Pope Francis decided to ban, as of 2018, the sale of cigarettes in Vatican City (cheaper for employees which leads, of course, to a black market). Cigarettes are bad for people and, probably, the environment. Hence, they must be banned.
I saw on Twitter (where else) defenses of this enlightened choice including the suggestion from those who probably don’t think that contraception, adultery or abortion are mortal sins that smoking surely is.
If it is indeed the case that smoking is a mortal sin, then no person who smoked without amending his life could possibly have lived a life of heroic virtue. What, then, to say about the beatified (for other than martyrdom) or the canonized whom we honor at the altar and whose lives are offered for our edification and imitation?
There came to mind Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati. He smoked. Surely he will never now be canonized.
He – oh the horror – smoked cigarettes! And the priest is smiling?!?
He smoked a pipe!
He smoked cigars!
And… I can barely bring myself to write… drank alcohol with friends!
And… oh the scandal… a Saint and a Pope is near a photo of Pier Giorgio with a cigar!
Now, along with the obscuring of John Paul II’s magisterium, his title will have to be stripped from the Album Sanctorum.
Speaking of obscuring, look carefully at some of the images of Bl. Pier Giorgio and you will see… or not see… something interesting. Here is a collage:
The pipe, cigar, cigarette… photoshopped out.
