Start praying… or else!

Biretta tip to the great Fr. Blake,  o{]:¬)  PP in Brighton!

I don’t think we want this… so we had better pray for vocations!

Now!

Start praying!

UPDATE 2228 GMT

Some people don’t think this is funny.  I do.  But then… I have a sense of humor!  o{]:¬)

Funny or not?

Total Votes: 803 Started: 9 August 2009

 

About Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Fr. Z is the guy who runs this blog. o{]:¬)
This entry was posted in Lighter fare, The future and our choices. Bookmark the permalink.

30 Comments

  1. Agnes says:

    Stunned silence.

    Wow, Z. That was …. icky.

  2. Neophyte says:

    No wayyyyyyy……

  3. Lina says:

    That was hilarious. But of course, may this year for priests help to avert anyone’s really trying that…

  4. haleype says:

    Hilarious? I don’t think so. To make a sacrilege out of the Sacrament of Penance is, well, beyond the pale.

  5. haleype: You realize that that wasn’t real… right? It was NOT REAL… right?

  6. Art says:

    Since it was left by the 3 wise men, what class of relic would that karaoke system be?

  7. Ellen says:

    Eh – not all that funny. And I normally enjoy religous humor.

  8. archambt says:

    Ha-amusing. It vaguely reminds me of a scene from the awful movie, Idiocracy.

  9. gloriainexcelsis says:

    Maybe there’s something wrong with me, but I thought it was funny and forwarded it to a select few Catholic friends & relatives who have a sense of humor. There was a cartoon in the paper today with the priest standing at the ambo and the congregants listening as he says, “And for those of you not on Twitter, traditional confessions will be available on Fridays from 5 to 6.” Trouble is, with some of what really goes on these days, the latter could almost be (heaven forbid) true. It was still funny!

  10. Cory says:

    I’m not calling for a council, but there definitely needs to be some instruction from the Vatican on the Church and modern technology. We see technology being very useful (iBreviary for example) yet the line between useful and harmful can be blurred.

  11. TC says:

    NOT funny — and I have a truly warped sense of humor.

  12. lmgilbert says:

    A version of this actually played out at a parish in Hillside, IL a few years ago. You may remember Fr. Jencks, the priest who was held captive by some terrorist group in the Middle East for a few years. When he returned he was assigned to St. Domitillas, and after Mass one day entered the confessional with his portable mike still on. Fortunately the first penitent was an old man who complained to father about how lonely his life was since his wife died. When he left the confessional there was hardly a dry eye in the Church. As Fr Jencks said later to the press, there was no harm done. True enough, but the possibilities!

  13. “Jane, stop this crazy thing!” LOL!

  14. lmgilbert says:

    Once when I was in the Army I was detailed with three other men to clean the base chapel. When we arrived, the sacred vessels had been left on the altar, and two of the men seeing the opporunity for a little humor, took them up, staggered around the altar as if they were drunk and making various humorous comments which they found hilarious.

    I was completely taken aback and horrified, but had no idea where to begin to put a stop to it. However, since this was an ecumencial chapel, it happened that in front of me was an open Bible on a stand. Like a man looking for a plank in a shipwreck I looked into the scripture hoping to find words that would come to my aid. The first verse that my eyes struck was, “Woe to the man who does not reprove those who mishandle the sacred vessels.” It was enough to call the men over and point out the passages for them both to say, “Whoa!” and gingerly replace the sacred vessels on the altar.

    A word to the wise is sufficient.

    I see the humor in the piece. I find it funny. But to me that is not the issue. The issue is not what we think of it, but what God thinks of it. The sacraments are holy. This is a profane treatment of a sacrament.

    “God does not like sour-faced saints,” says one, and “We should not be afraid to laugh at ourselves,” says another, but that is all by the way. Is this a reverential treatment of a sacrament of the Catholic Church or not?

    In an ecclesiastical context, from there it is a small step, but a logical one, to feel free to make innocent jokes about the seminary rector or the Archbishop. Why not? If anyone objects, obviously they do not have a sense of humor. It’s all in good fun. Nothing was meant by it. It wasn’t malicious.

    A few weeks later the seminary rector, whose name is Fr. Charles Smith becomes “Charlie.” Is that so wrong? The reason why this step is so easy to take is that the conscience has been hardened by the earlier light treatment which went unreproved. No one wants to be a wet blanket, to be thought humorless, nor to be excluded from the “with-it” crowd… This is known as human respect.

    And so it comes that when the rector calls the seminarian in for a serious-as- a- heart-attack conference, the seminarian does not see Fr. Charles Smith sitting across the desk from him, the Lord’s representative in his life, but only “Charlie.” He no longer takes him seriously or respects him or obeys him.

    I think something like this pattern has repeated like a noxious fractal throughout the Church in rectories, friaries, monasteries, convents and curial offices. It is a pox on the Church.

    The sacraments of the Church, consecrated persons and things should not be treated with anything less than reverence.

    This is not my idea. Search the scriptures.

    Beware of the comedians.

  15. Navarricano says:

    My verdict is funny, and I recognise the actors too. That skit is from the television program “Vaya Semanita”, on the Basque channel ETB in northern Spain. Unfortunately, given the sad state of the Church and the almost complete absence of vocations in the region, this may very soon be the reality for Basque Catholics.

  16. MaryAgnesLamb says:

    I thought it was quite funny, and not a bit sacrilegious.

  17. SemiSpook says:

    I think that should go in the “Book of Bad Habits”. :-)

  18. Subvet says:

    It’s funny.

    I’d bet on Heaven being filled with self-mocking humor, wonder if the cherubim ever put whoopee cushions on the throne of the Almighty?

  19. Jayna says:

    My vote is for funny. I don’t know about some people, but I can laugh at sketches like this and still understand that when it comes to reality, confession is something to be treated seriously and with the utmost respect. In my opinion, the fact that he says they’re doing it because they have a low number of vocations eliminates any sacrilegious qualities it may have as people see what could happen without priests (to a ridiculous degree, of course, but you know what I mean).

  20. Charivari Rob says:

    I vote funny.

    Watching this also brought back memories of the air-conditioned, phone&fax-connected, Italian import confessional in the first episode of Ballykissangel.

  21. Robert_H says:

    I find it funny up until you find out it’s a nun pranking the penitent. Then it gets a bit uncomfortable.

  22. Mary G says:

    I voted funny and laughed and laughed. It is good to laugh at ourselves but we are well aware of the serious side of our beautiful Sacraments. Even God has a sense of humour.

  23. rosebudsal says:

    I think it’s totally funny. I saw it, wow, maybe a year ago and got a good laugh at it then and now. We do need a little bit of humor in our lives. We’re Catholics, we like fun and frivolity from time to time. :)

  24. Vilallonga says:

    Basque humor, of course!

  25. Allan S. says:

    This is probably a good time to ask: Is watching Family Guy a sin? :)

  26. Funny. For the non-funn-ies, it could not be real as it is not valid nor licit, likewise, over a phone or over the Internet will not work either.

  27. ssoldie says:

    No, it’s not real…yet.

  28. irishgirl says:

    I thought it was funny…I didn’t expect the nun at the end of it, though!

    But we still gotta pray for priestly vocations! That’s serious!

  29. lacrossecath says:

    It’s a JOKE people…

  30. Agnes says:

    I don’t know how to vote! Yes, it was funny, but it was devilish funny. It’s not real – but the knife twist in the humor is that, by golly, we can imagine ourselves next in line!

    Yikes! Vocations! Now! Hurry, guys!

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