“CRAZY BENNY’s MASS for CLUNKERS!”

Posted on 6 August 2009 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Creative Minority Report has struck again! Double WDTPRS chuckles.

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39 Responses to “CRAZY BENNY’s MASS for CLUNKERS!”

Jack Hughes says:

6 August 2009 at 10:23 pm

Love it
Jack Hughes says:

6 August 2009 at 10:24 pm

Love it, remember when your down take a dose of B16:)
GloriaDei says:

6 August 2009 at 10:30 pm

Please, please, please, Fresno needs a score(or more!). Where does one apply?
MichaelD says:

6 August 2009 at 10:43 pm

San Francisco could do with a bit of that as well.
Agnes says:

6 August 2009 at 10:50 pm

It slices! It dices! It even partakes of amusement rides at your local theme park! That’s right folks – it’s all yours for the cost of a Catholic education and innumerable hours of volunteerism!

One orthodox priest coming right up… (and can I have fries with that?)

*snicker* Too much fun!
Mike Morrow says:

6 August 2009 at 11:08 pm

You can find more details and the name of the Obama-loid priest-pretender clown shown above at:

http://www.eternityroad.info/index.php/weblog/single/expose/
Central Valley says:

7 August 2009 at 1:17 am

I second the motion for this program to be started in the diocese of Fresno…yesterday. In Fresno, the first trade in could be the director of liturgy for the diocese.
TraditionalCatholic says:

7 August 2009 at 7:34 am

Father, thank you for sharing that ad, I got a great laugh out of it!

John P.
Henry Edwards says:

7 August 2009 at 7:39 am

As I understand it, the gas-guzzling clunkers will be sent to China. The problem is what to do with these clunkers.
Lori Ehrman says:

7 August 2009 at 8:16 am

That is hysterical.
Dr. Eric says:

7 August 2009 at 8:54 am

That priest’s hair either needs to be longer or shorter, but that hairdo looks like that style that all my friend’s moms used to wear when I was a teenager!
Dove says:

7 August 2009 at 9:04 am

The old dinosaur picture reminds me of the hair in the early 70′s–kinda like our choir director! However, our choir director was radical and in a protestant church introduced our teenage choir to chant–and we sang/chanted the Nicene creed–which scandalized many of our older ladies because it was “so catholic!” @@

LOL! He also gave us voice training so that six teens with ordinary voices and no sound system could be heard in our rather large church.
lmgilbert says:

7 August 2009 at 9:21 am

Alright, on the one hand this is humorous. On other other hand, is this not a profane (sacred vs profane)treatment of a holy, consecrated person, the Pope, and of our most holy possession as a Catholic people, the Mass?

After decades of Jack Benny, Johnny Carson, Jay Leno and the like, we Americans have a highly developed comedic sense, but there is a limit is there not?

Several months ago in a homily a priest here in Portland wondered if perhaps miracles are more rare and less spectacular in our time partly because of our light treatment of holy things. I know the familar, modern American response, “O come on!” but God is not an American. Our ways are not His ways, nor our thoughts His thoughts.

If my priest friend was right, and I think he is, we do have a problem because this sort of humor is pandemic throughout our monasteries, seminaries, rectories and convents.

Of course, we should laugh at ourselves, but using sacred persons and things to get a laugh is quite a different matter. Of course, we should be joyful, but sacrilege is not a fruit of the spirit.

There are (mostly) wonderful blogs that have this sort of humor day after day, but what precedent is there for this sort of thing in the lives of the saints or the history of the Church? It is an American phenomenon.

Trying to assemble a book of this kind of humor from the lives of the saints and the Fathers would be a very hard slog, indeed. Of course, there are many wry expressions in St. Jerome, at least one in St. Augustine, and one from St Theresa, one or two from Pope John XXIII that I can think of. There is Thomas More going up the scaffold. There is St. Philip Neri, but his humor was in an entirely different vein.

Well, okay, refute me by regaling me with jokes from the saints that make use of holy things in this fashion. You can’t. And that suggests that if we wish to be saints we should avoid this kind of thing like the plague. MHO
Seraphic Spouse says:

7 August 2009 at 10:00 am

And a dead silence fell upon them all.
wolfeken says:

7 August 2009 at 10:29 am

Awesome. But turn on spell-check! (Someone fix “liturgist” at the bottom right.)
robtbrown says:

7 August 2009 at 10:53 am

If my priest friend was right, and I think he is, we do have a problem because this sort of humor is pandemic throughout our monasteries, seminaries, rectories and convents.

Of course, we should laugh at ourselves, but using sacred persons and things to get a laugh is quite a different matter. Of course, we should be joyful, but sacrilege is not a fruit of the spirit.
Comment by lmgilbert

I disagree completely. The humor above is NOT making fun of the sacred but rather of those who are disrespectful of sacred things.

It is an American phenomenon.
Comment by lmgilbert

Incorrect. I suggest you read the very Catholic Geoffrey Chaucer (14th century).

In a more contemporary vein, when I was in Italy I saw a TV movie with Robert Benigni. One of the characters he played was satiring a a “relevant” priest. It was very, very funny.

And then there’s the local priest, whose uplifted arms sway from the left to the right when he says so that from east to west a perfect offering may be made . . .
robtbrown says:

7 August 2009 at 11:10 am

Should be: One of the characters he played was satirizing a “relevant” priest. It was very, very funny.
Timothy Mulligan says:

7 August 2009 at 11:33 am

Imgilbert, I agree with you completely. I believe that we should not make our religion or sacred persons the subject of humor, caricature or satire. This really is a matter of life or death. The world does enough to try to bring the Church down to its level.

I have seen this kind of thing routinely on American Papist and Whispers in the Loggia. I think it may have its origin in a certain type of humor that one encounters in seminaries.

It stinks, frankly.
Bill in Texas says:

7 August 2009 at 11:44 am

wolfeken, it seems to me that “Litrurgist” is actually the perfect word for that pitch. :-)
TJM says:

7 August 2009 at 11:56 am

people who cannot laugh at themselves are pretty sad, dour folks, like the Calvinists. Tom
pforrester says:

7 August 2009 at 12:33 pm

Cute but rather than laughing made me more wistful. I would turn in my New Car if we could get an orthodox priest in our parish.
Timothy Mulligan says:

7 August 2009 at 12:48 pm

I can laugh at myself.

I will not laugh at the Holy Father.
Jonathan T says:

7 August 2009 at 1:07 pm

If we make fun of ourselves, others will make more fun of us. If we are irreverent to the Holy Father, others will be more irreverent. I personally do find this funny, but inadvisable. Where is the line? It is a matter of personal taste, which is why I think we should generally keep this sort of profane humor well clear of our Catholic identity.
Dr. Eric says:

7 August 2009 at 1:34 pm

I’ve always found that if I make fun of myself, then I’ve already beaten everyone else to the punch.
Ellen says:

7 August 2009 at 1:53 pm

In this case, I think the Pope would be laughing right along with us.
John Enright says:

7 August 2009 at 2:04 pm

LOL!
robtbrown says:

7 August 2009 at 3:01 pm

Imgilbert, I agree with you completely. I believe that we should not make our religion or sacred persons the subject of humor, caricature or satire. This really is a matter of life or death.
It stinks, frankly.
Comment by Timothy Mulligan

Matters of life and death are the best situations for humor because they lighten a heavy load.
Eoin Suibhne says:

7 August 2009 at 4:09 pm

“God save us from sour-faced saints.” – St. Teresa of Avila
Timothy Mulligan says:

7 August 2009 at 5:12 pm

Many have died defending the dignity of the Holy Father. It’s not something to treat lightly. Here’s a little reminder: http://www.tyburnconvent.org.uk/home/index.html. [You are becoming tiring.]
Agnes says:

7 August 2009 at 6:48 pm

*Matters of life and death are the best situations for humor because they lighten a heavy load.*

Exactly. Yes, the ridiculous looking men in the picture are consecrated to GOD. Wow, that’s incredible. Just look at the power of GOD to turn such laughable critters into dispensers of sanctifying grace. It’s perhaps the biggest joke there is – but the punch line is our very salvation. I hope the long-haired clergyman gets it all out of his system!

Dearest priests, God LOVES you. You are reminders of Christ Crucified.
Fr_Sotelo says:

8 August 2009 at 12:02 am

Whoever cropped this photo forgot to crop out the wedding ring on the left hand! The men whose Bride is Holy Church always have their wedding ring on their *right* hand.

I don’t find this humor to be disrespectful at all. As the old saying goes, “if you don’t laugh once in a while, you are going to cry, cry, cry (seeing the lamentable state of affairs for the Church).”

The distinctive mark of Catholic dissidents is their lack of humor.
Fr. A.M. says:

8 August 2009 at 2:11 am

It is clearly NOT mocking the person of His Holiness, Pope Benedict, nor the papacy.
Questions : Would the pope laugh at it ? Does the pope have a sense of humour ?

- I think so.
Tom Ryan says:

8 August 2009 at 3:51 am

He laughs a lot which surprised me as he is German
irishgirl says:

8 August 2009 at 10:44 am

I think it’s funny, not irreverent!

But then, that’s me….
David2 says:

8 August 2009 at 11:21 am

I don’t think this is irreverent at all. For a start, it’s laughing at hippy-dippy dissenters, not the Holy Father.

I also disagree with lmgilbert when he/she says that this sort of thing is “an American phenomenon”. I come from Australia, and, to my mind, if anything, there is a somewhat dour, puritanical and calvinistic streak in parts of the American church. It must come from living amongst all those Mayflower puritans and sour-faced prots. You’ve picked up some of their worst character traits… Only an American Catholic (as opposed to an Irish, Polishk, or Italian Catholic could get sooooo offended by this.

In this country, a large proportion of our early congregations were Irish. So my protestant relatives think of priests as boisterous, drinkers, gamblers, and jokesters who can hold their own in a bar-room brawl…
lmgilbert says:

8 August 2009 at 1:04 pm

Obviously, I was wrong about the American phenomenon. Chaucer is not one of the saints or fathers of the Church I was referring to.

To me it is very simple. Both the Church and Scripture teach that holy persons and things should be handled in a reverential manner. Isn’t that practically the very definition of holiness? Persons and things set apart. Isn’t the office of the papacy holy? Isn’t Pope Benedict consecrated to the Lord?

Is the above treatment of the Pope and the Mass reverential? Is it a sacred or a profane treatment? It is profane treatment, as if he were not set apart, holy, consecrated.

It is irrelevant whether it is funny.

It is irrelevant whether the pope would find it funny.

It is irrelevant that it is not malicious.

It is serious matter.

I don’t mean to be a wet blanket, but…wait, YES I DO! This kind of stuff has got to stop. We are cutting the ground out from under our own prayers.

What would be the logic of that? IF this is sacrilegious in the eyes of God, and I believe it is (our modern sensibilities to the contrary notwithstanding) then we are not in conformity with the will of God and therefore our prayers will not be heard. In fact, we may be setting ourselves up for chastisements of various sorts. Vocations crisis, anyone? Scandal? Obviously, I am not referring merely to this one incident, but to this entire vein of humor.

In seminaries and monasteries it kills devotion, and leads by degrees to more irrecverent treatment, as I heard a priest once refer to his archbishop sneeringly as “Supershepherd.”

“He who contemnth small things shall fall little by little.”

And we have fallen a long, long way. This kind of humor was part of our fall.
ssoldie says:

8 August 2009 at 7:44 pm

Does this only partain to priest or can bishop’s be turned in too?
Jack Hughes says:

8 August 2009 at 8:40 pm

good point ssoldie, I know not a few people who’d like to trade in the south coast mafia :)
robtbrown says:

10 August 2009 at 9:59 am

lmgilbert,

Chaucer is not one of the saints

Neither are you.

nor fathers of the Church I was referring to.

The Fathers produced formal works.

I readily recognize that this type of humor doesn’t appeal to everyone. But I think it’s a bit pretentious (as well as priggish) [good word] for someone to pose as a spiritual guru warning those who think this is funny.

BTW, the problem in monasteries and seminaries is not humor like this, which implicitly promotes Catholic doctrine and Latin liturgy and makes fun of liberalism. The problem is that the liberals are making fun of Catholic doctrine and