GOLA. — Capital sin consisting in the disordered appetite for food and drink. It is a vice opposed to the special virtues of abstinence and sobriety, which are connected with the general virtue of temperance and moderate, according to reason, the desire for and use of food and drink. Gluttony is a degeneration of the instinct that leads man to desire the nourishment necessary for existence; it is a reversal of values whereby the pleasures of the table come to the fore and what is purely a means becomes the end.
According to s. Gregorio (Moral., XXX, 13) and s. Tommaso (2a-2ac, q. 148, a. 4), the disorder of g. can occur in the five ways indicated by the following verse: praepropere, laute, nimis, ardenter, studiose, namely: praepropere, eating at the wrong time, very frequently; laute, procuring exquisite and very expensive foods or drinks; nimis, feeding oneself beyond the reasonable demands of the appetite; ardenter, applying oneself to food with excessive avidity; studiose, exaggerating in the manner of seasoning foods in order to make them increasingly tasty.
As for the malice of g.: 1) excess in taking food is in itself venial, since it is an exaggeration of something that is in itself lawful. It can, however, accidentally become mortal on account of serious harm to health; the incapacity thereby caused to attend to one’s duty; scandal; excessive prodigality, which may also harm others, such as, for example, family members and creditors; but above all because of the evil end, namely, living in order to eat. In this sense, that is, as condemnation of pleasure as an end, the condemnation issued by Innocenzo XI of the following proposition is to be understood: «It is not a sin to eat and drink to satiety for pleasure alone, provided that no harm is done to health, since the natural appetite may lawfully enjoy its acts» (Denz-U, 1158). When, in fact, the pursuit of pleasure is in accordance with reason, that is, when it serves as a stimulus to necessary nourishment, it cannot be illicit, since the very Author of nature has attached pleasure to the fulfillment of this vital function. For excess in drinking, V. ALCOOLISMO; UBRIACHEZZA.
As for the gravity of the fault, it evidently cannot be anything other than mortal to provoke perfect drunkenness without proportionate reason. Sacred Scripture also lists this among the sins that exclude one from the Kingdom of heaven (I Cor. 6, 10), and reason itself readily persuades us that it cannot be anything other than grave to deprive oneself, for the sake of mere pleasure, of the use of reason, quite apart from the serious consequences that ordinarily accompany this violent deprivation. Imperfect drunkenness is in itself only a light fault. Accidentally, this too can become grave. The principal remedies against g. are: consideration of the physical and moral consequences that ordinarily accompany this vice; avoidance of the occasion, especially when drunkenness is involved; and the practice of temperance.
Exercitia spiritualia, Torino 1928, nn. 210-17, pp. 187-93; F. Tillmann, Il maestro chiama, 3a ed., Brescia 1945, pp. 231-34; G. S. Lewis, Le lettere di Berlicche, Verona 1947, pp. 101-105.
GOLA (art). - Term used to denote one of the seven fundamental moldings in classical architecture. Its profile is characterized by a double cavetto, that is, it is defined by two tangent arcs with concavities on opposite sides. A distinction is made between a gola diritta (straight gola) and a gola rovescia (reverse gola); the former has the concavity above the convexity, the latter the opposite; V. ORDINI ARCHITETTONICI.