In the eyes of some of my colleagues, incompetence passes for a venial sin.
It is, rather, a purgatory where the nations may be cleansed of their venial sins of nationalism by learning the disciplines of co-operation.
If it is not presumptuous to say so, it was a venial offence.
To use the language of theology, proof merely of venial sin will not suffice.
As a matter of fact this particular offence was a very venial one and will be amply compensated for by damages in a civil case.
I refer to cases when the courts refused to convict when the penalty for some venial offence of stealing was capital.
I think this is hardly even a venial crime since they are not asking for public money.
In all the circumstances, in all the baffling and perplexing uncertainties of these years, this may seem to historians a venial fault.
