Cardinal O’Malley Tells an Outdated Joke

In his foreword for Joshua McElwee’s and Cindy Wooden’s book with the weird title “Francescamente Parlando” (Speaking Francis-like), Boston Cardinal Sean O’Malley recounts a joke.

The book was published in June. O’Malley who is a Capuchin, writes,

“A Jesuit and a Franciscan travel together. Someone asks them: ‘Fathers, can you tell me which novena I should pray in order to find the money to buy a BMW?’ The Franciscan answers: ‘What is a BMW?’ The Jesuit: ‘What is a novena?’"

This joke is outdated because it's from before Vatican II when the Church still had humour.

Now it makes no sense because Jesuits and Franciscans hide under plain clothes, so nobody recognises them. Both of them don’t know what a “novena” is.

If they knew, they would dissuade from praying one, but tell the person “to help the poor,” “to fight climate-change,” and “to avoid plastic bags.”

Then, they would jump on a plane to Brazil to attend a conference promoting divorced and remarried female Pachamama priests with the smell of the goats.

Picture: Sean O'Malley, © Mazur, CC BY-NC-SA, #newsNphjghikyq