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Friend of the show, Jesuit priest, author, and editor-at-large of America Media Father James Martin stopped by Father Dave\u2019s radio studio to discuss his recent meeting with Pope Francis, what it was like being at the Vatican with a number of famous comedians, and more.\xa0

On Friday June 14, Pope Francis met with a number of comedians from multiple countries including Jimmy Fallon, Stephen Colbert, Whoopi Goldberg, Chris Rock, and Jim Gaffigan to name a few. \xa0The meeting, according to the Vatican\u2019s Dicastery for Communication, was intended to \u201cestablish a link\u201d between the Catholic Church and such artists and aimed to "celebrate the beauty of human diversity ... [and] promote a message of peace, love and solidarity."\xa0

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Father James Martin is a consultor to the Vatican\u2019s Dicastery for Communication and explains to Father Dave how he became involved.\xa0 \u201cI knew about the comedians thing about two months before they met with the pope,\u201d Father James says.\xa0 \u201cIt was organized very quickly.\xa0 They wanted to do it before the Synod in October. The Dicastery for Culture and Education put it together, and I helped them out with the U.S. comedians.\u201d

Father Dave asks, \u201cSo they are over there in Rome and they think to themselves, who knows comedians over in the states? Boom, Father Jim Martin.\u201d \u201cPretty Much!,\u201d Father Jim replies.

Father Jim explains that the Dicastery for Culture and Education initially sent him a long list of over 50 comedians and humorists and asked him to narrow it down. \u201cI talked to Stephen Colbert and Jim Gaffigan, who I know, and I said help me pick the people who are really kind of the most respected among your peers because we had to narrow it down, and then the Vatican approved it.\u201d

Father Jim adds that there was no litmus test for the comedians who were picked.\xa0 They did not have to be Catholic; it didn\u2019t matter if they had said negative things about Pope Francis or the Catholic Church.\xa0 It was more about the biggest names who are most respected in their field.\xa0

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Despite the gathering\u2019s quick organization, Father Jim was very happy with how it all worked out. \u201cOne of the things that was very moving for me was everyone was really honored and happy to be there.\xa0 Comedians can be a little cynical sometimes, but they were really happy to be at the Vatican meeting with the Pope and were all quite moved.\u201d

Father Jim also spoke with Father Dave about his one-on-one hour-long meeting with the pope while he was in Rome.\xa0 \u201cWe talked about two things which I can say. We talked about his comments about gay priests, which were very much in the news, and we talked about the U.S. Church.\u201d\xa0\xa0

Father Jim continues, \u201cWe had a very open and honest conversation about his comments about gay priests and one of the things I wanted to share was at the comedians meeting, everybody went up and shook his [Pope Francis\u2019] hand and I went up to him, and I posted a video of this, and I said, thank you very much. And he pulls me back and he says, \u2018Thank you for that conversation the other day. I really appreciated it.\u2019 And I thought, now that's really unusual, like, thank you for a conversation that was difficult and challenging. He didn't have to say that. So I just think that's a sign of how open he is. He's learning. He listens.\u201d