With my warped sense of humor, I should have noticed this earlier, but Weird Dave of Ace of Spades, being weird, has noticed it. (There’s handy screenshots at the link. Scroll down to “Satire is dead.”)
Pope Francis and Cardinal Cupich have transcended satire . . . or killed it.
First, on August 16th, the Babylon Bee posted “Pope Says He Will Address Sex Abuse Scandal Once He’s Finished Talking About Climate Change.” It began:
In his first public statement on the horrifying, devastating report on sexual abuse within the Catholic Church, Pope Francis stated he would address the controversy in detail once he’s done talking about climate change for a few more weeks.
In his first public statement on the horrifying, devastating report on sexual abuse within the Catholic Church, Pope Francis stated he would address the controversy in detail once he’s done talking about climate change for a few more weeks.
The head of the Roman Catholic Church claimed he is deeply concerned with the tragic report, but is “just too swamped” with work fighting climate change, criticizing capitalism, and advocating for other issues of social justice to talk about the repulsive report at the moment.
Now that is satire, just to be clear. . . . Or it was satire.
For ten days later, after the Vigano statement, Cardinal Cupich made this statement as I’ve noted:
The pope knows we have a bigger agenda. We have to speak about the environment, about the poor, we have to reach out to people who are marginalized in society. We cannot be distracted at this moment,” Cupich said.
The pope knows we have a bigger agenda. We have to speak about the environment, about the poor, we have to reach out to people who are marginalized in society. We cannot be distracted at this moment,” Cupich said.
Elsewhere, Cupich was quoted, “The Pope has a bigger agenda. … He’s got to get on with other things, of talking about the environment and protecting migrants and carrying on with the work of the church. We’re not going to go down a rabbit hole on this.”
That is not satire. . . . Really. I’m dead serious. It is not satire.
Beyond that, I’ve got nothing. How can satire survive that?
Perhaps we need a new feast day? The Feast of the Translation of Holy Satire?
2 comments:
Cardinal Cupich followed up by saying that his interview was deceptively edited. The NBC station responded by making the entire interview available unedited, and of course Cupich said what was reported.
This approach has worked for Pope Francis before (there are more important matters). It's not clear to me it will work any more.
Katherine, my apologies for being slow to post your comment. I have been negligent in checking comments. Mea culpa!
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