Newsflash: Illness caused by sin

I’m sorry, but did we just start the year 2002 or 1002? A German archbishop and high-ranking Vatican official says people get sick because they sin. And I thought illness was due to those nasty microbes and viruses and other tiny little things that get into our bodies. Which leads us to the question of what sin has the Pope committed recently that caused his current maladies. Simply using the 10 commandments as a rule, I better be careful because I’m due for a whopper any day now. Of course, so are essentially every single other person with whom I am personally acquainted. I could be wrong but I thought that even the Church of Rome had given up on the idea that God directly intervenese in all our lives on a daily basis quite some time ago.