The Pope Is Coming


A man who loves the pope is delighted to hear that the pope is making a
visit to New York. The man rushes out and buys a beautiful white suit,
so the pope will be proud to see him when he stands in the NYC parade.
The day of the parade comes, and the man is standing proudly by the
side of the road waving his pope flag in his white suit. The crowd cheers
as the pope-mobile slowly drives past, and to the man's surprise, the pope
motions to the driver to stop. The pope gets out and starts walking towards
the man! The man can't believe it! He's going to talk to the pope!
The pope walks straight up to the man... and walks past. The man drops his
jaw in surprise as he turns to see the pope walk over to a dirty bum
sitting in the gutter. The bum is wearing a filthy overcoat, and obviously
hasn't had a wash for weeks. The pope leans over and whispers something in
the bums ear. Then he turns and walks back to the pope-mobile, gets in,
and continues the parade.

The man is devestated. He spent all this money on a beautiful white suit,
and the pope wouldn't even talk to him! He thinks of an idea though. He
goes over to the bum and asks if he can exchange clothes with the bum.
The vagrant agrees, because he's going to get a new white suit out of it.
They duck into an alley way to change, and the man emerges wearing the
filthy bums old clothes. He stinks, but he doesn't care, he just pulls
the bums hat down tight over his head and goes to sit in the gutter.

Half and hour later, the pope is making his return run of the parade. The
man sits patiently in the gutter. The pope-mobile comes into view. The
pope motions his driver to stop. He gets out. He starts walking towards
the man! The man's heart rises to his throat, he's going to talk to the
pope! The pope walks straight up to him, leans over and whispers
in his ear, "I thought I told you just now to get the heck out of here."