On Friday, Pope Francis gathered famous comedians from all around the world at the Vatican, per CNN. He praised their ability to spread peace, invite unity and provoke laughter.
“While communication today often generates conflict, you know how to bring together diverse and sometimes contrary realities. How much we need to learn from you,” he said, according to CNN.
The pope spoke to the full group and with each comedian individually, shaking their hands and greeting them personally in Italian, according to the BBC.
“In the midst of so much gloomy news, immersed as we are in many social and even personal emergencies, you have the power to spread peace and smiles,” he told them.
Why the pope met with comedians
The pope met with the comedians ahead of his participation in the three-day G7 summit in Italy.
“The pope is expected to become the first leader of the Catholic church to participate,” CNN reported, noting that he’s expected to take part in a conversation on artificial intelligence.
G7 stands for Group of Seven, or a group of seven democratic, globally powerful economies. This particular summit, which started Thursday, will focus in part on the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine, per CNN.
The pope’s meeting with comedians is a part of his recent push to understand and influence modern culture, the article said. In a statement, the Vatican expressed that the meeting underscored how the “art of comedy can contribute to a more empathetic and supportive world.”
Last year, Pope Francis met with artists, poets and film directors like Martin Scorsese in a similar meeting, as CNN reported at the time.
He concluded Friday’s meeting by joking with the audience to “please pray for me: for, with a smile, not against!” The gathered comedians responded with laughter.
Which comedians met with the pope?
The Vatican event featured an impressive array of comedians, including Stephen Colbert, Conan O’Brien, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Whoopi Goldberg, Chris Rock and Jim Gaffigan.
These celebrities were part of a larger group more than 100 top comedians from 15 different countries.
The pope’s meeting with the comedians was quick, but he received positive reviews from those in attendance.
Gaffigan, who brought his wife and two of his sons with him to the Vatican, joked with one of his sons that he now has to become a priest, Catholic News Agency reported.
Colbert, host of “The Late Night Show with Stephen Colbert,” told EWTN News that the meeting affirmed his habit of regularly thinking about the relationship between faith and comedy, according to Catholic News Agency.
“At a certain point in the back of the mind you have to say, ‘Do I want to tell that joke? And does that go with everything else that you are besides a comedian?’” he said. “So it was lovely to hear the pope acknowledge that there’s a value in that for people’s hearts and it made me think a little bit harder about how I want to use it.”
“We are all looking at each other thinking ‘something’s wrong’. We are in this beautiful, beautiful space in the Vatican and for some reason they’ve let comedians in which is always a mistake,” joked O’Brien, per CNN.