Pope Francis declares that the pleasure of sex ‘comes from God’ and yes, we are very, very confused
Pope Francis. (Getty/Franco Origlia)
Pope Francis has declared that the pleasure of sex “comes from God”. Yes, really.
The head of the Catholic church extolled the virtues of sex and eating in a book titled Terra Futura: Conversations with Pope Francis, released Wednesday (September 9).
In an interview with the Italian writer and gourmet Carlo Petrini, Pope Francis suggested that the pleasure of sex, along with the pleasure of eating a well-cooked meal, is “divine”.
He also said that the demonisation of pleasure within the Catholic church was the result of “overzealousness” from clerics, according to the Associated Foreign Press.
“Pleasure arrives directly from God, it is neither Catholic, nor Christian, nor anything else, it is simply divine,” the Pope declared in the interview.
Pope Francis (RODRIGO ARANGUA/AFP)
He said that there is no place for “overzealous morality” within the church that prohibits people from experiencing pleasure.
The Pope also admitted that the Catholic church has sought to restrict pleasure in the past, but said that doing so is “a wrong interpretation of the Christian message”.
“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 said.
“The pleasure of eating and sexual pleasure come from God.”
Pope Francis has a chequered history with the LGBT+ community.
We can only assume that the Pope was referring to sex between straight, cisgender people in the interview – as the Catholic church’s hostility towards LGBT+ identities, and demonisation of queer sex, is far from a relic of the past.
The church has been consistent in its overt homophobia and transphobia over the years, but Pope Francis has won some praise for his slightly more open approach when compared to his predecessors.
But many LGBT+ people have been left confused by his comments over the years.
For example, in November, 2019, the Catholic leader condemned the persecution of gay people and compared the “hatred” to “Nazism” during a speech at the World Congress of the International Association of Penal Law.
Just hours after his speech, Pope Francis gave a warm hug to a Muslim leader who thinks homosexuality is a disease and that gay people should be executed.
Many LGBT+ Catholics were disappointed in 2019 when the Vatican hit out at trans people in a document that claimed “gender ideology” was a “move away from nature”.
