Laughter Will Bury This Papacy

Francis wasn't pleased with the fallout of Condomgate

I have written on several occasions in the last days that it is now time for bloggers, journalists and online commenters to start asking our clergy that they invite the Pope to resign and fly off to Argentina already, where his cobbler and newsagent (not to talk of the Rabbi) are waiting for him with great trepidation.

Another way to counter the perverted effects of this astonishing perversion of a Pontificate is, if you ask me, ridicule. Ridicule is a very powerful weapon, and I keep returning on the issue because the repeated antics of the man make it necessary to make the point again and again.

Ridicule hits the perverted effects of this pontificate in at least two ways.

On the one hand, by destroying the credibility of the man it makes it far easier for the ill-informed and the simple of mind to avoid falling in the “authority trap”. Even simpletons refuse to recognise as credible moral leaders those who are the permanent butt of jokes. There are a lot of simpletons around, and many more ill-informed Catholics with only a thin varnish of Catholic instruction. They are vital for the Evil Clown, because if he loses them he remains completely exposed as the Atheists' Pope. Losing them would be a deadly blow, and would greatly help in precipitating what we said before: his own bishops and cardinals asking out loud that he recants or resigns.

On the other hand, ridicule is the best way to hit Francis in his boundless vanity. Whatever the man does, he does for the sake of popularity, for his self-aggrandisement. Hitting him on this would take away the main motivating factor (there are others: hate for the Church and strong social envy immediately come to mind; but vanity must be the biggest) for Francis' “Greatest Pope Evah”-campaign. The man would start to think twice before he boards a plane, and maybe decide that it is better to talk about the weather instead.

Ridicule is such a powerful weapon that no man on the planet, no matter how powerful, can't be destroyed by it. It is a mainstay of propaganda warfare. It is, in fact, massively used during real wars.

Francis is at war with Catholicism. We must,mtherefore, be at war with Francis. As it is not possible to do him – or to wish that others did him – physical harm, or slip him a Sicilian Coffee after his meal, it follows that destroying – as far as possible – his ability to confuse Catholics appears the best bet.

No one recognises as a credible Catholic guide someone who is the laughing stock of obviously orthodox Catholics. As long as no one cries that the Emperor has no clothes there will always be enough people ready to believe the Holy Ghosts surprised us with an Emperor endowed with a genial, revolutionary strike in matters of clothing. But let the cry that the Emperor has no clothes become heard, and the Emperor will stay there naked, shamed, and utterly ridiculous.

This papacy may well not end in shame and resignation. But then it should end in ridicule. If deposition will not put an end to this Pontificate, ridicule will largely destroy its ability to do harm. Not polite and subdued criticism, but laughter will bury this Papacy.

M