The history that contains the ‘Vatican mall’ has all the ingredients. We must start from the fact that it is a luxury shopping center that, as it presumes on your own website, is located “two minutes from Saint Peter’s Square”, an ostentatious place like few others in the world but home to the Catholic Church and where dozens of homeless people sleep every day. It is on Vatican soil and it is a round deal for its coffers, but not everyone in the Holy See is happy. Its promoter is one of those indicated as the favorite to succeed the Pope Francisco.
The Italian press speaks of a project with “two souls”, the business one and the religious one. the cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle (Philippines, 1957) has been its promoter and main defender. He is president of Caritas Internationalis and prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples.
Tagle prevailed but has not achieved consensus. In fact, the Vatican not only does not promote the center but also distances itself from the message that its opening can send. “We don’t know, it’s not us,” they reply from inside their doors to The Republic. It stings that in addition to materializing, it will carry ‘Vatican’ in its name. The identification is undeniable, as will be the economic benefits.
“Glamor Social”
It opens in November. 57 stores of “the best” Italian and international brands. Clothing, footwear and accessories, jewelry, home, cosmetics and gastronomy “tax free” for citizens from outside the European Union and a parking covered with capacity for 1,000 vehicles. A bet without a doubt more risky than any of the previous ones that has raised dust, case of the McDonald’s of the via her Conciliation.
[El Papa Francisco Revoluciona el Vaticano: Menos Obispos, Más Mujeres y Los Niños, Intocables]
The Vatican Mall portal has a section called ‘Charity’, in which you can read: “Our approach embodies the spirit of building a bridge to others, with concrete and continuous support for humanitarian and healthcare organizations and a special attention to social problems”. Within ‘Charity’ there is another subsection, ‘Social Glamour’: the shopping center “intends to launch social campaigns to support human rights”. An “ideas workshop where garments and accessories with social messages will be selected and designed” are included.
These days Francisco’s words to the press in 2013, hours after the ‘fumata blanca’, are remembered: “There are those who wonder why I have chosen the name of Francisco. In the elections, I had the Archbishop Emeritus of Sao Paulo by my side Paulo, Cardinal Claudio Hummes, a great friend. (…) When I was elected Pope he hugged me, kissed me and told me: ‘Don’t forget the poor’. And that word entered here -pointing to his head-. The poor, the poor. I thought of Saint Francis of Assisi, in his relationship with the poor. How I would like a Church that is poor and for the poor”.
