Pope Francis, Who Once Called Scotch ‘The Real Holy Water,’ Jokes That He Needs Tequila to Heal Knee Pain

Pope Francis stands leads a canonization mass at St. Peter’s Square in The Vatican on May 15, creating 10 saints including India’s Devasahayam, French hermit Charles de Foucauld and Dutch theologian Titus Brandsma. (Photo by VINCENZO PINTO/AFP via Getty Images)

When asked this week by a group of newly ordained Mexican priests how his knee is doing, Pope Francis described it as “very capricious,” before quipping: “You know what I need for my leg? A little tequila.”

The priests roared with laughter, and one responded, “If one day we go to Santa Marta, we’ll bring you a little bottle.”

A TikTok showing video footage of the exchange went viral Monday.

Francis’ knee pain has been so bad that it has forced him into a wheelchair.

In 2016, before a trip to Mexico, a priest shouted “We are waiting for you!” to the Pope in Saint Peter’s Square. “With Tequila or without Tequila?” Francis replied with a grin.

In 2020, the Pope described a bottle of scotch whisky that had been gifted to him as “the real holy water.”

In January, a priest in Lexington, Kentucky, sold a rare bottle of Buffalo Trace’s 1995 O.F.C. Vintage Bourbon and a basketball blessed by the Pope for $16,698 at auction and put all of the funds toward recovery in western Kentucky from a Dec. 10 tornado that caused widespread destruction in the area.

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