February 3, 2005 - Pray for the Pope

© 2005 by John Varley; all rights reserved

 

 

Friends, I’m not Catholic, but I think it’s time for us to all pray for Pope John Paul II. I know, considering my frequently expressed views about religion, this probably comes as a surprise. But I think it would be a great tragedy if this man dies before his time. I’m not good at this, I’m way out of practice, but I’ll give it a try.

Ahem ...

Heavenly Father, please look out for this first non-Italian Pontiff in 450 years, Karol Wojtyla, also known as Ioannes Paulus PP. II, possibly because nobody but a Pole could pronounce his real name. You have already, in your wisdom, inflicted grievous sicknesses upon him. He has Parkinson’s Disease, a bullet hole in his body, and a bad case of the flu. He’s not breathing or talking very well. He drools. He sits there under his funny hat looking like he’s collapsing into his robes. His downhilling, roller-blading, and skateboarding days are obviously over ... and yet, his quality of life is not the question here, is it?

Please grant, oh God, that he live for a long, long, long time yet. With proper medical care he could last another fifty years, easy. Grant, oh God, that when his liver gives out that a matching donor can be found. We pray that when his kidneys stop functioning, that he be hooked up to a dialysis machine to clean the Holy Urine. When his breathing falters, we beseech thee that a ventilator be shoved down the papal epiglottis to ease that burden. Please see that he is hooked up to IVs to provide him nourishment when his digestive system packs it in, including some provision for administering powdered communion host mixed with wine. If the doctors can’t find a vein, please provide that they put a feeding tube into him. Please see to it that the Holy Shit is regularly removed from the papal colostomy bag.

And should the pontiff get ingrown toenails and infection from same, and a nagging case of shingles or catarrh ...

Let him survive, oh Lord!

Should the Holy Father suffer a Biblical plague of boils, chancres, pustules, impetigo, psoriasis, eczema, or unsightly zits ...

Let him survive, oh Lord!

Should the papal willie wither and fall off and the holy testes and prostate suffer from cancerous tumors so that they must be removed such that he no longer resembles the Body of Christ and thus, technically, would not be eligible for the priesthood ...

Let him survive, oh Lord!

Should rheumatoid or osteoarthritis cause his knee to buckle and his hands to contract into claws, and should he should suffer epileptic fits or contract leprosy or hepatitis from a transfusion ...

Let him survive, oh Lord!

Should his legs and arms become gangrenous and have to be amputated, and his tongue swell from a bad drug reaction so that he cannot speak and tell his nurses where to scratch that annoying spot on his back that he can no longer reach ...

Let him survive, oh Lord!

Should he be plagued by recurring nightmares of abuse at the hands of priests in Poland during his childhood, or conceive in his addled mind that he is being haunted by the shrieking ghosts of women who died in abortion butchery, so that his mind is sorely confused and he contemplates ending his life to stop his suffering ...

Let him survive, oh Lord!

For we know You have placed all these things on Your good green Earth for a purpose, and that purpose is to test us, and that suffering in Your holy name is good for us.

And when the pontiff flatlines, oh Lord, please protect him from those tools of Satan (many of whom will be dressed in red robes and call themselves the “College of Cardinals”) who might seek to turn off the life support machines, espousing the theologically spurious argument that your Holy Church cannot function with a supreme leader with the IQ of a Brussels sprout. Life is precious, oh Lord, do not let them use political expediency to take the life of this man who is as innocent as a fetus. Guard and protect him until he reaches the point where his life can only be saved by stem-cell research ... then wake him up and let him live for a few days.

We ask you humbly, oh Lord, having faith in your infinite mercy.

Amen

 

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