VATICAN CITY: The pleasures of a well-cooked meal or loving sexual intercourse are “divine” and have unjustly fallen victim to “overzealousness” on the part of the Church in the past, Pope Francis says in a book of interviews published on Wednesday (Thursday in Manila). “Pleasure arrives directly from God, it is neither Catholic, nor Christian, nor anything else, it is simply divine,” Francis told Italian writer and gourmet Carlo Petrini. “The Church has condemned inhuman, brutish, vulgar pleasure, but has on the other hand always accepted human, simple, moral pleasure,” he added. “The pleasure of eating and sexual pleasure come from God.”Francis, the spiritual leader of 1.3 billion Catholics around the world, singled out a 1987 Danish film called “Babette’s Feast” as reflecting his message on pleasure. The film is “a hymn to Christian charity, to love,” the pope said.

Source: Manila Times September 09, 2020 19:18 UTC