To hope the Pope does indeed punch his assistant...

[PausingFlatly]

... and get arrested for assault.

Seems he thinks it's clever to state that people who insult his mother should be punched.

As an example of how to treat people who insult him or religion.

And I'd thought this Pope wasn't dim. Looks like I was wrong.

I was somehow reminded about a mum at the very first coffee morning at my sons Catholic school. She said "I hear they learnt that we all ascend from Monkeys, that cant be right, how can they teach such nonsense! I gave birth to Katrina, she does not come from a monkey" - see, I just made fun of somebody not believing in Evolution.

Beware of the holy right hook!

Didn't the Catholic church excommunicate Dave Allen at the time?

Also love Dave Allen's sign off. I don't think he was saying don't joke about religion - he was saying we should all have a bit more respect for each other and consider if what we are saying will upset people. And I cannot see what is wrong with that! In the same way as I think my FIL should stop spouting that "he just says it as he finds it" and using that as an excuse to be rude . And as long as there isn't legislation saying people HAVE to exercise restraint in what they say then what's the problem?

"You cannot insult the faith of others. You cannot make fun of the faith of others." Pope Francis as quoted by BBC.

I disagree with these words.

I'm just astonished by lots of the reactions on here.

Organised religions wield enormous power over the lives of millions of people. Our ancestors fought and died so that we could have the freedom to mock and challenge what they say, the freedom to think for ourselves and undermine those who would set themselves up as arbiters of morality.
In many countries around the world, people are still fighting and dying for this right.

People are free to believe what they want, and other people are free to question those beliefs. Satire is one of the most powerful forms of questioning, it is used against politicians and it's right that it's used against organsied religions too.

It is not true that "You cannot insult the faith of others. You cannot make fun of the faith of others", and I sincerely hope that I will never see a UK (or a France) where it is.

Comparing the right to blaspheme to the right to insult someone's mother is intellectually dishonest.

Well, as a previous Pope said, it's great to have freedom.

But it's how you use it that is important.

Then again atheists have never quite learned how to laugh at themselves

I suppose not believing in the absurdities required by organised religion gives us less scope for being ridiculous.

Still think is lost in translation - I wouldnt translate what I heard in the original Italian to the English "You cannot". What he said was "Non si può prendere in giro la religione di un altro. Non va bene". Taken in the context he was speaking in and taking into consideration the intonation, expression, body language etc he was using (all of equal importance as words when speaking Italian!) this was taken by both me and my (atheist, Italian, anti catholic church) dp to mean "come on! do we have to poke fun at the religion of another person. That's not on!" Hardly a call to legislate against blasphemy!

I'm pretty shocked at the Pope. I thought the idea of non-retaliation was one of the main planks of Christianity and there he is casually suggesting a punch is an OK response to an insult. He bears the heavy weight of papal infallibility .... it's really not in his remit to joke around when it comes to central tenets.

Phaedra it's fine that atheists can't laugh at themselves. I can do that for them
For what it's worth, I'm not in the least bit religious, but Jesus wept, lots of the Dawkins rent a quotes types are a tedious pain in the arse.

Odd I find those claiming special privileges for religion "oh you can't say that, it offends my faith" beyond tedious.

Well, as a previous Pope said, it's great to have freedom. But it's how you use it that is important.

Well indeed. And if the way we use it is never to "insult" any set of religious ideas, because we're afraid of a violent response, then we're using it wrong.

A religious leader is always going to urge people to respect religions. There's nothing surprising about that. Birds of a feather, etc. But a leader of a faith that specifically & especially espouses pacifism to the point of ones own death 'joking' about punching someone in return for an insult.... Irresponsible, surely?

He is no more advocating violence as people who say 'I'd kill my dp if he did such and such' I think it's been lost in translation.

People need to calm down. I think the point he was trying to make is stop making fun of people's faith, it's like making fun of someone's family.

The whole world could do with being a bit more respectful of people who disagree with them, rather than being nasty because of 'freedom of speech'.

what catzeyees says.

Oh come off it, Catzeyess.

If you said, 'I'd kill my dp if he did such and such,' in the context of a discussion about domestic violence, you'd be toasted crisp. And rightly so.

Francis had a choice about what sort of joking around and am-dram to play at, to make his request "please don't hurt my feelings".

To model a violent response to feeling insulted, in a discussion of last week's... violent response to feeling insulted, was, to put it kindly, an Exceptionally Poor Choice.

Not big, not clever.

I don't like the sort of respect that relies on the fear of retaliation.

Have a laugh by all means Pausing but I don't understand why it's necessary to insult.

Really would I? I've seen in many times on here.

'My dp did [insert something abusive]'
'If my dp did that I'd kill him'

It's just a turn of phrase for goodness sake. He was not advocating violence he is just making a point - in a different language from a different culture, where that is a very common thing to say.

By the way, does anyone here think it was clever?

Or are we just debating the size of the gaffe, from "I can overlook that" to "FFS"?

Slowcommotion, for some people, challenging or disagreeing with their dearly held ideals and failing to obey their rules will always be taken as an insult.

It's not possible to not insult them without giving up your own beliefs and behaviours.