Women are prouder than men, but men are more lustful, according to a Vatican report which states that the two sexes sin differently.

A Catholic survey found that the most common sin for women was pride, while for men, the urge for food was only surpassed by the urge for sex.

The report was based on a study of confessions carried out by Fr Roberto Busa, a 95-year-old Jesuit scholar.

The Pope's personal theologian backed up the report in the Vatican newspaper.

"Men and women sin in different ways," Msgr Wojciech Giertych, theologian to the papal household, wrote in L'Osservatore Romano.

"When you look at vices from the point of view of the difficulties they create you find that men experiment in a different way from women."

Msgr Giertych said the most difficult sin for men to face was lust, followed by gluttony, sloth, anger, pride, envy and greed.

For women, the most dangerous sins were pride, envy, anger, lust, and sloth, he added.

Secretive department

Catholics are supposed to confess their sins to a priest at least once a year. The priest absolves them in God's name.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church states that "immediately after death the souls of those who die in a state of mortal sin descend into Hell".

Traditionally, the seven deadly sins were considered: pride, envy, gluttony, lust, anger, greed and sloth.

The Apostolic Penitentiary, one of the Vatican's most secretive departments, which fixes the punishments and indulgences handed down to sinners, last year updated its list of deadly sins to include more modern ones.

The revised list included seven modern sins it said were becoming prevalent during an era of "unstoppable globalisation".

These included: genetic modification, experiments on the person, environmental pollution, taking or selling illegal drugs, social injustice, causing poverty and financial greed.

The report came amid Vatican concerns about the declining rate of confessions.

A recent survey of Catholics found nearly a third no longer considered confession necessary, while one in 10 considered the process an obstacle to their dialogue with God.

Pope Benedict, who reportedly confesses his sins once a week, last year issued his own voice of disquiet on the subject.

"We are losing the notion of sin," he said. "If people do not confess regularly, they risk slowing their spiritual rhythm."

i'm not catholic so i don't do the confessing my sins thing. i don't think it's necessary to confess my sins to anyone else for the sake of saving my soul and what not. i pray directly to God if i feel the need to confess.
the talk about men and women sinning differently sparked my interest. i do think that's partially true simply because men and women think differently which usually causes them to act differently. on the other hand, a sin is a sin.

Ya confessions are supposed to be between you and God only. I totally agree!

I do strongly believe that men are lustful and that women tend to be very proud as well as jealous.

That's strange
I found that article today in school ;]

i can agree with jealous. i don't know too many women that let pride get the best of them. i don't.

I'm surprised that Pride is mentioned as the biggest sin of women. Maybe it's just where I live or something, but of all the women I know Pride is not their strongest vice. I don't know enough about Catholicism to comment about confessions.