{"id":5089,"date":"2010-10-19T07:13:20","date_gmt":"2010-10-19T07:13:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/deaconsbench\/2010\/10\/cheers-priest-opens-bar-in-a-roman-crypt.html"},"modified":"2010-10-19T07:13:20","modified_gmt":"2010-10-19T07:13:20","slug":"cheers-priest-opens-bar-in-a-roman-crypt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2010\/10\/cheers-priest-opens-bar-in-a-roman-crypt.html","title":{"rendered":"Cheers: priest opens bar in a Roman crypt"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Not only that, but it&#8217;s named for a beloved pope.<\/p>\n<p>From <a href=\"http:\/\/www.google.com\/hostednews\/afp\/article\/ALeqM5i5PeA13Cp7hQFjb8UawqFran9S8A?docId=CNG.e6ee2a6da857f12dd721e77244423759.331\">AFP: <\/a><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\n<span class=\"mt-enclosure mt-enclosure-image\"><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/deaconsbench\/ALeqM5hobDWo_yvLZKwEOnRnEnhv9KkmWg.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"ALeqM5hobDWo_yvLZKwEOnRnEnhv9KkmWg.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/212\/import\/assets_c\/2010\/10\/ALeqM5hobDWo_yvLZKwEOnRnEnhv9KkmWg-thumb-250x406-18665.jpg\" class=\"mt-image-left\" style=\"float: left;margin: 0pt 20px 20px 0pt\" height=\"406\" width=\"250\" \/><\/a><\/span>The beer is cheap, the waiters are talkative and the music is 1960s Motown &#8212; but the new pub that opened its doors this week in a historic crypt in central Rome is not really like any other.<\/p>\n<p>Start with the landlord being a Catholic priest, the religious sayings on the walls and the large crucifix hanging in one of its vaulted rooms.<\/p>\n<p>Then there&#8217;s the name of the new drinking establishment: &#8220;Giovanni Paolo II&#8221;, or &#8220;John Paul II&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Vodka is not allowed here,&#8221; said barman Marco Mincaglia, as he served out beers and snacks to a visiting group of young German pilgrims.<\/p>\n<p>Massimo Camussi, the doorman, dressed in a black T-shirt reading &#8220;JP2,&#8221; said: &#8220;It&#8217;s about drinking to meet people and talk about the Catholic Church and listen to Catholic music. We love John Paul II.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The &#8220;John Paul II&#8221; is not just a novelty drinking venue &#8212; it&#8217;s part of a Catholic initiative called &#8220;Jesus in the Centre&#8221; aimed to reach out to the clusters of kids who flock to central Rome at night.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The idea is to offer the young people of Rome&#8230; an opportunity to express themselves, to listen, to be listened to, to drink something but in a healthy way, in a nice way,&#8221; said Maurizio Mirilli, a priest and the landlord.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The important thing is that anyone who comes here should know they can&#8217;t get drunk. There are rules. Because you can have fun, you can drink in a healthy way. There&#8217;s no need to go crazy to have fun,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>The sign on the bar behind him reads: &#8220;Give me a drink&#8221; &#8212; a quote from Jesus Christ in the Bible &#8212; another from pope John Paul II reads &#8220;Be not afraid&#8221; and from Saint Therese of the Child Jesus: &#8220;Everything is grace.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.google.com\/hostednews\/afp\/article\/ALeqM5i5PeA13Cp7hQFjb8UawqFran9S8A?docId=CNG.e6ee2a6da857f12dd721e77244423759.331\">Read on.  <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Not only that, but it&#8217;s named for a beloved pope. From AFP: The beer is cheap, the waiters are talkative and the music is 1960s Motown &#8212; but the new pub that opened its doors this week in a historic crypt in central Rome is not really like any other. Start with the landlord being&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36,14,16,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5089","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-new-evangelization","category-people-in-the-pews","category-this-that","category-vocations"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Cheers: priest opens bar in a Roman crypt - The Deacon&#039;s Bench<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2010\/10\/cheers-priest-opens-bar-in-a-roman-crypt.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Cheers: priest opens bar in a Roman crypt - The Deacon&#039;s Bench\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Not only that, but it&#8217;s named for a beloved pope. From AFP: The beer is cheap, the waiters are talkative and the music is 1960s Motown &#8212; but the new pub that opened its doors this week in a historic crypt in central Rome is not really like any other. Start with the landlord being&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2010\/10\/cheers-priest-opens-bar-in-a-roman-crypt.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Deacon&#039;s Bench\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-10-19T07:13:20+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/deaconsbench\/files\/import\/assets_c\/2010\/10\/ALeqM5hobDWo_yvLZKwEOnRnEnhv9KkmWg-thumb-250x406-18665.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"jmcgee\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Cheers: priest opens bar in a Roman crypt - The Deacon&#039;s Bench","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2010\/10\/cheers-priest-opens-bar-in-a-roman-crypt.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Cheers: priest opens bar in a Roman crypt - The Deacon&#039;s Bench","og_description":"Not only that, but it&#8217;s named for a beloved pope. From AFP: The beer is cheap, the waiters are talkative and the music is 1960s Motown &#8212; but the new pub that opened its doors this week in a historic crypt in central Rome is not really like any other. 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