Pope Francis Asks for Tequila for Ailing Knee in Viral Video

Alcohol has been used as a pain medicine since ancient times. While it has been replaced in medical settings by opiates and other narcotics, many still use it unofficially. A 2019 study from Michigan Health Lab suggested that moderate alcohol use is associated with less chronic pain.

Jesus was said to have turned water into wine as his first miracle. But the man Catholic dogma says has a direct earthly connection to God had a different spirit on his mind.

Pope Francis has a bad knee. Vatican doctors have prescribed a wheelchair, cane and physical therapy to help it heal. But while speaking to a crowd of priests in a viral TikTok video, Francis had another idea on how to deal with the pain: tequila.

Speaking to a group of seminarians from the Legion of Christ from his “popemobile,” Papa Pancho, as the pope is sometimes called, spoke in his native Spanish tongue and told the Mexican practitioners that while it may be “capricious,” what he really needed for the pain was “some tequila.”

Francis is 85 years old and his health issues have raised concerns that a conclave may need to be called to pick a new pope. However, the Argentinian Bishop Victor Manuel Fernandez tweeted on May 14 that Francis is in good health besides the knee and that the two hours of physical therapy he undergoes a day “is producing results.”

The Pope had to pull out of a trip to Lebanon due to his knee but still has plans to travel to Canada, South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo in July.

The Mexican seminarians joked with Francis that they would bring him a bottle of tequila to Santa Marta. If they do that, maybe Francis will be able to continue his duties as Pope for a while longer.