Satirical Humor Aimed at the Vatican Strikes a Nerve
Franco Origlia/Getty Images
Msgr. Georg Gänswein, right, Pope Benedict XVI’s secretary, and the pope have become the butt of jokes in the news media. Some Italians are offended, but newspapers defended the right to make jokes about religion.
New York Times
By ELISABETTA POVOLEDO
Published: November 18, 2006
ROME, Nov. 17 — Perhaps it is his good looks, or his work in the ever-so-serious Vatican, but for whatever reason, Msgr. Georg Gänswein, Pope Benedict XVI’s secretary, has suddenly found himself the butt of jokes in the Italian news media.
In one radio skit, Rosario Fiorello, a comedian, portrayed Monsignor Gänswein dining at a brand-new restaurant called “the Last Supper,” where “one portion of fish was shared by 20.” He used a cellphone with Handel’s “Hallelujah” chorus as its ring tone.
The pope himself is also subject to ribbing. On Tuesday night, in a television skit, the comedian Maurizio Crozza impersonated Pope Benedict being a mite touchy about comparisons to his media-darling predecessor, Pope John Paul II, who was frail for years before his death. “Could Pope Wojtyla do this?” he barked to two attendants, bursting into song and tap dancing. “Or this?” he added, juggling three oranges.
The popularity of the satire appears to have unnerved Monsignor Gänswein, who reportedly told the Italian news agency Adnkronos that he hoped the impersonations “would stop soon.” He did not object to satire, he said, but the spoofs “offended men of the church.”
They also struck a nerve with L’Avvenire, a newspaper owned by the Italian Bishops’ Conference, which accused the comedians of “satirical fundamentalism.”
In a front-page editorial on Friday, the paper complained that the jokes had been unwarranted. “Perhaps there is the secret intention to see if the church will respond like some Muslims responded to the satirical cartoons or to articles that criticize Islam, to then scream scandal,” wrote Carlo Cardia, an author who writes about the Catholic Church and a professor of ecclesiastical law at the University of Rome. The Catholic newspaper has said that it does not want to engage in polemics about whether it is acceptable to poke fun at the pope.
more...
posted by Dr. Denice Hanley, DPM, M.Div. @ 12:44 PM
3 Comments:
Msgr Ganswein was right to defend the Church and rebuke such offensive behavior.
I agree. Satire can so easily cross the line and become deliberately offensive.
Pray for me, because I want to thump those who offend Mother Church.
Post a Comment
<< Home