Pope Francis Leaves Nuns An Epic Voicemail

How many nuns does it take to answer a call from the Pope at New Year's? Nope, not a 2014-themed joke: On New Year's Eve, Pope Francis called the Carmelite Order of Luccena in Cordoba, Spain to wish them a happy new year, and left a voicemail at 11.45 p.m. wanting to know exactly why they weren't around to pick up his call.

What are the nuns doing that they can't answer [the phone]? I am Pope Francis, I wish to greet you in this end of the year, I will see if I can call you later. May God bless you!

If you understand Spanish, you can listen to the voicemail here. Presumably the nuns were so aghast at having missed His Holiness' Happy New Year's message, they felt they'd better do penance by sharing his good will with the rest of the world. Luckily for them, Pope Francis called back the next evening, according to Spanish news source ABC.

Catholic convents in Europe are dwindling, and the Carmelite Order of Luccena is no exception. Maybe the Pope thought that the diminishing Order, which houses three sisters from his native Argentina, needed all the kind of moral support only a call from his Holiness could supply.

But the Holy voicemail raised a good point — just what were the nuns doing at 11.45pm on New Year's Eve to miss that call? Cleaning? Singing? Praying? Enjoying a glass of the local tipple, Oloroso, and shrugging off a check-in from God's Right-Hand-Man-On-Earth?