In his autobiography, author Anthony Burgess wrote that, after he delivered a lecture on pornography and censorship at the University of Malta in 1970, "a fat Franciscan made a throat-cutting gesture".

Two things are notable in his short sentence: the "poor" Franciscan's fatness and his Christian "brotherly love"!

Old men in cassocks have always been conspicuous by their fatness – from the short and dumpy Pope John XXIII to the portly and paunchy Pope Francis. The poverty of Christ does not seem to pinch their diet. Having denied themselves the pleasures of the flesh, these men with no sex life turn to the pleasures of the table.

 

John Guillaumier

St Julian's