Pope Francis Calls Scotch Whisky ‘The Real Holy Water,’ Recommends Not Blessing Your Liver Too Much

We already consider whisky to be the closest thing to a gift from God. We especially enjoy single malt Scotch whisky. Glenlivet, Glenmorangie, Ardbeg, The Macallan, Lagavulin — we literally can’t get enough of it. But, little did we know just how holy our favorite whisky actually was. Sure, we all know that wine is used as the “blood” of Christ in Catholic mass and we’re all well aware of holy water (even if our only experience with it is when it’s used in movies to ward off vampires). But we didn’t know that Scotch was the holiest of all whiskies.

That’s according to Pope Francis (yes, really), so it must be true, right? You’re probably confused as to how this all came to be. Let’s break it down for you. Filmmaker Tony Kearny took a trip to the Vatican last year to get footage for a documentary he was working on called Priest School. When he was there, he filmed a group of Scottish-born priests giving Pope Francis a seemingly unholy spirit: a bottle of Oban Scotch.

But, according to Kearny, the pontiff took the bottle and quipped, “Questa è la vera acqua santa.” Translated into English, he said, “This is the real holy water.” Apparently, he’s well known as a fan of the brown stuff and made a similar comment to another priest who gifted him a bottle of Scotch a few years ago. All we know is that we won’t be wasting a bottle of single malt attempting to stop a horde of vampires any time soon. We’ll just stick to drinking it and feeling a little holier while we do it. The GIFs below prove it.