Pope resigns, God strikes St. Peter's Basilica with lightning

Just hours after Pope Benedict XVI quit, a lightning bolt struck St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican. Yeah, yeah, lightning probably strikes the church on days when the pope hasn't resigned too. But it's more fun to ignore that as you appreciate this. (The Guardian)

• [euansmith]

  Surely you must have seen the Spielberg “War of the Worlds”? That is the new Pope beaming in from God’s Orbital Oppression Fortress.

• [Roose_Bolton]

  We’ll be able to beat this one with microbe-laced holy water.

  (gahhhh…meant as a reply to euansmith)

• [spacemunky]

  “Missed me by that much….”

• [Christopher]

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H58WCIWWtOw

• [Damien Bailey]

  UNLIMITED POWER!!!!!!!

  • [SumAnon]

    DAMN, you beat me to it

• [Phlip]

  “God, if you agree with this plan, please give me no sign whatsoever” ~~Homer Simpson

• [Cactaur]

  Nothing to see here folks, they’re just reanimating the next one.

  • [welcomeabored]

    It’s ALIVE!

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8H3dFh6GA-A

• [annoyingmouse]

  So a single bolt of lightning… wow…. all powerful… or, in actual fact, less powerful than…

  https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e5/Tesla_colorado_adjusted.jpg

  Nikola laughs at your puniness

• [chaopoiesis]

  white smoke 2.0

  • [franko]

    “…the process just needs more ZAZZ, you know?”

• [PlutoniumX]

  What does God need with a Starship?!

• [planettom]

  Coincidence.   It’s a Highlander quickening!

• [Dwen Dooley]

  Quickest Exit Interview Ever

• [oldtaku]

  Frau Blucher!

• [soylent_plaid]

  Pope: I plan on retiring in the next few weeks, in preparation for an eventual succession by Easter…
  God: GTFO already!

• [That_Anonymous_Coward]

  God needs a new targeting system.

• [gracchus]

  Can’t say I’m shocked by this …

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4BOQI-LAEzM

• [MarcVader]

  Y’all know that a bolt of lightning flows from the earth towards the sky, I suppose? Ok, think about that…

  • [Antinous / Moderator]

    The Vatican is Minas Morgul?

    • [MarcVader]

      Maybe they found the Ark and opened it! Dr. Jones’ urgent warnings notwithstanding.

      Nah, it’s probably just a powerful Sith lord goofing around a bit. Scaring the cardinals…

      • [MarcVader]

         There, evidence! http://topekasnews.com/files/2013/02/pope-summons-force-lightning.png

  • [wysinwyg]

     Umm, not entirely true.  Lightning starts by traveling downwards and then a sort of response works its way up.

    It’s really easy to see this in any slow motion video of lightning.  Here:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dukkO7c2eUE

    Goes down first, THEN comes up.

    • [MarcVader]

      I find you lack of faith disturbing…

      I worded that quite carefully: “bolt of lightning”. The bolt travels upwards. The thing before that are tachyons of course, sent by the bolt into the past to create an ionized channel for it.

• [StaneStane]

  This photo tells us something very important about Vatican. They have absolute faith in god, yet they have found it prudent to install a lightning rod with grounding.

  • [That_Anonymous_Coward]

    Faith in an all powerful being is easier to have behind bulletproof glass.

  • [James Penrose]

    Lightning rods were considered blasphemous when they first started being sold.

    It was also predicted they would not work since you can’t interfere with the “will of god” ™ (Except apparently when using birth control, amazing that latex can stop a deity.)

    “For his part, Franklin was amused by the reaction. Why, he wryly asked, was it acceptable to build a roof to keep out the rain but blasphemy to place a rod upon the roof to keep out the lightning?”

    http://travel.nytimes.com/2005/11/18/opinion/18liell.html?_r=0

• [Antinous / Moderator]

  I was horrified that even news outlets like the BBC reported this with pie-faced sincerity.

  • [MarcVader]

    Something something irrestistible force and immovable object. Maybe. Definitely irresistible to the media. Also BBC probably read it here. ;)

• [Keith Moore]

  Balmer throws chairs, God throws lightning bolts.