As we read in the Gospels, Christ the King’s enemies laughed at Him on various occasions during His ministry, even while He died on the Cross for our salvation. Francis recently welcomed over 100 comedians to the Vatican, assuring them that they too were welcome to laugh at God:

“Can we also laugh at God? Of course, it's not blasphemy, we can, just as we play and joke with the people we love.”

Whether he realizes it or not, Francis’s comedic heritage of mocking God and those who seek to do His will traces back to the beginnings of human history. Most of us are familiar with the set up for the earliest recorded prank:

“Now the serpent was more subtle than any of the beasts of the earth which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman: Why hath God commanded you, that you should not eat of every tree of paradise?  And the woman answered him, saying: Of the fruit of the trees that are in paradise we do eat: But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of paradise, God hath commanded us that we should not eat; and that we should not touch it, lest perhaps we die. And the serpent said to the woman: No, you shall not die the death. For God doth know that in what day soever you shall eat thereof, your eyes shall be opened: and you shall be as Gods, knowing good and evil.” (Genesis 3:1-5)

Eve fell for it, and Satan and his minions have been laughing at fallen mankind ever since.

Until Francis, many Catholics were still falling for these elaborate pranks, even though it was obvious from the beginning to everyone paying attention that they were bogus promises. But Francis has let the audience off the hook, so to speak, making it clear that the whole thing was an elaborate ruse to get Catholics to abandon the Faith.

Some pranks against God and His people take longer to set up, and even longer to get to the punch line. One of the most famous of these is currently ongoing and began in earnest at Vatican II. Following the serpent, the Council’s pranksters made various bold promises that they knew were preposterous:

• When we stop condemning errors, John XXIII announced in his opening address of the Council, mankind will choose truth over error anyway.
• When we take away everything that offends non-Catholics, the ecumenists told us, Protestants will flock to the Mass and Church.
• If we update the Church’s teachings to follow “human progress,” insisted the Progressives, then the Church will be more “relevant” to the world.
• If we make the Council documents “pastoral” rather than “dogmatic,” then everyone will be able to understand them better, said the Modernists as they crafted documents nobody understands.
• If Catholics have greater freedom to “explore” Sacred Scripture for new meanings, including through joint translations with Protestants, then their minds will be enlightened and their wills strengthened, we learned from the Council’s Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation, Dei Verbum.

Until Francis, many Catholics were still falling for these elaborate pranks, even though it was obvious from the beginning to everyone paying attention that they were bogus promises. But Francis has let the audience off the hook, so to speak, making it clear that the whole thing was an elaborate ruse to get Catholics to abandon the Faith.

Exploration of Sacred Scripture with those who reject Catholic teaching on the papacy has led to Catholics no longer believing what the Church teaches. All we needed to discover that the Church has always been wrong was for groups of heterodox Catholics to put their heads together with Protestants to see the light!

Just consider the promise about the benefits of “exploring” Sacred Scripture for new meanings, which always had a Protestant angle to it. The new document from the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity — The Bishop of Rome. Primacy and Synodality in the Ecumenical Dialogues and in the Responses to the Encyclical Ut unum sint — reveals some of the “fruits” of that exploration. Under the “Renewed Reading of the ‘Petrine Texts’” section we find the following punch lines that make it clear that Vatican II’s entire initiative for greater study of Scripture was an elaborate joke:

• “Contemporary exegesis [with non-Catholics] has opened new perspectives for an ecumenical reading of the ‘Petrine texts.’”
• “Catholics have gained a new awareness of the different interpretations of the ‘Petrine texts,’ in particular of Matthew 16: 17–19.”
• “Catholics have also been challenged to recognize and avoid an anachronistic projection of all doctrinal and institutional developments concerning papal ministry into the ‘Petrine texts,’ and to rediscover a diversity of images, interpretations and models in the New Testament.”
• “Catholics have rediscovered a diversity of leadership in the New Testament, since ‘responsibility for pastoral leadership was not restricted to Peter.’”
• “Catholics have also been confronted with other views on the question of the transmissibility of the Petrine ministry. Some theological dialogues recognized that ‘the New Testament contains no explicit record of a transmission of Peter’s leadership; nor is the transmission of apostolic authority in general very clear.’”

So, in other words, exploration of Sacred Scripture with those who reject Catholic teaching on the papacy has led to Catholics no longer believing what the Church teaches. All we needed to discover that the Church has always been wrong was for groups of heterodox Catholics to put their heads together with Protestants to see the light!

Dark comedy week in Rome continued with an interview of Professor Andrea Grillo, a professor of Sacramental Theology and the Philosophy of Religion in Rome. Grillo’s particular brand of humor seems to resemble that of certain characters described by St. Matthew in his narration of the Crucifixion:

“And they that passed by, blasphemed him, wagging their heads, And saying: Vah, thou that destroyest the temple of God, and in three days dost rebuild it: save thy own self: if thou be the Son of God, come down from the cross.” (Matthew 27:39-40)

Grillo is so convinced that Traditional Catholics are worthy of derision and persecution that he does not hesitate to mock them at the same time as he defends Francis, who tells us that we are not to judge others...

As we can see from the following interview responses, Grillo is so convinced that Traditional Catholics are worthy of derision and persecution that he does not hesitate to mock them at the same time as he defends Francis, who tells us that we are not to judge others:

Traditiones Custodes: Here Grillo argues that abolishing the Traditional Latin Mass (which is essentially the same wherever you go in the world), and requiring everyone to go to the Novus Ordo (which is not even the same within the same parish), ensures that the “law of prayer” will be uniform for the entire Church: “[T]he merit of Traditionis Custodes is that it re-establishes the one ‘lex orandi' in force for the entire Catholic Church. If someone tells me he is faithful at the same time to the Novus Ordo and Vetus Ordo, I reply that he has not understood the meaning of tradition, within which there a legitimate and insuperable progress that is irreversible.”

The Chartres Pilgrimage. Here Grillo argues that over 18,000 pilgrims walking roughly seventy miles to Chartres to honor God is pitiful because, well, there are many more people in the entire Church: “What are 18,000 people compared to the great multitude of the Catholic Church? Little more than a sect that experiences infidelity as salvation, and is often linked to moral and political positions, and very concerning customs. It isn’t by changing words that things get better.”

Dearth of Novus Ordo Seminarians, and Exodus of Young Catholics. Here Grillo explains why a dearth of seminaries and exodus of young Catholics is necessary for the Church: “[T]he ‘dearth of seminarians’ and ‘young people fleeing’ is not just a negative fact: is the sign of a necessary travail for the entire Church.”

Fidelity to Tradition. Here Grillo explains that fidelity to Tradition actually means changing what was previously accepted: “Everyone can critique any step of tradition. I am interested in is the steps being argued. The arguments of traditionalists are weak because they deny what best describes tradition: namely its service to change.”

The Cause of the Church’s Crisis. Here Grillo explains (without even a hint of trying to be logically coherent) why there cannot possibly be any connection whatsoever between Vatican II and the massive crisis in the Church that has been so clear since the Council: “I think we should first reflect on the relationship between liturgy and ecclesial experience. Being a disciple of Christ isn’t a matter of belonging to a high society club or an association aimed at speaking a strange language or identifying with the past, cultivating reactionary ideals. Tradition is not the past, but the future. Since the Church and faith are a serious matter, they cannot be reduced to the association of those who cultivate nostalgia for the past.”

Those of us who know how salvation history began, and how it ends, should be quite comfortable being on the side of God rather than the side of these jokers. May God grant them the grace to convert lest they learn firsthand that hell is no laughing matter.

Usually clowns will twist balloons into silly figures, but Grillo has twisted himself into a silly figure. Satan laughs, but does Grillo laugh with him?

These enemies of God and Traditional Catholics are having their laughs today, thinking perhaps that they have won. But those of us who know how salvation history began, and how it ends, should be quite comfortable being on the side of God rather than the side of these jokers. May God grant them the grace to convert lest they learn firsthand that hell is no laughing matter. Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us!

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