Can we laugh at God? “Yes, but without offending,” says the pope

“We can laugh at God (…) but without offending the religious feelings of the faithful,” Pope Francis warned on Friday morning, receiving a hundred comedians from around fifteen countries, a light parenthesis before to go to the G7 summit. Francis indeed arrived in the middle of the day in Puglia, in the south of Italy, where he is participating – 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).

Friday morning, 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, 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 asked 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 the satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo in Paris. Asked about the freedom of expression of cartoonists after the bloody 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 on Friday: “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.

“It was both very formal and at the same time quite relaxed,” Manu Payet told AFP, who, accompanied by his mother, offered the pope a map of the island of Reunion, of which he is native. He noted “a kind of respectful irreverence that was quite lovely and very moving” and was marked by the “modernity” of the pope. “Today his words have made our fantasy intelligent, necessary. It’s very touching,” he added.