You never know where you’ll find a laugh.
Riding in the front seat of the pope’s limousine?
No laughs there, you would guess.
Guess again.
Before he died, Pope Francis told this joke. Not just publicly, but very publicly. The New York Times adapted it from his book “Hope: The Autobiography,” and published it at Christmas time in 2024.
It was a gift to the world.
“Jokes about and told by Jesuits are in a class of their own,” Francis wrote. “And I’ve been told one that concerns me directly. …
“As soon as he arrives at the airport in New York for his apostolic journey to the United States, Pope Francis finds an enormous limousine waiting for him. He is rather embarrassed by that magnificent splendor, and then thinks that it has been ages since he last drove, and never a vehicle of that kind, and he thinks to himself: OK, when will I get another chance?
“He says to the driver, ‘You couldn’t let me try it out, could you?’… He insists and insists, until the driver gives in.
“So Pope Francis gets behind the steering wheel, on one of those enormous highways, and he begins to enjoy it, presses down on the accelerator, going 50 miles per hour, 80, 120 … until he hears a siren, and a police car pulls up beside him and stops him. A young policeman comes up to the darkened window. The pope rather nervousll lowers it, and the policeman turns white.
“‘Excuse me a moment,’ he says, and goes back to his vehicle to call headquarters. ‘Boss, I think I have a problem.’
“‘What problem?’ asks the chief.
“‘Well, I’ve stopped a car for speeding, but there’s a guy in there who’s really important.’
“‘How important? Is he the mayor?’
“‘No, no, boss … more than the mayor.’
“‘And more than the mayor, who is there? The governor?’
“‘No, no, more.’
“‘But he can’t be the president?’
“‘More, I reckon.’
“‘And who can be more important than the president?
“‘Look, boss, I don’t know exactly who he is. All I can tell you is that it’s the pope who is driving him!’”
Francis made humor an important part of faith — the part that encourages the faithful to use laughter to be themselves. He hosted comedians at the Vatican.
Stephen Colbert. Whoopi Goldberg. Chris Rock. Julia Louis-Dreyfus.
His successor, Pope Leo, encourages the same kind of faith. Cameras show him joking with fellow Augustinians about the spiritual gift of listening.
Leo began his first media audience with a joke about falling asleep during his remarks.
Both popes offer humor as an antidote to troubled times.
Francis wrote: “When it becomes hard to cry seriously or to laugh passionately, … we become anesthetized … and do nothing good.”
Spoken like a pope. With a sense of humor.
