The Pope: “We can laugh at God but without offending”

“We can laugh at God (…) but without offending the religious feelings of the faithful,” Pope Francis warned Friday morning, receiving a hundred comics from around fifteen countries, a light parenthesis before going at the G7 summit.

Francis is in fact expected in the middle of the day in Puglia, in the south of the peninsula, where he will participate, a first for a pope, in the summit of heads of state and government of the seven richest countries, during a session dedicated to artificial intelligence (AI).

He will also have around ten bilateral meetings, notably with the French presidents Emmanuel Macron, American Joe Biden and Ukrainian Volodymyr Zelensky, before returning to the Vatican in the evening.

In front of his audience of comedians won over in advance, the 87-year-old pontiff stuck his thumb in his right ear and waved his fingers, a gesture that provoked laughter and applause: “Instead of the speech, I do this,” he said. he said, smiling.

American comedians Whoopi Goldberg (“Sister Act”), Julia Louis-Dreyfus (“Seinfeld”), Chris Rock and Jimmy Fallon were there, as was Frenchman Manu Payet, even if the majority of them came from ‘Italy.

Some also came from Ireland, Colombia, Germany, one of them even arriving from the very distant East Timor where Francis is due to go in September.

“Can we laugh at God?” the pope said to the artists, before giving his own response: “Certainly, as we play and joke with the people we love.”

However, he was quick to immediately qualify this apparent green light: “We can do it but without offending the religious feelings of the faithful.”

A position with particular resonance given the shock caused by his statements in 2015 after the jihadist attack which had just decimated the editorial staff of Charlie Hebdo in Paris.

Asked about the freedom of expression of cartoonists after the tragic attack, he replied: “If a great friend speaks badly about my mother, he can expect a punch, and that is normal. We cannot provoke, we cannot insult the faith of others, we cannot make fun of it!”

Statements which were interpreted at the time as a quasi-justification of the attack. Its authors wanted to punish the journalists of Charlie Hebdo, a newspaper with an openly atheist and anticlerical tone, which had notably published caricatures of the Muslim prophet Mohammed.

The Pope also praised the positive social role of comedians: “You have the power to spread serenity and smiles.”

“Your talent is a precious gift because with a smile it spreads peace in the hearts of people, thus helping us to overcome difficulties and bear daily stress,” he encouraged them.