Apologia pro lepos in iocando mea

... or "A Defense of My Sense of Humor" ...

After the recent conclave, a Latin American Cardinal was interviewed who said that the personal characteristic of the former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict XVI) that most decisively struck him was his humility. This is a man, for all who truly know him, knows nothing of arrogance, power-mongering, or political posturing. Even before he was elected Pope, he was always a true prince of the Church. However, self-styled Catholics who despise Church teaching, especially on what I call the "pelvic" issues (chastity, celibacy, masturbation, cohabitation, adultery, contraception, abortion, homosexuality, divorce, remarriage, etc.) used to describe Cardinal Ratzinger in draconian terms. They called him "Darth Vader," the "Panzerkardinal," the "Grand Inquisitor," conjuring up popular grim images of the Spanish Inquisition. These same people also saw Pope John Paul II as a "reactionary," and were fully hoping that a new pope would bring a more "Enlightened" administration to the Vatican, implementing a new "collegiality" that would decentralize Catholicism, making it more "truly Catholic, and less Roman," granting virtual autonomy to local dioceses and parishes to teach and practice whatever they liked. These cafeteria Catholics look longingly at Episcopalians whom they regard "progressive" for not giving a damn what anyone believes and for ordaining a practicing homosexual bishop, but they aren't able to see the humor of the joke which says that the trouble with Anglicans trying to play chess is that they can't tell the difference between a bishop and a queen. The election of Pope Benedict XVI is, for them, an unimaginable nightmare in which the figure on the papal throne must appear something like the monstrous figure on the right. This is a fact, and it is one for the life of me that I can't help finding a trifle amusing. Forgive me.

Some of my good readers have taken exception to my admittedly somewhat perverse sense of humor in quoting actor Robert Duvall's words ("I love the smell of napalm in the morning ... it smelled like victory ...") in the Vietnam film Apocalypse Now as a foil for introducing my reflections on Pope Benedict XVI's election on April 19th (see my post: "It smells like victory"). CNN reportedly ran a story showing the page from my blog prominently featuring the image of Duvall brandishing his M-16, along with a reference to my son, Christopher and his Cardinal Ratzinger Fan Club website. Albion Land, a correspondent for Agence-France Presse, who was in Rome to cover the papal election, also released a story (with my permission) citing the details, "On Internet Frontlines, Bloggers Have a Lot to Say About New Pope."

The intended humor, of course, can be easily misunderstood by those who lack the context for it, and can easily offend, and for any who have been offended by it, I offer my sincere regrets. The danger of this sort of thing happening is particularly notorious in the written media, where one has no access to modulations of voice in the spoken word, or other factors that can help contextualize and render such humor intelligible. H.W. Crocker III [pictured left], author of Triumph: The Power and Glory of the Catholic Church had similar difficulties with his sense of humor in an article he wrote for Crisis magazine not long ago entitled "Making Babies: A Very Different Look at Natural Family Planning" (Crisis, Dec. 2004), in which he launched into what I consider a hilariously funny article by proposing a new rallying cry: "Use NFP: It Doesn't Work!" Here's an excerpt:

And to hell with improving "communication" as a dogmatic defense of NFP. For men, the whole point of marriage is to avoid communicating, all that dating conversation stuff can finally be foregone. Married communication, as successful husbands know, is best limited to grunts and hand signals--one upraised finger meaning, "I need a beer," two upraised fingers meaning, "You need to change the brat's diapers," three upraised fingers meaning, "Honey, why don't you mow the lawn while I watch football?" and so on. No words are more doom-laden than a wife's sitting down and saying, "Let's talk." Communication is, of course, the first step towards divorce.

I don't know about you, but I find this hilarious. This sort of thing can convulse my wife and I with such laughter that it knocks us out of our chairs flat on our asses. We don't for a moment, however, take it literally. But a subsequent issue of Crisis (February 2005) carried a predictable five pages of letters to the editor by outraged and offended readers, who took Crocker literally and sincerely thought he had misunderstood what NFP is all about and (amusingly) tried to correct him. In response to these letters, Crocker wrote, typically tongue-in-cheek:

So overwhelmingly enthusiastic were those people who responded to me directly about this piece that I thought I was fast becoming a hero of Desparate Catholic Housewives. One Catholic blogger even ran excerpts of the piece under the heading: "Why I Love H.W. Crocker III." This seems to me the right reaction. (p. 8)

The blogger he refers to, of course, is none other than yours truly (see my post, "Why I Love H.W. Crocker III").

Now I suspect Crocker is as afflicted with as perverse a sense of humor as I and with at least as many occasions of being sadly misunderstood. Perhaps we ought to temper our perverse senses of humor, especially when it comes to subjects as sacred and holy as Catholic teaching on sexuality (NFP) and the recent election of His Holiness, Pope Benedict XVI (our beloved erstwhile Cardinal Ratzinger). Will we do so? Probably not. We're probably no more capable of changing our humor than the leopard his spots. Will we continue to be misunderstood? Absolutely. But be assured, there are few Catholics who love the Church, Pope John Paul II and his successor, and Sacred Tradition more than converts such as Crocker, myself, and countless others (see my list of Notable Converts to the Catholic Faith). Just read Crocker's book Triumph: The Power and Glory of the Catholic Church, and see for yourself. I know that there are some of you out there, at least, who "get" this--who "get" a sense of humor like Crocker's or mine. The top of the day to y'all. To the rest, my sincere condolences.