There is some lesson to be learned from this. There's something in the man's behaviour that is useful and can be salvaged.
No, there isn't. He behaved like school yard bully. No Catholic gentleman, no gentleman of any kind, would be such a boor.
Still, speaking as a mild-mannered fellow, I can't say that I've ever convinced anyone of anything as strongly as he convinced her to lose weight.
Hours of hours of discussion and setting a good example produce less effect than a sharp bit of humiliation. That impresses me.
It reminds me a bit of Jesus at the well:
Jesus saith to her: Go, call thy husband, and come hither.
The woman answered, and said: I have no husband. Jesus said to her: Thou hast said well, I have no husband:
For thou hast had five husbands: and he whom thou now hast, is not thy husband. This thou hast said truly.In addition to demonstrating his knowledge, that remark was calculated to humiliate the Samaritan woman - hardly stereotypical "gentlemanly behaviour" - and it worked. I repeat, the old adage about catching more flies with honey is not always true.