On a tour of Florida, the Pope took a couple of days off to visit the
coast for some sightseeing. He was cruising along the beach in the
Popemobile when there was a frantic commotion just offshore. A
helpless man, wearing a New York Yankees jersey, was struggling
frantically to free himself from the jaws of a 25-foot shark .
As the Pope watched, horrified, a speedboat came racing up with
men wearing Boston Red Sox jerseys aboard. One quickly fired a
harpoon into the shark's side. The other two reached out and pulled the
man on board.
Then using autographed Nomar Garciaparra baseball bats, the three
Beantown heroes beat the shark to death and hauled it into the boat.
Immediately the Pope shouted and summoned them to the beach.
"I give you my blessing for your brave actions," he told them. "I
heard that there was some bitter hatred between Red Sox and Yankee fans,
but now I have seen with my own eyes that this is not the truth."
"Who was that?" "It was the Pope," one replied. "He is in direct contact with God
and has access to all of God's wisdom."
"Well," the harpooner said, "he may have access to God's wisdom,
but he doesn't know squat about shark fishing ... how's the bait holding
up?"
