Rome - The empire-building of the restaurant chain McDonald's hit a snag in Italy this week when a Catholic newspaper declared fast food to be fit only for atheists, or perhaps Lutherans, Rory Carroll reports.
Eating a Big Mac with fries was the antithesis of receiving communion and should be spurned by Catholics, declared Avvenire. McDonald's, already bruised from clashes with employees, environmentalists, communists and gourmets, found itself accused of promoting selfishness. Avvenire denounced eat-and-run habits for lacking the communitarian aspect of sharing. The author, Dr Massimo Salani, a lecturer at Pisa's centre for theological studies, said McDonald's was better suited to the Lutheran mentality of an individual relationship between man and God.