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OBJECTIVE: To explore the perceived wisdom that papal mortality is related to the success of the Welsh rugby union team. DESIGN: Retrospective observational study of historical Vatican and sporting data. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: Papal deaths between 1883 and the present day. RESULTS: There is no evidence of a link between papal deaths and any home nation grand slams (when one nation succeeds in beating all other competing teams in every match). There was, however, weak statistical evidence to support an association between Welsh performance and the number of papal deaths. CONCLUSION: Given the dominant Welsh performances of 2008, the Vatican medical team should take special care of the pontiff this Christmas.

Original publication

DOI

10.1136/bmj.a2768

Type

Journal article

Journal

BMJ

Publication Date

17/12/2008

Volume

337

Keywords

Catholicism, Clergy, Football, Humans, Male, Mortality, Regression Analysis, Wales