Fast food inhibits dialogue, Church says
Meals offer a sense of communion
03 November, 17:45
(ANSA) - Vatican City, November 3 - The 'golden arches' of a well-known fast food chain are unlikely to go up anywhere inside the Vatican any time soon given that the Church considers this form of eating as a "negation of dialogue".
According to the Holy See's 'culture minister', soon-to-be cardinal Msgr. Gianfranco Ravasi, "fast food has become the negation of dialogue through eating. Let us not forget that a meal is at the center of the Liturgy in which food is used as a symbol".
Msgr Ravasi made his remarks to the press Wednesday during the presentation of the upcoming plenary session of the Pontifical Council for Culture, which he heads, that will be dedicated to the theme of "the Culture of Communication and New Languages'.
One day of the November 10-13 council session, he said, will see participants treated to a full-course Renaissance meal "in order to study the language of food, how it is a form and means of communication".
"Each course, prepared using Renaissance recipes, will be presented in a way to demonstrate how esthetic taste and the communication of meaning can go together," Msgr Ravasi explained.
Communication and a sense of communion through eating, he added, needs to be restored in celebrations of certain church rites, not only weddings but also funerals, as is the case in the tradition of the Eastern Church.
Next Wednesday's opening of the plenary session will exceptionally take place at Rome city hall, on the Capitoline Hill, in order to "provide a meeting point with society," the soon-to-be cardinal said.
The first day will include a discussion entitled 'In the City, Listening to the Language of the Soul,' with the participation of Rome Mayor Gianni Alemanno.
Other guest speakers during the plenary session will include composer Ennio Morricone, who will speak on the language of music; Microsoft Italia CEO Pietro Scott Jovane, who will discuss marketing; and Msgr Gerhard Mueller, the bishop of Regensburg, who will open a session with an address on an anthropological theme.
Msgr. Ravasi, 68, will be ordained as a cardinal by Pope Benedict XVI at a consistory on November 20 along with 23 others.
He is a a recognised Biblical scholar, theologian, expert on Judaism and an archeologist.
