Proving that the healing power of a Jewish psychoanalyst can be felt across all segments of the world, today it was revealed that even the world’s #1 Catholic, Pope Francis had a weekly session with a Jewish therapist back in his 40s.
Naturally, she helped him sort it all out on his path to Popedom. Per the AP:
Pope Francis says that when he was 42 he had sessions weekly with a psychoanalyst who was female and Jewish to “clarify some things.”
It wasn’t specified what the future pontiff wanted to explore. The revelation came in a dozen conversations Francis had with French sociologist Dominique Wolton, writing a soon-to-be-published book.
La Stampa, an Italian daily, quoting from some of the conversations on Friday, said Francis went to the analyst’s home. Francis was quoted as saying: “one day, when she was about to die, she called me. Not to receive the sacraments, since she was Jewish, but for a spiritual dialogue.”
“She was a good person. For six months she helped me a lot,” Francis said.
Look, I was born and raised on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, a land which is as full of kindly Jewish therapists as our bagels are bursting with carbs, so this makes total sense to me.
All I can say to anyone who might be curious about therapy upon hearing Il Papa’s revelation is the following: you have to do the work, your hour is 50 minutes, and even if you have a direct line to God you probably want to start out by examining your childhood.
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