Couldn’t you just have the pope bless 50%, and then immediately bless another fraction of a % as soon as the rotation of Earth and Europa continues, such that a *tiny fraction* of an additional percent can be added before dilution occurs?
Potentially, but this will depend on the dissolution rate of the holiness in half-non-holy water. If it’s slow enough that Europa’s axial rotation can allow the Pope to bless an additional 1% of its surface before it dissipates, then we can bless Europa. If not, we’re pretty much sunk.
Europa’s orbital period is about 3.5 days, a little more than the time it takes for light from Earth to reach Europa. Assuming that Special Relativity holds even in the case of divine causation (an unjustified assumption, but let me have it) it takes a little over two days for the ‘blessing signal’ to reach the surface of Europa facing the Earth at the time of reception. That means that this whole maneuver will have to be timed very carefully to ensure that Europa is not eclipsed by Jupiter at either the bless point or the reception point. This is, however, doable. The Pope can get off two blessings that will both strike the surface of Europa and add up to more than 51% of surface area blessed.
I did a little back-of-an-envelope math to figure out how long the Pope would have to wait between blessing sessions to make sure that he hit the extra 1% of Europa on the second bless. Thankfully for our purposes, Europa moves pretty quick and its rotation is tidally locked. From my calculations, it looks like the time-between-blessings should be a little under 22 minutes.
To sum it up:
If the dissolution time for holiness is less than 22 minutes and a high-level cleric such as the Pope can rattle off a blessing in less than that 22 minute span, then (at least mathematically) we can succeed in our mission to Bless Europa.
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