Exercising the virtue of temperance is not a recipe for a boring life, Pope Francis said, but rather it is the secret to enjoying every good thing.
If one wants “to appreciate a good wine, savouring it in small sips is better than swallowing it all in one go. We all know this,” the pope said on 17th April at his weekly general audience in St. Peter’s Square.
Continuing a series of audience talks about vices and virtues, the pope focused on temperance, which the Catechism of the Catholic Church defines as “the moral virtue that moderates the attraction of pleasures and provides balance in the use of created goods.”
Temperance is “the virtue of the right measure” in what one does and what one says, the pope said. “In a world where so many people boast about saying what they think, the temperate person prefers instead to think about what he or she says. Do you understand the difference?” Pope Francis asked people in the square. It means “I don’t say whatever pops into my head. No, I think about what I must say.”
Picture: Pope Francis gestures from the popemobile after his weekly general audience in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican, 17th April 2024. (CNS photo/Pablo Esparza)