Pope Francis will meet with prominent comedians, including pro-abortion Stephen Colbert, Whoopi Goldberg, and Jimmy Fallon, next Friday in an event that will also feature LGBT activist Jesuit Fr. James Martin.
On Saturday, the Vatican announced the event will take place in the Apostolic Palace on June 14 at 8:30 a.m. The meeting “aims to establish a link between the Catholic Church & comic artists.”
The Vatican highlighted Francis’ words from a 2016 TV interview with the Catholic Italian channel TV2000 in its announcement. “A sense of humor is a grace that I ask for every day, and I pray that beautiful prayer of St. Thomas More: ‘Give me, Lord, a sense of humor,’ that I know how to laugh at a joke … it’s beautiful, that prayer, isn’t it?” he said. “It is a human attitude, but it is the closest to God’s grace.”
The event is co-organized by the Dicastery for Culture and Education and the Dicastery for Communication.
The list of 105 comics from 15 countries includes well-known names from the U.S. entertainment industry, including Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Fallon, Whoopi Goldberg, Conan O’Brien, and Chris Rock. Heterodox Father Martin, who was formerly dubbed the “chaplain” of Stephen Colbert’s vulgar, left-wing “The Colbert Report” is also slated to attend and was listed as an “artist” by Vatican News.
Most of these prominent U.S. comedians are known to be pro-abortion and pro-LGBT. Colbert, a self-professed Catholic, strongly supports so-called “homosexual marriage” and abortion in clear violation of Catholic teaching, promoted a Netflix series that sexualized children, and mocked Jesus. Whoopi Goldberg, with whom Francis already met in October 2023, also promotes abortion and LGBT ideology and claimed that killing babies in the womb is “not mentioned” in the Ten Commandments. In a recent comedy skit, Chris Rock admitted that abortion kills a baby, but said that he believes women “should have the right to kill babies.” Fallon has criticized pro-life policies on his late-night show.
Another U.S. “artist” invited to the Vatican event is Tig Notaro, a lesbian in a same-sex “marriage” who obtained twin sons with her “wife” through in vitro fertilization and surrogacy, which the Catholic Church condemns as gravely immoral. The Vatican has also invited comedian Jim Gaffigan, who presents himself as a faithful Catholic but took his young children to New York’s LGBT “pride parade” in 2017.
Francis has signaled his support of Fr. Martin in many ways despite the latter’s promotion of homosexuality, most recently by writing the preface to Martin’s latest book. The pope also appointed and reappointed him as a Vatican Communications consultant and met with Martin multiple times, praising his pro-LGBT initiatives.
Martin has insisted that the term “objectively disordered” in reference to the homosexual orientation be removed from The Catechism of the Catholic Church and replaced with “differently ordered.” He frequently makes scandalous statements regarding homosexuality that violate Catholic teaching on sexual morality. High-profile prelates and Catholic figures warn that Martin is leading people astray and putting souls at risk by encouraging homosexual activity and failing to call people to be chaste.