June 8, 2024Catholic News AgencyNews Briefs22Print
Rome Newsroom, Jun 8, 2024 / 08:11 am (CNA).
It’s no joke: Pope Francis will take the mic in front of over 100 comics, stand-up comedians, and humorists, including Americans Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Fallon, at the Vatican next Friday.
Jim Gaffigan, Conan O’Brien, Chris Rock, Tig Notaro, and Whoopi Goldberg are the other U.S. comedians expected to take part.
The June 14 meeting was organized by the Vatican’s Dicastery for Culture and Education and Dicastery for Communication and “aims to establish a link between the Catholic Church and comic artists,” according to a June 8 press release.
As of June 8, a list of 105 comics and humorists from 15 countries had confirmed their participation in the papal audience.
The Vatican said the encounter intends “to celebrate the beauty of human diversity and promote a message of peace, love, and solidarity, and promises to be a meaningful moment of intercultural dialogue and sharing of joy and hope.”
Most of the comedians and humorists slated to participate — 67 — are from Italy, while six are from the South American countries of Argentina, Brazil, and Colombia, and 22 from European countries other than Italy. Two comedians from Mexico — Florinda Meza García and Chumel Torres — will also take part. The only Asian country represented is East Timor.
Jesuit Father James Martin is also slated to attend. Martin is the former chaplain of “The Colbert Report” and appears to be the only clergy member listed among participants in the June 14 encounter.
The audience, which will take place in the Apostolic Palace, occurs almost exactly one year after Pope Francis addressed a group of approximately 200 prominent artists in the Sistine Chapel — an event also organized by the Dicastery for Culture and Education.
The 2023 meeting notably included figures such as U.S. film director Abel Ferrara and U.S. photographer Andres Serrano, creator of the controversial 1987 “Piss Christ” image, a photograph of a plastic crucifix submerged in urine.
Pope Francis previously met actress and daytime talk-show host Whoopi Goldberg in October 2023.
Another notable attendee is the Roman street artist Mauro Pallotta, who goes by the name “Maupal,” and is known for his 2014 depiction of Pope Francis as superman, “Super Pope.”
In its announcement of the papal meeting with comedians, the Vatican highlighted the words of Pope Francis in a 2016 interview with the Italian Catholic television channel TV2000.
On that occasion, the pontiff said: “A sense of humor is a grace that I ask for every day, and I pray that beautiful prayer of St. Thomas More: ‘Give me, Lord, a sense of humor,’ that I know how to laugh at a joke … it’s beautiful, that prayer, isn’t it? Because a sense of humor lifts you up, makes you see the temporariness of life and take things with a spirit of a redeemed soul. It is a human attitude, but it is the closest to God’s grace.”
If you value the news and views Catholic World Report provides, please consider donating to support our efforts. Your contribution will help us continue to make CWR available to all readers worldwide for free, without a subscription. Thank you for your generosity!
Click here for more information on donating to CWR. Click here to sign up for our newsletter.
- Catholic News
- comedy
- Pope Francis
- Stephen Colbert
- Vatican
- Vatican news
Related Articles
News Briefs
Church in Honduras calls on government to consider changing strategy amid wave of violence
July 1, 2023Catholic News Agency1
null / Unsplash
ACI Prensa Staff, Jul 1, 2023 / 09:00 am (CNA).
The Honduran Bishops’ Conference called on the country’s government to consider changing its security strategy in the midst of a wave of violence that has intensified and worsened … […]
News Briefs
Pope announces special 2019 Synod of Bishops on South American region
October 15, 2017CNA Daily News0
Vatican City, Oct 15, 2017 / 04:32 am (CNA/EWTN News).- On Sunday, Pope Francis announced the decision to hold a special assembly of the Synod of Bishops, to take place in October 2019, on the state of evangelization in the Amazonian region of South America.
“Accepting the desire of some Catholic bishops’ conferences in Latin America, as well as the voice of various pastors and faithful from other parts of the world, I have decided to convene a Special Assembly of the Synod of Bishops,” Francis said Oct. 15.
The purpose of the assembly will be to “identify new paths for the evangelization” of people in the region of the countries of Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela, “especially the indigenous people, often forgotten,” he said.
The assembly will also address the “crisis of the Amazonian Forest, a lung of great importance to our planet.”
The Pope’s announcement was made in St. Peter’s Square before the recitation of the Angelus, and following the canonization Mass of 35 new saints.
New saints Andre de Soveral, Ambrosio Francisco Ferro, and Mateo Moreira and 27 companions were all martyred in Brazil. Three teenage boys, Cristobal, Antonio and Juan, also martyred, were from Mexico.
The other new saints are Faustino Miguez of Spain and Angelo of Acri, Italy.
“The new Saints will intercede for this ecclesial event, so that, in respect for the beauty of creation, all the peoples of the earth may praise God, Lord of the universe, and enlightened by him walk on the paths of justice and peace,” Francis stated.
Serving as an advisory body to the Pope, the Synod of Bishops was established by Pope Paul VI in 1965 by the motu proprio Apostolica sollicitudo to “strengthen (the Pope’s) union” with other bishops and to “establish even closer ties” with them.
It consists of a group of bishops from around the world who meet every three years “to foster closer unity between the Roman Pontiff and bishops, to assist the Roman Pontiff with their counsel…and to consider questions pertaining to the activity of the Church in the world,” according to canon law.
The Synod of Bishops may meet for ordinary general assemblies, which are on a matter of importance to the Church in general and held at fixed intervals, or for special assemblies, which focus on a specific geographical area of the Church.
Extraordinary general assemblies can also be organized in the case of an urgent matter.
The last special assembly of the Synod of Bishops was held in 2010 on the situation in the Middle East.
The 50th General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops is set to take place in October 2018, and will discuss “Young People, the Faith and the Discernment of Vocation.”
The last Synod of Bishops was dedicated to the family and took place in two parts, the first being an Extraordinary Synod in 2014, which was followed by the Ordinary Synod in 2015 that drew 279 cardinals, bishops and representatives from all over the world to discuss the challenges and blessings of family life.
[…]
News Briefs
Vatican says trial of Italian woman for alleged embezzlement will begin soon
January 18, 2021CNA Daily News0
Vatican City, Jan 18, 2021 / 09:00 am (CNA).- The Vatican announced on Monday that the trial of an Italian woman for alleged embezzlement would begin soon.
A statement issued on Jan. 18 by the Holy See press office also indicated that the Vatica… […]
22 Comments
Oh, good heavens! The punch lines write themselves!
Never mind the uncanny resemblance between Bergoglio and Stan Laurel of Laurel ‘n’ Hardy.
Reply
Anyone old enough to have seen the Ed Sullivan Show in the sixties should get this one:
I’m wondering if Bergoglio will do his impression of the pontifical Italian mouse, Popo Gigio.
Reply
Good ones, Briney, but frankly, Hardy fills Imbroglio’s shoes better since he is the heavier half of the two.
Reply
It’s one thing to enjoy a joke, or to even take a joke, but it’s quite another to be a joke. Of course court-jester James Martin “is slated to attend.”
Reply
Did they invite Krusty the Clown? Oh veh! Who’s paying for all this? It’s a boondoggle for bozos.
Reply
Should be a great time for a clown Mass. They might even get the Pope to preside again. Maybe Fr. Martin will wear a rainbow wig?
Reply
Maybe the comedians could cram into Cardinal Burke’s apartment, like a Fiat. And the circus performers could be called back to join them. Together, they could hang around to run the Synod on Synodaling II, providing a fitting finale to this pontificate.
Reply
That clown finale would resound and re-echo. If only the echo would end the show Speaking of sound. Deleting the “S” leaves “Ynod” and “Ynodaling.” Don’t those sound just like “Yodel” or “Ya Know”?
Onto the pope musing on music. Who knew? Wikipedia defines yodeling: “…
repeated and rapid changes of pitch between the low-pitch chest register (or “chest voice”) and the high-pitch head register or falsetto. The English word yodel is derived from the German word jodeln, meaning “to utter the syllable jo” (pronounced “yo”).YO!
Reply
I’ve said before on this site that the Bergoglian Anti-papacy is akin to a circus. Now we have more proof that Bergoglio is assembling his fellow clowns. I suggest a theme song for this papacy: Judy Collins singing “Send in the Clowns.”
Reply
I’ll wait for the likes of Robert Royal and Gavin Ashenden to comment on this latest Francis move.
Reply
Comedians are serious guys. They cannot be taken lightly. Through their comic stuff, comedians provide joy to fellow pilgrims on common journey.
Reply
Indubitably Dr. C., the comic stuff of comedians is serious. 🧐
Reply
!!!BRAVO!!!
Reply
I’m wondering whether Jay Leno will cop a red beanie when all is said and done!
He’d surely do a better job than the rest of Bergoglio’s cardinals!
And maybe Bergoglio and Jim Carrey will do a scene from “Dumb and Dumber”! (With a nod to our esteemed commentary colleague, God’s Fool.)
Reply
“Just when I think you couldn’t be any dumber, you go and do something like this, and totally redeem yourself!!!”
Reply
LOLOL!
Nicely done, dear Fool! You always have the apropos bon mot!
Isn’t this the best all-time story from the Bergoglio Imbroglio?
So funny! So fitting! So absurd!
God is good to us!
Putting it all into the proper perspective as only He can!
Reply
Aha! Now I understand!
This entire Bergoglian papacy has been an extended exercise in schtick! Jorge is just a Borscht Belt holdover whose buddies call him “Shecky.”
And Tucho’s problem isn’t that he’s a heretic. It’s just that he’s stepped over the line by airing his blue material during matinees.
Cupich? McElroy? Hollerich? Martin? Stowe? Paglia?
They’re not really serious about excusing sin and condemning orthodoxy.
They’re just Uncle Bergie’s Vat Pack, trying to get a chuckle from an admittedly sedate and backwardist audience.
So ease off, you Rad-Trad retreads! Don’t forget to tip your servers, and the Vat Pack will be here all week!
Reply
Given to speed read, I saw “comic” as “con.”
This show “aims to establish a link between the Catholic Church and comic artists…”
Reply
Because con art is good for the Church.
And Briney: That rad-trad retreat was the best! As was the VAT pack!
Reply
The gathering won’t be complete if it does not include Fr. Guido Sarducci.
Reply
If the Pope really wanted a laugh, he should have invited America’s #1 late-night comic, Greg Gutfeld, to mix it up with Whoopi and Colbert.
Reply
No question. Bergoglio’s will be remembered as…
The Papacy With The Big Red Nose.
Reply
