Vatican City, Nov 9, 2017 / 06:52 am
In a move likely to have some Vatican employees fuming, Pope Francis has decided to ban the sale of cigarettes inside the City State on the grounds that the Holy See cannot profit from a proven health hazard.
In a Nov. 9 statement, Vatican spokesman Greg Burke said the reason for the decision "is very simple: the Holy See cannot contribute to an activity that clearly damages the health of people."
Available for sale exclusively at "Palazzo della Stazione," the building that sits in front of the Vatican's small train station, the cigarettes have until now been sold at a lower price than in tobacco stores around Rome, making it an ideal place for smokers holding a Vatican employee card to pick up their next pack.
However, citing numbers from the World Health Organization, Burke noted how each year some 7 million people throughout the world die due to smoking-related causes.