Building on the socioeconomic dimension of this vice, Francis noted that “we have grabbed everything, in order to become the masters of all things, while everything had been consigned to our custody. This is why the fury of the belly is a great sin: We have abjured the name of men, to assume another, ‘consumers.’”
“We were made in order to be ‘eucharistic’ men and women, capable of giving thanks, discreet in the use of the land, and instead the danger is that we turn into predators; and now we are realizing that this form of ‘gluttony’ has done a great deal of harm to the world.”
The pope noted that part of the danger of gluttony arises from the fact that it is a vice “that latches onto one of our vital needs, such as eating.” He related this to the grave psychological consequences that arise from an unhealthy relationship with food, “especially in supposedly comfortable societies where many imbalances and pathologies manifest themselves.”
Lamenting that eating disorders such as “anorexia, bulimia, obesity” have become all too prevalent, the pope said that these diseases, which are “extremely painful,” are typically “mostly linked to sufferings of the psyche and the soul.”
The pope went on to note an unhealthy relationship with food “is the manifestation of something internal.”
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