A man of many words, this is who Pope Francis is, and often, he sparks heated debates.
The head of the Catholic Church took part in an interview where he accidentally delighted those who refused or had a hard time resisting temptations.
Pope Francis sat down for a lengthy conversation with writer Carlo Petrini where he made the following surprising revelations about sex and the desire to eat great food.
The pope also slammed the “overzealous” Church leaders who, in the past, told churchgoers that delighting in delicious cuisine and sexual pleasures were sinful activities.
According to the 83-year-old religious leader, lust and the passion for delicious cuisine are gifts from God.
His Holiness said in the new book, TerraFutura: Conversations With Pope Francis on Integral Ecology: “Pleasure arrives directly from God. It is neither Catholic nor Christian nor anything else; it is simply divine. The pleasure of eating and sexual pleasure come from God.”
The pope also revealed: “The pleasure of eating is there to keep you healthy by eating, just like sexual pleasure is there to make love more beautiful and guarantee the perpetuation of the species.”
He had this to say about the Church’s decision to condemn the flesh’s pleasures and appetite: “It was an overzealous morality … A wrong interpretation of the Christian message.”
He went on to share: “The Church has condemned inhuman, brutish, vulgar pleasure, but has, on the other hand, always accepted human, simple, moral pleasure.”
Pope Francis concluded by: “The pleasure of eating is there to keep you healthy by eating, just like sexual pleasure is there to make love more beautiful and guarantee the perpetuation of the species.”
The pope has won over some of his harshest critics.
Writer and Catholic critic Peter Williams had this reaction to the sinful bombshell: “I don’t think it’s unusual for a pope to say what he specifically said, though. In calling the enjoyment of food and sex ‘divine,’ the Holy Father is rightly pointing out that pleasure comes from God. The church’s acceptance of ‘human, simple, moral pleasure,’ like good cuisine and fulsome sexual love in marriage.”
Recently, the pope surprised many by saying that gossiping is a “plague worse than COVID” and claimed that the devil is the “biggest gossiper.”
Some experts argue that the pope is getting more credit than he deserves on this because his statement does not really represent a shift in doctrine.
