Pope Francis said that laughing at God “is not blasphemy” as he met more than 100 comedians from around the world at the Vatican, encouraging them to use their powerful gift of humour to spread laughter “in the midst of so much gloomy news”.
The pontiff, himself prone to the odd quip, invited comedians including Jimmy Fallon, Chris Rock, Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Stephen Merchant to the audience at the Apostolic Palace on Friday as part of his attempt to engage with contemporary culture.
“In the midst of so much gloomy news, immersed as we are in so many social and even personal emergencies, you have the power to spread peace and smiles,” Francis, 87, said in a speech issued to the press by the Holy See.
“You are among the few to have the ability to speak to very different people, from different generations and cultural backgrounds. You unite people, because laughter is contagious.”
Francis said he has prayed to God for 40 years and asked him for “a good sense of humour”, before adding that it was not blasphemous to “laugh at God”, in the same way we “play and joke with the people we love”. However, he warned the comics that humour can be used “without offending the religious feelings of believers, especially the poor”.
The pope shook hands with the comedians afterwards, while Father Antonio Spadaro, the Vatican’s undersecretary for culture and education, shared a selfie with Whoopi Goldberg on social media.
The vast majority of the comedians present were Italian, followed by 12 from the US. Three came from Ireland – Ardal O’Hanlon, Tommy Tiernan and Patrick Kielty.
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Francis told the comics that they managed to make people smile while also “dealing with problems, large and small”. He added: “You denounce abuses of power; you give voice to forgotten situations; you highlight abuses; you point out inappropriate behaviour.”
The Irish comedians were criticised for their attendance in an opinion piece on the Irish news website The Journal. “It seems grossly offensive, at best, that an organisation which presided over and aided in the cover-up of systemic child abuse could have the audacity to suggest it is now time for some laughs,” wrote Simon Tierney, who said that after hearing about the event he recalled another Irish entertainer “who took a rather more defiant approach to a different Pope”.
Tierney was referring to the late Sinead O’Connor, who in 1992 caused a severe backlash after tearing up a photo of Pope John Paul II on live TV in protest against child sexual abuse in the Catholic church.
Francis, who in recent years has been blighted by ill-health, had a busy schedule on Friday, including meeting the president of Cape Verde and bishops from Equatorial Guinea before travelling by helicopter to Puglia, where he will be the first pontiff to address a G7 summit. The pope will lead a discussion about AI and has 10 bilateral meetings on the agenda.