In light of the recent health issues with JP2 I’ve been doing a little digging about popes and what happens when they die and discovered further proof that catholics are very strange and quite possibly aliens.

For those who don’t feel like reading today here’s the gist of it– Until JP2 any pope who died was whacked in the head three times with a silver hammer by his camerlengo (read chamberlain) and then yelled at to determine if he was really dead.

What the heck?

I wonder what that hammer looks like and how many dead popes it’s whacked? I can’t help think of the Beatles song…

Bang! Bang! Maxwell’s silver hammer
came down upon her head
Clang! Clang! Maxwell’s silver hammer
made sure that he was dead!

I also found out there’s a fairly active gambling ring surrounding the next pope. The papal successor odds are currently in favor of Dionigi Tettamanzi… whoever that is.