses around issues of sexuality seems to indicate that many readers aren't yet ready to have a public conversation about the topic.

"I believe the church is seriously deficient in views on human sexuality," says R. J. Kowalik of Dunellen, New Jersey. "It ignores all scientific and medical views and never fully explains its stubborn refusal to change."

An Indiana reader comments on her change of mind about contraception: "After five children in nine years a priest suggested my husband join the Peace Corps and leave me with our five small children. That's when I started using the pill and never confessed. I'm not sorry!"

A Maryland reader, however, admits a switch back to church teaching. "In my youth I believed abortion was a sin but contraception was OK. But I later learned that some of the drugs and devices are actually abortifacients."

Many readers indicate that their shift came through a personal experience or that of a family member. "I have had to look at homosexuality differently now that I have accepted my gay son and lesbian daughter as living as God made them," says one Saginaw, Michigan reader.

Social sinners

If readers' views on sexual sin have narrowed a bit, their approach to other kinds of sin has expanded, especially when it comes to sin in our consumer society. Joan Brausch of Midland, Michigan, however, notes that the idea of "social sin" is hard to nail down. "It's very hard to get one's mind around, especially since it's so big. How does one try to change a social structure that is unjust?"

An Eden Prairie, Minnesota reader puts some flesh to the idea, arguing that "spending money at companies that engage in slave labor and unethical practices against the environment" is sinful.

The current administration's policies, especially the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, are also counted among society's sins by some respondents. Reflecting on the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, an Elkins Park, Pennsylvania reader laments "a government that spends millions on war but allows its own people to live in deplorable conditions."

Father George Seuferling of Meriden, Kansas isn't sure that we've totally integrated this new understanding of sin into Catholic practice: "If the 1 billion of us really worked for social justice, great things would happen," he says. "That is the way God intends to make his kingdom come."

What's the good word?

Despite sin's seeming omnipresence, readers have found that they've learned something from their failures. Among sin's best lessons according to Paul Jurkowitz of Mount Vernon, Ohio: "I have much more converting to do."

Some readers say that earthly sins get them thinking about eternal consequences. "When we sin we alienate ourselves not only from God but from those around us whom we love and who love us," says P.C. Schwartz of Beltsville, Maryland. "This loss is just a hint of how awful hell could be."

Others, like Bill Shea of Mesa, Arizona, find that one personal failure, even years ago, keeps nagging at them still. "I had an opportunity to attend Martin Luther King's March on Washington," Shea confesses. "But because of fear I did not go, and it has challenged me ever since."

Readers find much to hope for in the church's message about sin, though, especially in the confidence of forgiveness found in the sacrament of Reconciliation. According to Cynthia Trainque of Fitchburg, Massachusetts, the church's best message about sin can be found in "the words of Jesus, 'Neither do I condemn you.'"

But while some readers, like Peter Berg of Newcomb, New York, find in church teaching the promise of "God's automatic and constant love, forgiveness, and mercy," 11 percent of readers think that there are at least a few unforgivable sins--rape, molestation, and abortion among them.

Carmella Blanchard of Osage, Minnesota, though, acknowledges that God's mercy may go beyond our capacity to forgive: "A sin may be forgivable or unforgivable in my mind, but I don't know what God thinks is forgivable or not."

Overall, Father Jerry Herda of Milwaukee sums up the church's good news and respondents' attitudes about sin well: "Never give up trying to overcome sin. While carrying the cross, Jesus fell three times, and he got up each time, he didn't just lie there. We have to get up after we sin and try again to overcome it."

ANGER            31%
ENVY              6%
GLUTTONY          7%
GREED             5%
LUST             12%
PRIDE            32%
SLOTH             7%

BRYAN CONES, associate editor of U.S. CATHOLIC.