Vatican Issues Cosmetic Surgery Warning: ‘Cult Of The Body’
VATICAN CITY, March 4 (Reuters) – Jesus will still love you as you grow older, even if your face has a few wrinkles, according to a Vatican document released on Wednesday.
In a new text approved by Pope Leo, a top Vatican commission warned the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics against plastic surgery, saying it could lead to a “cult of the body” and an unrealistic quest for the perfect figure.
“Advances in cosmetic surgery…offer tools that significantly alter the relationship with one’s corporeality,” the document states.
This is followed by a widespread ‘body cult’ that leads to a mad search for the perfect figure who is always fit, young and beautiful.”
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The Catholic Church teaches that the human body is created in the image of God. Although the church does not ban plastic surgery, it says Catholics should not resort to procedures that suit only their own vanity.
The new warning came from a document from the Vatican’s International Theological Commission, which advises the Pope on doctrinal issues facing the Church.
The commission warned against cosmetic surgery as part of a long-term reflection on procedures that use technology to advance humanity.
It also warned of a future in which artificial intelligence “is at risk of escaping the control of the human mind” and where humans may choose to receive mechanical implants to resemble “cyborgs”.
The text warned that plastic surgery could lead to an attitude of changing your body “to the tastes of the moment.”
“An interesting situation emerges: While the ideal body is glorified, the real body is not really loved because it is the source of limitations, fatigue and aging,” he said.
