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Cardinal Timothy Dolan and Stephen Colbert to star in Catholic comedy slam
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Elizium23
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Rich_Olszewski
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Fordham, my alma mater, is a large university so even if it were only “for members of the Fordham community,” that could mean a very big audience. It’s a big trek up to Rose Hill by Subway so that might have an effect, though.
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JoeBowen7
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I don’t see how this is anything but sad. I mean, isn’t it blasphemous and sacrilegious to do a skit where gravely immoral contraceptive condoms are compared to the Holy Eucharist?**NEW YORK — So who is the funniest Catholic in the Western world: New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan or Comedy Central’s Stephen Colbert?
It’s a tough call for anyone who has followed either man’s impressive record of rim shots, but we may finally get an answer to that urgent question when the cardinal and the comedian team up for a panel on faith and humor this September at Fordham University in the Bronx, N.Y.**
This is great. It will be nice for people to see our American Catholics with a sense of humor.
REST OF THE STORY HERE
Fraternally,
Br. JR, FFV
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JReducation
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Who say that this is what they are going to do?
By the way, condoms are neutral. Read the Holy Father’s statement in Light of the World. Contraception is evil, big difference.
Fraternally,
Br. JR, FFV
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JoeBowen7
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I thought that the primary use of artificial contraceptives was artificial contraception which I thought was gravely immoral?Who say that this is what they are going to do?
By the way, condoms are neutral. Read the Holy Father’s statement in Light of the World. Contraception is evil, big difference.
Fraternally,
Br. JR, FFV
I doubt that they will be doing such a skit together. But I am speaking about previous skits of Mr. Colbert which I don’t think are funny at all, since they can be interpreted as ridiculing something very sacred and holy to Roman Catholics. There is a video posted on this thread which shows how offensive to Catholicism are such skits of Mr. Colbert. Is it prudential to give a platform with a Catholic archbishop to someone such as Mr. Colbert?
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gus
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I never saw Colbert before this vidio.
I know he has his defenders here but he is playing into well worn Anti-Catholism.
Given the youth of the majority of his audience he could only cause the Church harm.
If he has a Catholic message is is so heavily veiled as to be non existent.
I know he has his defenders here but he is playing into well worn Anti-Catholism.
Given the youth of the majority of his audience he could only cause the Church harm.
If he has a Catholic message is is so heavily veiled as to be non existent.
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Elizium23
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I am sorry if you chose to be offended, because I find Colbert hilarious, and at the same time faithful to the teachings of the Church. I feel he is doing an excellent job as a lay representative of the Church in the liberal wasteland that is Comedy Central. I wish there were more people like Colbert who were not afraid to present the Truth in a way that the public will accept it and even laugh while they do so.
The gag with condoms in the ciborium was laugh-out-loud funny. The only thing being mocked was the concept of faithful Catholics accepting contraception. It is Obama who desecrates us by forcing such things upon us - don’t shoot the messenger.
The gag with condoms in the ciborium was laugh-out-loud funny. The only thing being mocked was the concept of faithful Catholics accepting contraception. It is Obama who desecrates us by forcing such things upon us - don’t shoot the messenger.
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JoeBowen7
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What?
Putting artificial contraceptives in a sacred ciborium is an outrage. I don’t see anything funny about it. I see it as a sacrilege. It is a mortal sin to use artificial contraception, is it not? Why is mortal sin funny? Burning forever in hell doesn’t seem too funny to me?
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Elizium23
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Please prove that it was a blessed, sacred ciborium and not a prop. Then prove that the effect was not achieved merely with Photoshop. No, the only sacriligeous thing going on here is that Obama deigns to force people of faith to pay for abortifacients, contraception and sterilization. It is in fact correct to compare such sacrilege to “handing out condoms at Mass” and the sight gag only reinforces the outrage against the HHS mandate, not Colbert.
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JReducation
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Artificial contraception is always objectively evil. A condom is a thing, not an action. It is neither good nor bad. That’s why I told you to read what Pope Benedict said about condoms in Light of the World. Moral theology makes a very clear distinction between things and actions.
Let’s use a better example, pills. “The Pill” is usually used as a means of artificial contraception. Is the pill evil? No. Is artificial contraception evil? Yes.
“The Pill” as people call the different chemicals that are out there are neutral. Sometimes it’s used for many other reasons that have nothing to do with contraception such as regulating a menstrual cycle, healing polycystic ovaries, even acne. Though there is an issue with acne, because there are other medications that do the same thing and have no impact on reproduction.
The same applies to a condom. It’s neutral. In a medical classroom it’s used as a teaching tool. As the Holy Father said, in cases of male prostitution, the use of the condom may signal the beginning of a maturing conscience.
The skit with the condoms takes something neutral to drive home a point. The skit is not an attempt to mock the Eucharist. The cup in the skit is not necessarily a ciborium. A ciborium is a very difficult artifact to get. Hollywood uses props designed to look like them for many films and skits. The only place where you can get a true ciborium is at a church or religious house. It is unlikely that Colbert went out of his way to get one, especially since this is a Catholic man who goes to mass and Communion with his wife and two children every week and who teaches religious education at his home parish every week. He knows the difference.
Also, we cannot forget that he’s a very good friend of the Cardinal and the Cardinal is no one’s fool. Cardinal Dolan is as orthodox as they come.
Skits can be interpreted in many ways. We also have to understand this. While it may not have been the most prudent skit to deliver the message, because it obviously confused some people and scandalized others, it does not mean that this was the man’s intent.
Have you never done or said something that was not the most prudent way of delivering your message? I have . . . many times. One realizes it after the fact. It’s too late to do anything about it. One simply moves on and tries to avoid that mistake again.
We have a tendency on these threads to look at the actions of others as if we had never used poor judgment in our lives. Let’s get real here. All of us are guilty of poor judgment. Poor judgment and sacrilege are very different things. The latter requires intent, the former lacks intent. We would have to prove that Colbert intended to desecrate the Eucharist, which is something that we cannot prove.
The only thing that we can say, given his life off camera, is that this skit did not work the way it was intended, because obviously it offended some people when it was intended to rattle the other side. We’ve all done that at some point in our lives, shot one target and struck another instead.
We must also admit that there are people, Catholics and others, who are hypersensitive to religious humor. Look at the case of the cartoonist who had to hide, because he drew a picture of Mohammed and the more hypersensitive Muslims did not see the humor. Instead, they wanted his head on a platter.
I’m Jewish and I have relatives around whom you can’t make a joke about anything Jewish because they take it as anti-Semitic. I, on the other hand, am the first to make Jewish jokes. I can tell the difference between a joke and an insult. I can also tell the difference between a joke in good taste and one in bad taste. A joke in bad taste and an insult may have the same jarring effect, but not the same intent.
Fraternally,
Br. JR, FFV
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Jacqueline1966
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Thank you Brother, this is like, so totally awesome!I believe that it’s a small opportunity, but at least it exists, for Catholics to show that we don’t take ourselves overly seriously either, meaning that we can poke fun at ourselves. I’m always reminded of St. Teresa of Avila who prayed, “God protect us from sour faced saints.”
On a trip her carriage broke down and she fell out, ending up in the mud, dirtying her white Carmelite mantle. She looked up at heaven and said, “No wonder you don’t have many friends.”
Once, she had a vision while she was cooking. She was holding the skillet over the fire. The nuns were unable to pry the skillet out of her hands or to move her away from the fire. It was as if she were made of stone. When she came out of it, her hand was severely burned and scarred for life. She turned toward toward the crucifix and said, “You need to work on your timing.”
Once, a friar came to St. Francis and asked for a dispensation to leave the order, because he couldn’t stand celibacy any longer. Francis replied, “Go and breed to your heart’s content.”
Realizing what he had said, he ran down the road until he caught up with the ex-friar and said, “I forgot to add, with a wife.” He laughed at his faux pax all the way back.
The Franciscan admonitions say that the brothers and sisters will blindly obey their superiors in all things, even if they know for a fact that something else is better for their soul. Years later, Aquinas would write that blind obedience was dangerous. Bonaventure, who was the superior general of the Franciscans and the Cardinal Bishop of Albano challenged Aquinas on this point. Aquinas explained that one can never obey a command to sin.
Bonaventure started to laugh and said, “You need to change that from ‘blind obedience’ to ‘foolish obedience’.” They’re not the same. It is said that both had a good laugh about the whole issue.
Tomorrow is the great Solemnity of Our Lady of the Angels of Portiuncula, the patroness of the Franciscan motherhouse in Assisi. There is a plenary indulgence attached to anyone who observes the solemnity. You don’t have to be a Franciscan.
Francis approached Pope Honorius III to ask for the indulgence. The pope was not to eager to grant it. However, he couldn’t exactly turn Francis down. Francis was his friend from before his day as pope. After trying every possible way to get out of it, he finally agreed.
As Francis turned to leave, Pope Honorius to him to wait for a written bull to prove that he had permission to preach the indulgence. Francis, in his usual casual and humorous manner waved the pope off and said, “Don’t worry about it. I have your word for it. Our Lady is the parchment on which your word is written, Christ is the notary and the angels are the witnesses. You can’t back out now.” He left.
When Bl. John Paul was attacked for the Assisi gathering, I believe it may have been the first one; but I’m not sure. He said to Cardinal Ratzinger, “Thank God I grew up Catholic in a Jewish community. I’m immune to guilt.” He was obviously making reference to the fact that Jews and Catholics are famous for laying on guilt trips.
St. Philip Neri would place animals on his shoulders while celebrating mass to keep from going into ecstasy. People would sit there and laugh, because the trick never worked.
When the war broke out between Pakistan and Sri Lanka, Bl. Mother Teresa of Calcutta called her convent in Pakistan and ordered her sisters to return to the safety of Calcutta. The Mother Superior of the local convent begged her to let them stay and care for the people hurt by the war.
Mother listened very attentively. When Mother Superior finished her reasoning, she waited for Mother Teresa to say something authoritative, “You can stay” or “You must leave.” Instead, Mother Teresa said, “Call me when you’re dead,” and she hung up the phone and shrugged her shoulders.
Bl. Pierre Giorgio Frassatti was known for his wit and his ability to laugh at his own spirituality. St. Alberto Hurtado is another of those Jesuit saints who knew how to laugh at his own Catholicism.
None of these people took their Catholicism lightly. They just didn’t take themselves too seriously.
When I became superior of our community, I told the men in formation that anyone who did not have a sense of humor about our life and work cannot remain with us. The rule calls us to be the voice of Christ. Christ cried. People who cry also laugh. Christ experienced indignation. People who experience indignation also know myrth. There is no such thing as a one-sided coin.
Fraternally,
Br. JR, FFV
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ATeutonicKnight
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This thread gives me such hope. I have always been one to find everything funny - nothing is off-limits to my humor. For instance, I ordered and bought a shemagh today (A Middle Eastern head covering that covers your entire head, face and neck to protect you from the elements and cool you off) and everyone was on my case for it because I’ll “be mistaken for a terrorist”. When I finally ordered it I looked at the estimated date of delivery, and I couldn’t breathe I was laughing so hard because the delivery date is September 11th. I shared this story with one person and the person had no sense of humor at all about it. I find consolation knowing Saint Philip Neri was also like me so I can stop feeling bad for finding things funny. Cardinal Dolan and Stephen Colbert are wonderful examples of how we should be acting as a Church. Stern and mean has been tried and defeated. It’s about time we took our faith seriously but started making fun of ourselves.
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ORD_Man
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I am beginning to think Cardinal Dolan is just an attention whore…
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BettyBoop416
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Thanks for the link. That was hilarious.
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Glennford
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Yeah, Colbert is great. What I really like about him is how he teams up with and brings viewers to John Stewart, who is really cool and really understands the Catholic Church. Some people don’t get this, because Stewart’s comedy is an even higher level that Colbert’s so a lot of people think he is just a Catholic-hating secular Jewish entertainer, but those who understand satire, you can tell he is just about ready to convert. In fact, those of you who don’t watch Comedy Central really should start, the whole thing is actually pro-life and pro-chastity, and the way they make it appear that they are in the back pocket of NARAL and the LGBT lobby is really hilarious once you get it. Personally, I send my tithe to Comedy Central, because I can only imagine how much good this sort of sly reverse-psychology evangelization is doing among the kids that watch.
Personally, if the whole thing works out and we have massive conversions of the young and droves of vocations because they “got it” when South Park portrayed Catholic Priests with naked children on leashes, then I am going to be the first person to lead a cause for not just Colbert’s canonization, but to have him declared a doctor of the Church. Anyone who doesn’t join me is obviously just a prudish, stupid Limbaugh listener.
Personally, if the whole thing works out and we have massive conversions of the young and droves of vocations because they “got it” when South Park portrayed Catholic Priests with naked children on leashes, then I am going to be the first person to lead a cause for not just Colbert’s canonization, but to have him declared a doctor of the Church. Anyone who doesn’t join me is obviously just a prudish, stupid Limbaugh listener.
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