Papal motorcade takes a ‘wrong turn’ in Rio; gets surrounded by well-wishers.
After getting his motorcade lost in the easily navigable streets of Rio de Janeiro Brazil Pope Francis said, “I’m hiring those union drivers back. There’s only so much money you can save before the whole thing turns south. And for Mapquest, south sometimes means north.”
“I did enjoy meeting the people of Rio right there ‘en la calle.’ They invited me back for Mardi Gras. They said to bring one of my ‘fancier’ outfits. I’ll have the Vatican’s gift shop donate some of their souvenir angel feathers and wings.”
In his ongoing quest to save money at the Vatican, Pope Francis is also embracing social media to get the word out.
Twitter will now have more meaning for Catholics who follow Papal Tweets. For this, the Pope offers a partial ‘indulgence.’ An indulgence, the ancient church tradition related to the forgiveness of sins, roughly amounts to a “get out of Purgatory free” card.
For those who have heard of ‘purgatory’ but don’t know exactly what it is we’d like to offer this explanation.
You’re on the road and hoping to check into the 5 Star Mandarin Oriental. You want to avoid the Bates Motel for eternity but on the way, get stuck in the middle of Alligator Alley without a cell phone and no one stops to help. That’s like being in purgatory but without the guilt.
Like almost everything that looks too good to be true it comes with a caveat.
The Holy See’s social media guru, Archbishop Claudio Maria Celli, warned that merely checking the pope’s Twitter feed won’t result in an indulgence. You can’t just ‘click and go.’ You must truly be contrite and have a moment of deepening faith.
Being contrite is something you do in your own inner thoughts. I guess that’s the ‘easy part.’ To have a ‘moment of deepening faith’ is another thing. It may mean you can’t sleep in on Sunday and have to attend the earliest Mass.
The good news is that after you’re checking the Papal feed, you’re just a click away from seeing how Amanda Bynes is coping with the purgatory she’s in.