The Pope Who Taught Us to Share Laughter
Pope Fraincis (1936 – 2025)
His Holiness Pope Francis was not only the first non – European Pope in 1300 years, he may have also been the first Pope to welcome dozens of comedians to the Vatican. He recognised that sharing laughter may help heal souls and he lived his believe by welcoming the jesters to his holy quarters.
We appear to live in an age where conflict and bitterness are prevailing over that most basic of childhood values we learned from our parents. As infants, when we refused to share our toys with our siblings our parents often commanded us to “share with others.” I believe that Pope Francis, among his many other virtues, will be remembered most often as a religious leader who practiced what he believed by sharing himself and his beliefs with others freely, nonjudgementally, frequently, and generously.
A modest man who preferred to live in his small apartment rather than the regal trappings of the Vatican, he regularly sought ways to encourage his Church to help those who were the least fortunate in life. He believed that serving the poor was one of the core values of his faith and he regularly knelt before those less fortunate to offer compassion and solace.
Having attended a Catholic university I always wondered how the Cardinals in Rome selected their Pope and when His Holiness the late Pope Benedict was preparing to visit Edinburgh I was invited by His Eminence the late Cardinal Keith O’Brien to conduct a study of religious pilgrims who would attend the forthcoming events during the Papal visit. I was deeply honoured and felt privileged to be a Jewish professor chosen for this important study and readily accepted the task along with my colleague who was a Catholic. Together, we designed a study to exmine the motivations and economic, social, and cultural impacts of religious pilgrims travelling to Edinburgh to be in the presence of the Pope.
During one of our early meetings with the Cardinal he leaned forward, widened his eyes and in a secretive and consipiratorial voice asked us “Would you like to know how we actually choose a Pope?”
Our eyebrows immediately shot up to the ceiing of the ornate Balmoral Hotel suite where we had joined His Eminence for lunch. He then explained step by step how the voting takes place before a white puff of smoke ultimately emerges from the Vatican announcing a new Pope has been selected.
The late Cardinal told us, “We have long and often heated discussions and they continue into private quarters with each Cardinal intently trying to influence others about their personal preferences. However, at the end, we reach consensus because together we all manage to agree on what we collectively believe is best for the Church at that time as well as for the future.”
Then he sat back in his chair, clasped his hands, smiled and said “And it all seems to work out in the end.”
This concept of agreeing to disagree and continuing to discuss important matters with a focus on what is best for the common purpose of society is an important lesson I believe we shall remember from the life of Pope Francis, the Pope who welcomed the sharing of laughter in the Vatican during a time of great societal turmoil throughout the world.
In a world darkened with greed, perhaps now more than ever, is the time to focus upon the things we agree are worth sharing such as kindness, compassion, and yes laughter so that we may emulate the values of His Holiness Pope Francis and also pass these shared beliefs onto future generations.
As the son of a beloved Jewish mother who was raised in the Catholic Church I affectionately remember how she saw the common values between the faith of her birth, Judaism, and the faith of her education, Catholicism. She constantly reminded us of our similar values and she never tried to find their minor fault lines.
Many years ago I visited her Catholic convent school, Mount Carmel, in New Iberia, Louisiana, where mama had attended high school. My sister laughed out loud when she pointed up to the white trellis now covered in green ivy where mama had regularly escaped from her second floor window by climbing down the precarious wooden structure. I joined in her laughter and also thought that mama knew that if you look outside your window you may just need to explore further to see what you may find.
Sister Sacred Heart, a teacher at Mount Carmel who lived to be 100 old in 1993.
Photo courtesy of The Daily Iberian.
I believe Pope Francis had a similar progressive, forward looking attitude about his Church and about life in general. Perhaps this is what motivated him to invite comedians to the Vatican. This continued throughout his papacy. Immediately after being released from intensive care and only one day before his death, he also chose to look outside the Angelus window and share his love once more with the thousands of pilgrims who had come to wish him well.
Perhaps the best way to honour his memory is to share both love and laughter freely and often because as our parents and teachers taught us that indeed sharing is caring and caring is a gift we may all offer one another unconditionally in order to work together, as did Pope Francis, to create a better world for all.
Professor Joe Goldblatt is Emeritus Professor of Planned Events at Queen Margaret University in Edinburgh, Scotland.
His views are his own. To learn more about his views visit www.joegoldblatt.scot
For more recollections of Mount Carmel visit https://thedailyiberian.com/2021/04/04/do-you-remember-mount-carmel/