Is the Pope not infallibly fallible when attempting to make a joke? Pope Francis has been heavily criticised for comments he made on May 25th when he said Irish people brought whiskey to America and Italian people brought the Mafia. The 86 year old Pope made his stereotypical short speech that he wishes he hadn’t made when he said Irish people brought whiskey to America and Italian people brought the Mafia. This happened during an event on Wednesday, when he hosted the International Solidarity Fund, This is a group with aims to build a better world based on charity and equality. Stereotyping even in a joke especially in this increasing politically correct and humourless world is hardly a good start to creating international solidarity in front of such a group or indeed anywhere else.
Putting Both Feet in It
Fr Michael Collins the author of ‘Pope Francis, a Photographic Portrait of the People’s Pope’, in an opportunity to plug his book said the pontiff often speaks off the cuff. “He certainly chose a very unfortunate set of words when he said, ‘the Irish brought whiskey to America and the Italians brought the Mafia’ because that makes the Irish out to be a load of drunks and the Italians to have done nothing else except bring the mafia to the states,” he told RTÉ’s Drivetime programme.
Fr Collins said that since becoming Pope in 2016, Pope Francis has always made impromptu speeches and said things which unintentionally annoyed people. The Pope made this comment stereotyping the Irish and the Italian’s while calling for the support of immigrants. “He’s very much the son of migrants and that’s what he was talking about on Wednesday,” Fr Collins said,
He continued: “He said there’s no point in having somebody come as a migrant if you’re not going to allow them integrate and integration requires a great effort. It costs money… and that’s why he’s talking to the International Solidarity Fund, he’s trying to get them to empty their wallets.” Fr Collins said Pope Francis only speaks in Spanish or Italian and nothing was “lost in translation” during his speech.
A Wee Drop of Holy Water
Whatever about the mafia, whiskey seems to be close to Francis’s mind. In a Scottish The Daily Record, report filmmaker Tony Kearny was at the Vatican in 2019 making a documentary called “Priest School.” He captured footage of Scottish student priests gifting the Pope with a bottle of Oban single-malt Scotch whisky. “When they handed him the bottle, instead of just handing it to his assistant as he normally would with a gift, he held it up and said ‘Questa è la vera acqua santa,’ which means: ‘This is the real holy water.” Kearny said. In a Sunday sermon in March 2021 Frances made his views on the mafia quite clear when he said:”Mafias are present in various parts of the world and, exploiting the pandemic, have enriched themselves through corruption,”
Politically Correct and Offended
The Pope’s comments had been described as “an ethnic slur” by Robert Mickens, the editor of Catholic newspaper La Croix International who expressed himself as really being offended.
Daniele Moro, the executive director of the US-Italy Global Affairs Forum, said: “I hope the Pope’s opinion was taken out of context — to link Irish and Italian [migration] only to whiskey and mafia is a really bad way to define US immigrants.” He added: “Millions of Americans of Italian origin, now at the third or fourth generation, have nothing to do with these stereotypes.”Was Moro not insulting the immigrant ancestors of those he is claiming to defend? He was among those most offended. Pope Francis who is as ‘woke’ and as politically correct as those who feign such offence can make the most outrageous statements as he often does so long as he remains politically correct so as not to offend the ‘faithfully woke’.
Lets Lighten it Up
The pope is SUPER EARLY for his flight back to Rome. He asks his driver on his way to the airport if he could drive around for a while because they have time to kill and he hasn’t driven a car since becoming the Pope. Naturally, he’s a bit rusty, so he’s driving poorly, and at high speed when suddenly he hears a blaring siren and notices flashing police lights behind him. He obediently pulls over and when the police officer comes up to the window his eyes open wide.
He says to the pope “Hold on for a minute,” and goes back to his car and radios the chief.
Cop: “Chief we have a situation here. I’ve pulled over an important figure.”
Chief: “How important? Is it a governor or something?”
Cop: “No sir. He’s much bigger.”
Chief: “So, what? Is he a celebrity or something?”
Cop: “More important than that, sir.”
Chief: “A major politician?”
Cop: “No sir, he’s much, much more important.”
Chief: “WELL WHO IS IT!?”
Cop: “Well actually I’m not sure sir. But the Pope is his chauffeur.”
Politically Incorrect
Pope Francis, Donald Trump, Joe Biden, and a little boy are on a transatlantic flight when suddenly over Ireland all the airplanes engines failed.
After a frantic search they found three parachutes.
Joe Biden grabs the first parachute and says, “I am needed to help make important choices for our world”, so he jumps off the plane.
Donald Trump grabs the next parachute and jumps out of the plane saying, “The world needs a great man like me to drain the swamp!”
At this point, with the Pope and the little boy are still on the plane the Pope says to the boy, “take the last parachute young man, I am too old and I’m going to die one day soon.”
“Actually there are two parachutes left” said the little boy. “Joe Biden took my backpack.”