A Bit of Ecclesiastical Humour

A friend posted this on FishEaters Forum just a bit ago. It's so funny, I had to share it!

At a recent mass in St Peters Basilica, it is reported that a Bear was in attendance, by coincidence it happened to be sitting next to a Russian Orthodox Priest.  Pope Francis noticed this as he was giving his homily, and was inspired to ad-lib his theme to speak to the need for unity and dialogue between Rome and the Orthodox. After the Mass, the pope stayed and met with some of the congregation, hoping to understand how a bear would come to be at his mass.  All of a sudden the bear approached and said, “Salve, Papa Francisco”.  The Pope was slightly startled and asked incredulously, “You’re Roman Catholic”?  The Bear replied “Yes, all members of the Ursus Arctos genus are traditionally Roman Rite, and as a rule we are known to prefer the Traditional Latin sung mass”. The Pope was amazed, admitting that he was not aware of this, but noting “well, it’s not like we get a lot of bears visiting the Vatican, you're actually the first bear I can ever recall seeing at a mass I was celebrating”.  The bear just shrugged his shoulders and said “well, with all that ecumenism crap about unity and dialogue with the Orthodox, I can see why!”