VATICAN CITY: McDonald’s has opened a franchise just steps away from the gleaming white marble dome of St. Peter’s Basilica, giving indigestion to some cardinals and local business owners.
There was no fanfare for the Dec. 30 opening of the US fast food giant’s new venue behind a subdued exterior on the picturesque Borgo Pio, just outside the spiritual home of the world’s 1.2 billion Roman Catholics.
When the plan emerged last year, one of its most strident critics was Cardinal Elio Sgreccia, who said McDonald’s fare was far removed from Roman gastronomic traditions and not the healthiest of foods.
“The mega sandwich shop on Borgo Pio is a disgrace,” Sgreccia told La Repubblica newspaper at the time.
“It would be better to use those spaces to help the needy of the area, spaces for hospitality, shelter and help for those who suffer, as the Holy Father teaches,” Sgreccia said.
Despite the holy outrage in some quarters, two nuns were spotted on Tuesday lunchtime going inside the fast food joint.
In a statement, McDonald’s emphasized that the new restaurant was in a popular tourist area outside the Vatican, although the building itself is Holy See property.
“As is the case whenever McDonald’s operates near historic sites anywhere in Italy, this restaurant has been fully adapted with respect to the historical environment,” the company said.
Some local business owners had written to Pope Francis to ask him to keep the chain out, for fear it would upset the artistic, culture and social identity of the neighborhood.
In the letter, consumer group Codacons and a committee set up to protect Borgo Pio said the area, full of restaurants and shops selling religious articles, was already “saturated” and bringing in more tourists could be a security risk.
But some people who frequent the area welcomed the new arrival, including Raffaella Scarano, an Italian woman who works nearby.
“Anything that is good for the economy of our country is fine by me,” she said.
Cities across Italy have been turning up the heat on fast food restaurants. McDonald’s filed a $20 million lawsuit against Florence after the mayor of the Renaissance city turned down an application to open one of its restaurants there.
(Reporting by Isla Binnie, additional reporting by Gabriele Pileri)
McDonald’s opens near Vatican, upsetting some purists
McDonald’s opens near Vatican, upsetting some purists
St. Francis relics go on public show for first time in Italy
Assisi, Italy: Saint Francis of Assisi’s skeleton is going on public display from Sunday for the first time for the 800th anniversary of his death, drawing hundreds of thousands of visitors.
Inside a nitrogen-filled plexiglass case with the Latin inscription “Corpus Sancti Francisci” (The Body of St. Francis), the remains are being shown in the Italian hill town’s Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi.
St. Francis, who died on October 3, 1226, founded the Franciscan order after renouncing his wealth and devoting his life to the poor.
Giulio Cesareo, director of communications for the Franciscan convent in Assisi said he hoped the display could be “a meaningful experience” for believers and non-believers alike.
Cesareo, a Franciscan friar, said the “damaged” and “consumed” state of the bones showed that St. Francis “gave himself completely” to his life’s work.
His remains, which will be on display until March 22, were transferred to the basilica built in the saint’s honor in 1230.
But it was only in 1818, after excavations carried out in utmost secrecy, that his tomb was rediscovered.
Apart from previous exhumations for inspection and scientific examination, the bones of Saint Francis have only been displayed once, in 1978, to a very limited public and for just one day.
Usually hidden from view, the transparent case containing the relics since 1978 was brought out on Saturday from the metal coffer in which it is kept, inside his stone tomb in the crypt of the basilica.
The case is itself inside another bullet-proof and anti-burglary glass case.
Surveillance cameras will operate 24 hours a day for added protection of the remains.
St. Francis is Italy’s patron saint and the 800th anniversary commemorations of his death will also see the restoration of an October 4 public holiday in his honor.
The holiday had been scrapped nearly 50 years ago for budget reasons.
Its revival is also a tribute to late pope Francis who took on the saint’s name.
Pope Francis died last year at the age of 88.
‘Not a movie set’
Reservations to see the saint’s remains already amount to “almost 400,000 (people) coming from all parts of the world, with of course a clear predominance from Italy,” said Marco Moroni, guardian of the Franciscan convent.
“But we also have Brazilians, North Americans, Africans,” he added.
During this rather quiet time of year, the basilica usually sees 1,000 visitors per day on weekdays, rising to 4,000 on weekends.
The Franciscans said they were expecting 15,000 visitors per day on weekdays and up to 19,000 on Saturdays and Sundays for the month-long display of the remains.
“From the very beginning, since the time of the catacombs, Christians have venerated the bones of martyrs, the relics of martyrs, and they have never really experienced it as something macabre,” Cesareo said.
What “Christians still venerate today, in 2026, in the relics of a saint is the presence of the Holy Spirit,” he said.
Another church in Assisi holds the remains of Carlo Acutis, an Italian teenager who died in 2006 and who was canonized in September by Pope Leo XIV.
Experts said the extended display of St. Francis’s remains should not affect their state of preservation.
“The display case is sealed, so there is no contact with the outside air. In reality, it remains in the same conditions as when it was in the tomb,” Cesareo said.
The light, which will remain subdued in the church, should also not have an effect.
“The basilica will not be lit up like a stadium,” Cesareo said. “This is not a movie set.”
