Prayers are being said for Christopher Hitchens — despite his anti-religious beliefs — with the news that he has cancer of the esophagus. The contrarian intellectual, who recently canceled the promotional tour for his well-received memoir, “Hitch 22,” posted a statement yesterday on the Vanity Fair Web site, saying, “I have been advised by my physician that I must undergo a course of chemotherapy on my esophagus . . . I regret having had to cancel so many engagements at such short notice.” Hitchens — author of “The Missionary Position,” which trashed Mother Teresa — is known as a prodigious consumer of scotch and cigarettes.