Rugby (the religion of Wales) and its influence on the Catholic church: should Pope Benedict XVI be worried?
BMJ 2008; 337 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.a2768 (Published 18 December 2008) Cite this as: BMJ 2008;337:a2768
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There may be an interesting corollary to this study.
In 1981, Pope John Paul II was shot in the stomach and critically
wounded by Mehmet Ali Agca. He went on to make full recovery after
surgery. This was also the year that Wales did spectacularly badly -
coming 2nd last in the Five Nations (as it then was) though admittedly
only on points difference. During the rest of his long pontificate, Wales
suffered. This was a lean period in which Wales won only two Five Nations
Championships in 1988 and 1994. Nothing untoward happened to the Pontiff
in 1988 but it might be noteworthy that he fell and fractured his femur in
1994.
Clearly the link between Welsh rugby success and Papal health
requires further study. Hopefully the Holy Father can make it unscathed
through the next 10 days. Then again he has a heavy schedule of three
Masses to say on Thursday, and he's not a young man.....
Ad multos annos and Happy Christmas.
Competing interests:
The author is a Roman Catholic and an Englishman
Competing interests: No competing interests
Seeing as Welsh is the language of Heaven, perhaps divine
intervention is the
wild card here.
Competing interests:
A Welshman
Competing interests: No competing interests
Gareth Payne and colleague's remarkable ecological study on papal
mortality and rugby made me wonder about an even more remarkable
individual mentioned in the text - Pope Pius IX. Payne et al describe him
as "pope from 1792 to 1878" an astounding longevity for an office usually
filled by men in late middle age. But there's more! The same Pius pops
up again (resurrected?) only to die in 1922.
Of course the explaination is that 1792 is the year Giovanni Maria
Mastai-Ferretti was born - he only became known as Pius IX when he became
pope in 1846, a position he held until his death in 1878 when there was no
international rugby tournament. The individual who died in 1922 when
Wales won the tournament was Pius XI (note the transposition of roman
numerals).
My conclusion therefore, based on a very small sample, is although
Payne et al know a lot about statistics and rugby their knowledge of papal
history needs to improve.
Competing interests:
None declared
Competing interests: No competing interests
wales
interesting but welsh rugby is a common religion and cannot be
compared to Catholism which represents a supernatural being therefore your
hypotheses is incorrect
Competing interests:
None declared
Competing interests: No competing interests