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“I hold you in high esteem as artists who express yourselves through the language of comedy, humor, and irony,” the pope said in Italian. “ … You have the power to spread peace and smiles.”
He also talked about how comedy and Catholicism can go together: “Can we laugh at God? Of course, we can, just as we play and joke with the people we love.”
The entertainers in attendance — including Conan O’Brien, Stephen Colbert, Whoopi Goldberg, Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Jim Gaffigan — appeared in high spirits, listening intently to the pope’s remarks, warmly greeting the leader of the Catholic Church, and of course, not missing the opportunity to crack jokes or do a bit of physical comedy.
At one point, Fallon and Rock crept up behind the pontiff’s chair to photobomb him. Pope Francis turned around with a smile, causing the audience to double over in laughter.
“We’re all looking at each other, thinking, ‘Something’s wrong.’ This beautiful, beautiful space — the Vatican — and for some reason, they’ve let comedians in, which is always a mistake,” O’Brien told reporters. In an interview with Catholic news outlet EWTN News, he added it was “nice that someone with the power of the pope just recognized the humor, just for a moment.”
Colbert, who’s Catholic, shared his excitement after meeting the pope, saying he’s read the pontiff’s memoir: “I really want to do a cooking segment with him because he talks a lot about cooking. Evidently, he makes a great tortellini in brodo.”
Not everyone was in on the joke. Some conservatives were offended by some of the comedians’ liberal leanings and prior material about Christians.
Bill Donohue, president and co-founder of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, lashed out at Colbert’s previous joke suggesting that the Eucharist could be a Dorito, and Fallon and O’Brien’s jests about priests amid the church’s sexual abuse scandal.
And others noted that the event came days after the pope allegedly repeated a gay slur in a meeting with clergy discussing gay priests, just two weeks after issuing an apology for using the same word in an earlier meeting. Even Colbert took the pope to task on his show this week before traveling to Italy: “You’re the progressive pope. You’ve made landmark statements in support of same-sex civil unions, conducted LGBTQ+ outreach, and said of gay priests, ‘Who am I to judge?’” Colbert said. “You’re supposed to be the cool pope! The Vatican ally!”
After the comedian event, which was organized by the Dicastery for Culture and Education, the pope traveled to southern Italy to make history, speaking about the implications of artificial intelligence as the first pontiff to address leaders at the Group of Seven summit.
“Continue to cheer people up, especially those who have the hardest time looking at life with hope,” Pope Francis said as he closed out his speech. “Help us, with a smile, to see reality with its contradictions, and to dream of a better world!”
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