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>In 1955, von Neumann was diagnosed with what was either bone, pancreatic or prostate cancer[207][208] after he was examined by physicians for a fall, whereupon they inspected a mass growing near his collarbone.[209] The cancer was possibly caused by his radiation exposure during his time in Los Alamos National Laboratory.[209] He was not able to accept the proximity of his own demise, and the shadow of impending death instilled great fear in him.[210] He invited a Catholic priest, Father Anselm Strittmatter, O.S.B., to visit him for consultation.[18][209] Von Neumann reportedly said, "So long as there is the possibility of eternal damnation for nonbelievers it is more logical to be a believer at the end," referring to Pascal's wager. He had earlier confided to his mother, "There probably has to be a God. Many things are easier to explain if there is than if there isn't."[211][212][213] Father Strittmatter administered the last rites to him.[18] Some of von Neumann's friends, such as Abraham Pais and Oskar Morgenstern, said they had always believed him to be "completely agnostic".[212][214] Of this deathbed conversion, Morgenstern told Heims, "He was of course completely agnostic all his life, and then he suddenly turned Catholic—it doesn't agree with anything whatsoever in his attitude, outlook and thinking when he was healthy."[215] Father Strittmatter recalled that even after his conversion, von Neumann did not receive much peace or comfort from it, as he still remained terrified of death.[215]
