For those of you who think that they have heard all there is to hear on sexual equality, you have another thing coming. The Vatican has approved a study which concludes that men and women sin differently. When commenting on a new book dedicated to St Thomas Aquinas' teachings on the seven capital vices, Mgr Wojciech Giertych, personal theologian to the Pope, told Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano that "there is no sexual equality when it comes to sin".

In an article tiled The Unsuspecting Resources Of Weakness, Mgr Giertych referred to his experience at the confessional and his insights were supported by an analysis of confessional data carried out by Rev. Roberto Busa, a 95-year-old Jesuit priest. To this, Mgr Giertych adds his personal observations of the behaviour of nuns and monks in convents whereby he claims that nuns are often envious of each other while monks aren't.

Mgr Giertych contends that "Often the most difficult sin men face is lust, and then comes gluttony, sloth, wrath, pride, envy and greed". On the other hand, for women, "the most dangerous sin is pride followed by envy, wrath, lust, gluttony, and lastly, sloth". Mgr Giertych went on to say that personal experience proves these theories. There is thus no sexual equality in sinning and women's major sin, "pride", is worse than men's major sin "lust". Bless the naughty boys.

We are reminded by Mgr Giertych that St Thomas Aquinas taught that pride is humanity's greatest enemy because it leads a person to believe he or she doesn't need God and "hinders a person from having a relationship with God". On the other hand, lust and the sins against chastity "are less dangerous because they are accompanied by a strong sense of humiliation and, as such, can be an occasion to return to God".

Although Mgr Giertych does concede that lust and unchaste behaviour are "dangerous from the point of view of their social consequences", women are depicted as worse sinners. Not much has been revealed about the methodology used and little information was given as to how the conclusion was reached. We only know that the study is based on an analysis of confessional data. It would be interesting to know the sample size, under which conditions the study was carried out and how was the data gathered: By audio-recording? Note-taking? From memory?

There is no information about what are the sins categorised as those of "lust" and what are those of "pride". Sins are not committed in isolation and pride can be involved in just about any sin; it is also true that a proud person is unlikely to confess the sin as such.

The results of the study are based on the testimony of those who go to confession, thus the control group is quite selective. Even more so in the light of the data disclosed a few weeks ago by the Vatican's Apostolic Penitentiary on how the number of people going to confession has continued to dwindle.

Referring to the study, theologian Theo Hobson makes a valid point in his commentary in The Spectator "The Vatican's Misogynistic Slant on Sin: In my experience of sexual sin, which I admit is probably nothing compared to those of these priests, lust is inseparable from pride. Maybe I'm not manly enough for the Vatican's liking but surely lust is particularly dangerous when it's more than just the half-innocent animal thing, when it is a pride-fuelled fantasy of gaining emotional power over someone, of colonising their charisma, of exacting the tribute of their regard".

When commenting in La Stampa on Rev. Busa's Vatican-endorsed findings, another theologian, Gianni Gennari, argues that "... it is dangerous to set up a list that is perhaps more psychological than confessional... Confusing the sacrament of confession with the psychoanalyst's couch is as absurd as making theological observations on this subject".

As for the Vatican-approved sin-divide, Theo Hobson sums the results of the research in two jestful sentences: "Poor simple Adam, powerless beside the witch Eve. Boys will be boys... and women will be devils (and won't be priests)".

The author is a sociologist and Labour member of Parliament.