EWTN == Eternal World Television Network, a global Catholic broadcasting organisation based in Alabama that Mother Mary Angelica set up in the 1980s. In the late 90s I worked for a company supplying them with broadcast equipment, the studio control room appears to be within the convent so the whole lot is maintained by nuns and these sisters had no problems with dealing with complex tech stuff and working on physically heavy equipment with strong and potentially dangerous power supplies – they were also very early adopters of the Internet (and had an on line presence not long after this site).
There are quite a few discussions on ETWN website about whether smoking tobacco is a sin – the consensus (including many replies from priests, monks etc) being that although it certainly isn’t good for you in the long run it is not sinful provided you aren’t lighting up inside places of worship (fair enough as it would be likely to activate the fire alarm) or in the middle of your rosary or other compulsory prayers (you should at least wait until thats done with).
One Franciscan monk did say that it was however perfectly acceptable to smoke a cigar and then start to pray if it is a particularly good one (he didn’t specify the exact brand or type of cigar :laugh_at:). Amongst Catholics worldwide smoking pot is now only viewed as a sin (and increasingly a minor one) if illegal activities are committed and that is only stated in English catechisms (not in Dutch or German!)
Coincidentally in Europe cigarette/tobacco processing factories are now mostly located in the more Catholic areas of Germany (the bits next door to NL in the West and where the mountains are bordering AT, CH in the South) as well as RO and other nations in Eastern Europe – although low labour costs are clearly one factor Germany actually has a very high level of employee protection and social responsibility regulation (which the Eastern Europeans increasingly aspire to emulate in spite of their less developed economies).
One factor in the closure of some factories in Europe (not sure about USA) may simply be that during the 1970s local fire authorities would express safety concerns about factories storing millons of kilos of stuff that is intended to be set on fire easily. The solution back then was to line every factory wall with absest-based building materials; and over the years it was this stuff which made many workers ill (rather than handling the tobacco itself!)
In Europe the same factory or a nearby one usually prints the packaging material which has to be food grade and could potentially be used for legalised cannabis products although it might be the case in the USA that even more so than here everything is subcontracted to the lowest bidder, so the subcontractors are fighting like rats amongst each other and businesses are encouraged to own comparatively little assets..
Curiously JT is still 33% still nationalised by the Japanese Government; although out there sneaking out back for a cigarette is low on the scale of potential harms when the country itself is now increasingly radioactive to the core..
