Pope Accidentally Calls Space Station Instead of God for Weekly Skype Session, Plays it Cool
October 26, 2017
The Vatican went into full panic mode earlier today when Pope Francis’ new assistant dialed into the wrong satellite uplink.
Instead of calling up the big guy in the sky, the assistant dialed the International Space Station. Since Pope Francis became the leader of the Catholic Church in 2013, his holiness has insisted that a weekly Skype call be held with the lord almighty and gets annoyed when they miss a week.
Pope Francis talks with crew members of the International Space Station, ISS Expedition 53, during an audio-video connection at the Vatican October 26, 2017. Osservatore Romano/Handout via Reuters ATTENTION EDITORS – THIS IMAGE WAS PROVIDED BY A THIRD PARTY. NO RESALES. NO ARCHIVE. – RC171A4291A0
Despite the error, Pope Francis kept a straight face and made the crew on the orbiting laboratory think he meant to call. “Dear Brothers, we feel that you are representatives of the entire human family in the great project of research that is taking place at the International Space Station,” said Pope Francis with a single drop of sweat coming down the side of his face.
The international crew of Expedition 53 was in the midst of a heated discussion on changing up the request for future Burrito ingredients––the main complaint being the tameness of the hot sauce.
When the Vatican realized that they indeed called the ISS, Skype’s slow video buffering time was utilized to quickly summon the President of the Italian Space Agency, Roberto Battiston, and the European Space Agency’s Director of Earth Observation, Josef Aschbacher to assist.
They were rushed to the “Auletta” of the Paul VI Hall where they would join Pope Francis for a completely improvised 20-minute phone call.
Expedition Commander Randolph Bresnik answered the call on his Macbook Pro and was joined by Italian Astronaut Paolo Nespoli, Cosmonauts Sergey Ryanzansky and Alexander Misurkin, and NASA Astronauts Mark Vande Hei and Joe Acaba.
We’re, of course, kidding. Watch the wonderful exchange between Pope Francis and the International Space Station below.
