Interest groups are cranking up campaigns to take advantage of the publicity attending Benedict’s visit, and among them is one of the more novel approaches I’ve seen: According to a CNS story, Physicians and Nurses Against Tobacco, a U.S.-based group, is launching an on-line petition asking the pontiff to make the 108-acre Vatican the world’s first tobacco-free state.
New York eateries are one thing. Even Dublin has banned smoking in pubs. But the Vatican? Seems next to impossible. Not only do Italians smoke like chimneys, but Vatican employees–lay and clerical–seem especially addicted to nicotine.
Incense, candles, conclaves–could there really be a Catholic Church without smoke? Even the beloved “Good Pope” John XXIII (photo below) liked to enjoy a drag once in a while, it seems. Still, there could certainly be a Vatican without smoking. Sign on here.