Pope
Francis ordered the end of cigarette sales in the Vatican starting next year, a
spokesman said Thursday.
Pope Francis outlawed the sale of cigarettes in a bid to lead by example on healthy living. “The Holy Father has decided
that the Vatican will cease to sell cigarettes to employees as of 2018,” the
Vatican said in a statement on Thursday.
“The reason is very
simple: the Holy See cannot contribute to an activity that clearly damages the
health of people,” it said, adding that smoking claims more than seven million
lives every year, according to the World Health Organization.
“Although the cigarettes
sold to employees and pensioners in the Vatican at a reduced price are a source
of revenue for the Holy See, no profit can be legitimate if it puts lives at
risk,” it added. Francis, who has only one lung, does not smoke. He has let the
locals keep their other guilty pleasure, tax-free alcohol.
The cigarettes and
booze are sold in a luxury duty-free shop, opened in 2003 in what was once the
Vatican’s magnificent railway station but is now home to everything from
designer handbags and shoes to flat-screen televisions. Only those with a pass
— Vatican employees or pensioners — can shop there, and many pick up goods,
food and even fuel inside the city for Italian friends on the other side of the
tiny state’s imposing walls.
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