catholic humour - and creed

Brendan Malone bet me to this by just a couple of hours! Many of you are already following his inspiring facebook page.

The announcement was made today that Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York and Stephen Colbert (a Catholic American comedian) will meet on September 14 for a duo comedy conversation at Fordham University. The session is titled “The Cardinal and Colbert: Humor, Joy, and the Spiritual Life.”

You can get a glimpse of the Cardinal's humour from this interview:

and one of Stephen Colbert's classic clips at this link.

This Colbert link reminds me of the story I heard some time ago about a Catholic priest at his monthly "Christian Ministers" meeting in a NZ town.  The local clergy of the Christian churches decided spontaneously at their meeting to share 'what they believed'.  Several of the group spoke making comments like "I believe in the love of God", and "I believe in the goodness of all people".  Others added "I believe in the creativity of God" and "in the harmony of all creation."

The Catholic priest in the group was silent and seemed to be getting more agitated as he was asked to speak.  He then gently began to share saying: 

"I believe in God,

the Father almighty,

Creator of heaven and earth,

and in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord,

who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,

born of the Virgin Mary,

suffered under Pontius Pilate,

was crucified, died and was buried;

he descended into hell;

on the third day he rose again from the dead;

he ascended into heaven,

and is seated at the right hand of God 

the Father almighty;

from there he will come to judge 

the living and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit,

the holy catholic Church,

the communion of saints,

the forgiveness of sins,

the resurrection of the body,

and life everlasting. Amen

The Apostles Creed

When the priest had finished, the other clergy were silent until one asked (seriously), "wow, where did you get that from?"

What can I say?

I will upload the link to the Dolan / Colbert conversation on this blog when it is publicised.

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ps. another interview with Cardinal Dolan