Pope Francis Reveals He Was Once A Bouncer

Pope Francis I

Pope Francis continues to surprise people, most recently in a talk with parishioners where he revealed a very interesting job he held before becoming a Catholic Priest:

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — In addition to having worked sweeping floors and running tests in a chemical laboratory as a teenager, Pope Francis revealed he also used to work as a bouncer.

No longer kicking troublemakers out of clubs, he has discovered the secret to bringing people back, this time, into the church, according to the Vatican newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano, Dec. 2.

The pope spent four hours at a parish visit of the church of San Cirillo Alessandrino in a working-class neighborhood on the outskirts of Rome Dec. 1. He chatted informally with a large number of parishioners before and after celebrating Mass.

He told one group that when he was young, he worked as a bouncer, and that his work later in life, teaching literature and psychology, taught him how to get people back into the church.

I’m going to guess that this Pope is the first former bouncer to ascend to the Papacy.

H/T: Jeff Quinton via Twitter

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Doug Mataconis
About Doug Mataconis
Doug Mataconis held a B.A. in Political Science from Rutgers University and J.D. from George Mason University School of Law. He joined the staff of OTB in May 2010 and contributed a staggering 16,483 posts before his retirement in January 2020. He passed far too young in July 2021.

Comments

  1. John Peabody says:

    No doubt Tigger will be the second.

  2. michael reynolds says:

    Liking this guy more and more.

  3. mattbernius says:

    There’s no way to let this post pass without this clip from Peter Jackson’s “Braindead” (aka “Dead Alive”):

    http://youtu.be/rC6WAAlNHt4?t=1m22s

  4. Tylerh says:

    “I’m going to guess that this Pope is the first former bouncer to ascend to the Papacy.”

    You might want to take a closer look; some those Medieval popes could be real bruisers.

    Indeed Boniface VIII’s papacy ended when he lost a bar fight. Sergius III wasn’t exactly a retiring cleric, and Alexander Vi was a Borgia….

  5. C. Clavin says:

    Seriously…it seems like the fact that the Pope just eviscerated 40 years of failed Republican Economic Theory would garner more interest from a Blog claiming to be about politics and foreign affairs than the fact that he was once a bouncer.
    But there you go.
    http://www.businessinsider.com/the-pope-on-the-financial-system-inequality-money-2013-11

  6. Moosebreath says:

    @C. Clavin:

    “Seriously…it seems like the fact that the Pope just eviscerated 40 years of failed Republican Economic Theory”

    Or that the de facto leader of the GOP referred to the Pope’s teachings as “pure Marxism”

  7. Grewgills says:

    @C. Clavin:
    I believe that was also covered on OTB. This is just another interesting bit of trivia.

  8. C. Clavin says:

    @Grewgills:
    Perhaps I missed it…

  9. Matt says:

    @C. Clavin: I certainly cannot find it 🙁

  10. Grewgills says:

    Perhaps I am remembering it being brought up in the “pope francis is a liberal” thread. A two week old in the house is clouding my brain.

  11. C. Clavin says:

    @Matt:
    Yeah…I couldn’t find it either.

  12. C. Clavin says:

    @Moosebreath:
    De facto?
    Or de fatso?

  13. wr says:

    I’d say a past as a bouncer is better than a membership in the Hitler Youth…

  14. JohnMcC says:

    @wr: A winner by a mile!