“pope” resigns: the real story

my best friend, Turk Sorensen, invented this painting several weeks ago, as some sort of joke.

but now it would appear that it was actually something of a prophecy, since it was in fact announced just recently that “pope” Benedict XVI was resigning due to complications from his raging internet addiction.

while certain know-it-all “pundits” went on record saying that the pope had developed an incurable twitter dependency, i happen to know that the situation is a bit more complex than that.

while it is true that the resignation is directly linked to benedict’s recent introduction to the interwebs, it’s NOT for the “official” reasons being given. i.e., it is not social media sites that he’s hooked on, but rather traditionalist sites just like this one.

apparently, it all started when the “pope” got the bright idea of trolling some rad-trad sites, just for fun. bad idea. needless to say, it didn’t take long for him to realize that he wasn’t a real pope at all.

i started getting anonymous comments on this blog, written in a german accent, asking things like “vat should vone do if vone ist un anti-pope?” and “how does vone becomen un REALkatholik like zu, Troll zwei?”

i started sending him some books just after christmas–classics like John Vennari’s “The Permanent Instruction of the Alta Vendita,” fellow fake “pope” Michael I’s “Upon this Rock,” and “Cash” by Johnny Cash. the pope couldn’t get enough.

by the end of january, he knew that he was living a lie and couldn’t go on like this much longer. when he asked me for advice, i mentioned that Murphy had quietly retired to a monastery and was enjoying it greatly, and that perhaps he would like something like that too.

and the rest, as they say, is history.

Undated AP file photo of Pope Benedict XVI standing next to President Barack Obama.