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Pope Francis met with 105 comedians, writers, and actors from around the globe on Friday to “establish a link” between the entertainers and the Roman Catholic Church.
The audience included American stars such as Conan O’Brien, Chris Rock, Jimmy Fallon, Stephen Colbert, and Whoopi Goldberg.
The lighthearted meeting received high praise from those in attendance. Goldberg said the gathering was “really loving and made me happy,” while Colbert said that “it was wonderful, something I’ll never forget.”
The comedians in the audience are better known for cracking jokes, but Francis’s speech had multiple moments of humor that even the brightest comics could appreciate.
He quipped that tequila is the greatest remedy for knee pain and repeated a common line of his: When people say they’re praying for him, he responds, “For or against?”
Though not as funny as the forehead-to-forehead greeting President Joe Biden gave Francis on Thursday, the joke highlights his self-aware nature and striking capacity to connect with people.
Comedy and religion may seem relatively incompatible on the surface, but they share a fundamental purpose vital to our daily lives. Both appeal to our common humanity. A really funny joke makes everyone laugh, while compassion and love strike through our differences and have the power to unite us all under our shared commonalities.
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They both help ease the suffering of those less fortunate and work to highlight the importance of reflection. Francis celebrated those in attendance by saying, “You give voice to forgotten situations” and help people “think critically by making them laugh and smile.”
In our increasingly secular and divisive world, heartfelt moments like these remind us of how crucial it is to prioritize humility in the name of togetherness. Francis drew a sage connection between laughter and faith by pronouncing, “What I am saying now is not heresy: when you manage to draw knowing smiles from the lips of even one spectator, you also make God smile.”
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