New sex shops in the historic city center and along major pilgrim routes through the city have been banned for the 2000 Holy Year. The restriction also covers existing shops selling sexual paraphernalia without the proper license, the Associated Press reports.
The Roman Catholic Church has proclaimed 2000 a Holy Year, with Rome expecting over 20 million visitors next year. The ban takes effect today and stays in effect through April 2001.
Rome's commerce agency chairman, Enrico Gasbarra, says the prohibition was ordered in the interest of ethics and taste, the AP says. "It also has a retroactive usefulness in that, aside from specifically reprimanding sex shops, it stops those which try and bend the rules and actually are licensed for, say, a clothing shop," he says.
