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A cousin of mine told me he had a photograph of Robert F. Prevost, now Pope Leo XIV, dressed up as Groucho Marx. Apparently the photograph was taken when Prevost was a student at Villanova University and wound up at the same Halloween masquerade party some relatives of mine attended.
Although the Groucho photograph has never been published, it does hang on a wall, framed, in the home of a niece of mine.
The Leo XIV-as-Groucho photo got me thinking: could there be something in Marx’s comedy routines that might hold clues regarding the trajectory of Leo’s papacy, especially when it comes to the question of immigration, open borders and the proper way to treat migrants?
Let’s begin with the appointments made by the former Villanova University grad who prides himself on his great devotion to “Our Lady” and the messages at Fatima but who nevertheless promotes liberal and radical priests to positions of authority the same way his predecessor stacked the decks in favor of a reformist theology that can hardly be called Catholic.
Papal appointments indicate where a pope is “going” in terms of ideology and philosophy, and Leo’s appointments somehow recall Groucho’s comment on honesty and fairness when the comedian quipped:
“The secret of life is honesty and fair dealing. If you can fake those two things, you’ve got it made.”
Leo appointed Reverend Canon Fr. Beat (no relation to Allen Ginsberg) Grogli as Bishop of the Diocese of Saint Gallen in Switzerland.
Grogli was first elected bishop by the Saint Gallen cathedral chapter, as the custom in Switzerland is for the cathedral parish to elect a bishop and then offer the candidate for the pope’s approval.
Leo approved the election of the progressive bishop-elect who has publicly supported the movement for female deacons. Grogli, who dresses like a Methodist minister in a beige clerical collar, has called for the Church to adapt to the times and revamp its views on marriage, sexual morality and contraception. He’s also famous for wearing a multicolored court jester hat at Mass during carnival time.
What a cool, radical guy!
Switzerland, of course, has always been a hotbed for radical Catholicism. The deceased Swiss theologian Hans Kung, who eschewed clerical dress for a suit and tie and allegedly shacked up with a mistress while performing his duties as a priest, helped brand Swiss Catholicism as the most avant-garde in the world.
In a 2013 interview with ‘Spiegel,’ Kung stated:
“I don’t believe in an eternal hell. Sartre says that hell is other people. People create their own hell — in wars like the one in Syria, for example, as well as with unbridled capitalism.”
We have only to ponder Leo XIV’s fixed, benevolent-albeit often goofy-smile to understand how he hoodwinked onlookers when he was first elected pope and appeared at the central window of St. Peter’s Basilica in traditional vestments to give his first blessing.
The scene gave authentic Catholics hope that here, finally, was a pope who would restore a fractured Catholicism.
“He prays his Latin; he even prayed with and complimented Eastern Catholic bishops for the Byzantine liturgy and how those rites generate a sense of mystery and a sense of the sacred,” many said during the first weeks of his papacy.
I was among this group of naïve, hopeful believers, but then I came to my senses.
That’s because with Groucho Marx, you never know what’s up. Take marriage, for example.
“Take the wives out of marriage and there wouldn’t be any divorces … In union there is alimony,” the comedian said, chewing on his cigar.
The Villanova guy in papal dress concurred more or less when he gave a green light for the continuation of Fiducia supplican, or the blessing of homosexual and “irregular” heterosexual couples.
The Catholic catechism says one thing but Fiducia supplican says another. Which is it? It can’t be both.
The real Groucho even denigrated belief in an afterlife while managing to get listeners to laugh.
“You only live once, despite what Jesus or somebody said … Go out to the garden and tear a flower in four. It won’t be a flower again.”
Groucho’s most famous line, “I don’t care to belong to any club that will have me as a member,” might have that Villanova guy adding: “But if I have to be a member, I will change it beyond recognition.”
Consider Leo’s first United States appointment of Fr. Michael M. Pham as Bishop of San Diego.
One of Bishop Pham’s first actions was to appear at the local courthouse to support migrants waiting for hearings. Supporting people who have entered the country illegally in the name of sentimental humanitarianism is distilling Catholic theology down to its dumbest common denominator.
Letting criminals into your country in the name of Christian charity is the sort of suicide Islam hopes weak, weepy Christians will adopt as a universal standard.
Meanwhile in El Paso, Texas, a number of auxiliary bishops and religious sisters (nuns in secular dress) regularly show up at immigration court to show solidarity with migrants who appear at required hearings. This is another example of weepy suicidal Christian sentimentality, comparable to the parents of a junkie allowing him to move home despite the fact he will steal and sell the family treasures to support his habit.
Let me add that you almost never see a religious sister in a habit protesting alongside pro-migrant bishops or other Catholic clergy. The activist nuns who take part in these protests are generally Sisters of Saint Joseph in short ducktail hairdos that call to mind elder lesbian Pride organizers. These sisters speak of Jesus only as a social activist and social revolutionary.
The ‘old Jesus’ who said “Go and sin no more,” doesn’t exist for them.
These so-called nuns used to wear cross or crucifix pins as a sign of their commitment to religious life but even these iconic symbols have been exchanged for bland Costco-style jewelry.
This is the new Catholicism of Francis, now being promoted by Leo the Groucho, the Catholicism of social justice, with immigration eclipsing abortion as the issue of the day.
This fact caught the attention of the New York Times:
“But now they (US bishops) are increasingly invoking Pope Leo XIV’s leadership and Pope Francis’s legacy against Mr. Trump’s immigration actions, and prioritizing humane treatment of immigrants as a top public issue. They are protesting the president’s current domestic policy bill in Congress, showing up at court hearings to deter Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, and urging Catholics and non-Catholics alike to put compassion for humans ahead of political allegiances.”
Pope Francis appointee, Cardinal McElroy of Washington, D.C., a progressive radical named specifically to counter the presidency of Donald Trump, is now making pronouncements in defense of illegal aliens.
“The realities are becoming more ominous,” he said. “It is becoming clearer that this is a wholesale, indiscriminate deportation effort aimed at all those who came to the country without papers.”
The latest twist in the Church’s sentimental embrace of illegal immigration comes from San Bernardino Roman Catholic Bishop Alberto Rojas, who recently issued a dispensation offering members of his diocese’s parishioners the option to stay home Sundays amid ongoing immigration enforcement sweeps.
Rojas advised illegal aliens not to go to confession and rectify their trespassing offense, but to ignore it and “maintain their spiritual communion with Christ and His Church” by praying the rosary or reading scripture.”
“If you can fake those two things, you’ve got it made,” as the real Groucho said.