Saturday, July 16, 2005

"His Holiness Remembers the Bet"

This is the most amazing thing you'll ever read.

It seems a reporter met Ratzi in '97 around the time Milestones was released. The Journo bet the Cardinal a bottle of Bushmills that he would succeed John Paul... Well, lo and behold:

The big news story as far as I was concerned personally was the interesting package in the mail that I received on my desk this morning.... It was a long package bearing the Vatican postal mark and Vatican postage stamps (these new stamps bearing the image of the new Pope Benedict XVI will have to go into my collection). And also the return addressee's name was very interesting. It was the Rev. Father Georg Ganswein....

I say a quick Hail Mary and open up the package thinking that this may be my last action on this earth-- inside was a box and inside the box was a bottle of Old Bushmills Irish Whiskey (ah sure, 'tis the finest whiskey of them all-- 'tis what the leprechauns drink and their urine turns to pure gold afterwards!). Inside was a note personally signed by Father Ganswein (I shan't be throwing that note away in the foreseeable future!) and all it said was "His Holiness remembers the bet".

The guy has the whole story explicated in glorious detail. It's worth an intense read -- such fun!

-30-

1 Comments:

Blogger Tom said...

That "Ulster Prod" canard is just the thing to keep Bushmill's affordable for those more interested in palates than politics. I'll take -- in fact, I do take -- their 10 y.o. single malt over most Scotch whiskies.

Now, this special dispensation for the Irish to gamble: when does the AP run the headline "Pope Blesses Irish Gambling"?

16/7/05 10:27  

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