These are the kind of people we have running our country: A U.S. representative who believes that the glass of water Pope Francis, aka Jorge Bergoglio, drank from during his recent speech before Congress was actually consecrated holy water.
With beliefs such as that, rational behavior rarely follows, and subsequent action of Rep. Bob Brady, D-Pa., was no exception. After the speech, Brady took the used glass of water, which Stephen Colbert called “old man’s backwash,” and proceeded to drink from the glass himself:
According to The Washington Post:
He carefully carried the glass, still half full, back to his office where he sipped the water and then passed it around to his wife and two staffers. Later, he invited Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.) to his office, who, along with his wife and mother, dipped his fingers in the water. Casey’s office confirmed this was true.
Brady later emptied the remaining water in a bottle with plans to bless his grandchildren with it. The Post picks up again:
Now, as we understand it, and please correct us if we’re wrong, unless the pope actually blessed the liquid it’s not technically holy water.
“Please correct us if we’re wrong …” Happily. Even after the Pope or any other priests “blesses” water, it’s still nothing more than two hydrogen and one oxygen molecules and has no extraordinary abilities other than, of course, the power of quenching thirsts.
Brady told the press that he could “care less” what anyone thought about the water. He still believes it’s holy water:
“Anything the pope touches becomes blessed,” he said. “I think so and no one is going to change my mind.”
So, Francis is like a Catholic version of Midas with the golden touch? In any case, Brady was undeterred in his belief about the holy water and commits the same mistake as many fellow believers who think the world contains a supernatural component despite a lack of evidence in all of recorded human history, except for some deeply flawed ancient texts.
In any case, a company called Wayne Enterprises is attempting to cash into this belief. The company was or still is selling drinking water it is marketing as holy water. The company claims the water has been blessed “by hands of God.” According to the company’s website:
By hands of God, we mean a priest, churchman, clergyman, cleric, curate, divine, ecclesiastic, elder, father, friar, holy man, lama, monk, padre, pontiff, preacher, rabbi, rector, sky pilot, or vicar.
Our future goal is to have a clergy from every faith bless each bottle of Holy Drinking Water.
“Every faith?” So, representatives from all 4,200 religions in the world are going to bless each individual bottle of water before the product is shipped out? Sounds like a logistical nightmare.