No Tobacco Day: Pope Francis reiterates the need to care for life

By Linda Bordoni

World No Tobacco Day, marked annually on 31 May, is part of a global campaign that aims to raise public awareness about the damage the use of tobacco wreaks on our health and about the many ways in which it threatens the environment we live in.

Pope Francis has joined his voice to the campaign saying that “The culture of life is a heritage that we Christians must share with everyone.”

His words came in a brief message addressed to the Argentinian Bishop Ariel Edgardo Torrado Mosconi who was one of the promoters of an international seminar held last May 25, at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross entitled "The Catholic Church Towards The Problem of Smoking Harm Reduction”.

The Seminar was organized in collaboration with an Italian Association for healthcare and with the patronage of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development.

“Every human life, unique and unrepeatable, has inestimable value. This must always be proclaimed anew, with the courage of words and actions," the Pope said in the message that he concluded expressing hope that reflection on this issue "will help many people become aware that physical health is a gift from God that the Lord has given us and that we must take care of it responsibly."

Cigarette ban in the Vatican

Pope Francis ordered a ban on the sale of cigarettes inside the Vatican from the beginning of 2018  because of health concerns, as explained by the former Holy See Press Office Director, Greg Burke: “The motive is very simple: the Holy See cannot be cooperating with a practice that is clearly harming the health of people.”