Piazza hurt by Vatican McDonalds plan, cardinals say

Fast food chain next to St Peter's would be "perverse."

A McDonald's fast food restaurant in Hong Kong, China on November 11, 2015. CAtholic cardianls disapprove of plans to open a McDonalds next to St Peter's in the Vaitican City. Tyron Siu / Reuters

VATICAN CITY // The new McVatican comes with a side order of outrage.

Plans to open a McDonald’s next to Saint Peter’s Square have angered cardinals, including a group of the red-hatted “princes of the church” who live above the site of the proposed diner.

"It's a controversial, perverse decision to say the least," Cardinal Elio Sgreccia told La Repubblica newspaper on Saturday.

Opening a branch of the US fast-food chain in a piazza to the right of the Vatican’s basilica is “by no means respectful of the architectural traditions of one of the most characteristic squares which look onto the colonnade of Saint Peter’s,” he said.

Cardinal Sgreccia does not live in the building but was speaking on behalf of the seven cardinals who do reside above the site, which covers 538 square metres, and is being rented out by Aspa, the authority in charge of the Vatican property.

One angry cardinal has written to Pope Francis, urging him to intervene against a commercial decision which would put €30,000 (Dh121,000) a month into the Vatican's coffers but at a price, La Repubblica said.

Moreno Prosperi, head of the Committee for the Protection of Borgo, the historic district around the Vatican where many cardinals live, said that the outlet would be another blow to the area which draws throngs of tourists.

“Over the last few years, the identity of this area has been lost” due to an increase in illegal souvenir stands and mini markets, he said.

Other members of the committee said it was madness to pack more people into an area considered at high risk of a terrorist attack.

Instead of a Golden Arches near the heart of the Catholic Church, the space should be used to house entities which help the needy, in line with the pope’s call for “a poor church for the poor”, Cardinal Sgreccia said.

But Cardinal Domenico Calcagno, head of Aspa, said he was “not going to back down” because the deal is legally valid and he did not see “anything negative” about it.

“I don’t see the scandal,” he said.

* Agence France-Presse