The pope is running late
The pope flies into chicago for a major meeting of midwestern cardinals.
He's late, and being made later by the slowness of his party in getting
itself deplaned. Impulsively, he decided to leave for the meeting, and let his
his numerous aides, et al. arrive in their own time. With a quick adieu, he runs out
(this happened a few years ago) to the roadway, and jumps into his waiting limo.
"I need to get to St. Ignatius in a hurry", he tells the driver.
The driver starts off, but keeps his speed to the 55mph limit.
The pope, noticing the seconds ticking away at an alarming rate, taps the
partition and asks the driver "could you please speed up, I'm terribly late".
The driver responds "sorry, mr. pontiff, but I just can't. This job is too
important to risk, and my company doesn't like us to get tickets'".
The holy see grumbles under his breath, and then his eyes light up --
"say, I have an idea. Let me drive, surely your boss wouldn't refuse
that request, given the circumstances". After a few minutes of argument,
the driver agrees; pulls over, and lets the aging but still spry holy
father hop into the driver's seat, while he decamps to the spacious rear compartment.
The pope punches the acclerator, and cruisses at 90 for a few minutes.
Perhaps inevitably, a police cruiser spots him, and after a very short chase,
pulls the limo over. The cop, slightly annoyed, walks to the window, does
a quick double take, takes a long hard look at the occupants of the speedmobile,
and walks back to his squad car. Picking up the horn, he gets through to the
precinct captain after a few choice words with the dispatcher.
"Joe", he says (for the precinct captain has this common moniker),
"I have a real problem with a speeder".
Joe responds "what problem, this is the 1990's chicago, we don't play
games with motorists anymore".
"But", responds the beat cop "this is not an ordinary speeder .."
"I don't care' replies his upright supervisor, " we don't make exceptions
-- it's the law! "
"But" , the cop reiterates, " I'm telling you this is really different"
"Okay, okay, who is this hot shot anyways?"
"Well, I'm not sure, but the pope is his chauffeur"
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