The Vatican has banned workers at St. Peter’s Basilica from having visible tattoos or body piercings to maintain “decorum.”
The new regulations, published over the weekend, apply to the approximately 170 lay employees of the Fabbrica di San Pietro, the department responsible for the basilica.
Father Enzo Fortunato, head of communications at the basilica, told Reuters on Monday (1st) that it codifies norms that “existed in the past in a different form”.
However, he denied reports in the Italian press indicating that lay people in unmarried relationships would also be banned from working at the Fabbrica di San Pietro, dismissing the reports as “gossip”.
The regulation establishes that employees must have “exemplary religious and moral conduct, including in private and family life, in accordance with the doctrine of the Church”.
The Catholic Church teaches that sex between unmarried couples is sinful and that even engaged couples must observe chastity.
Pope Francis has angered some conservatives by repeatedly saying the Catholic Church should focus on mercy and forgiveness rather than strict enforcement of its rules.
Source: CNN Brasil
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