Over his long (and still ongoing) career, Stephen Colbert has been many things to many people: comedian, satirist, political gadfly, cultural provocateur and, for the last 11 years, host of the No. 1 late show, CBS’ “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.”
For me, the soon-to-be-former late-night host has also been the single greatest argument for married Catholic clergy.
Colbert has never mentioned a desire to be a priest, but for an often struggling Catholic such as myself, there have been more than a few times when, watching him wield his signature blend of scathing yet deeply human theology, it was tough not to wonder, wistfully, what Mass would be like if he were delivering the sermons.
Though in his chosen profession, Colbert has undoubtedly had a far greater impact, ministering to millions in a way few, if any, cultural figures who exist outside the religious sphere have ever done. For more than two decades, he has offered a modern vision of active and informed faith, while still being culturally grounded, politically fearless and funny as hell.
There’s no denying that as a comedian, he is often unkind. When Fox News CEO Roger Ailes resigned following a cascade of sexual harassment charges, Colbert referred to him as a “Jabba the Hutt cosplayer,” which wasn’t really the point, and a generally reviled joke about President Trump’s mouth being Vladimir Putin’s “c— holster” was acknowledged by Colbert as being “cruder than it needed to be.”
But he has long taken the spiritual demand to speak truth to power seriously, and balanced it always with a belief in the power of forgiveness.
When Paramount Global, which owns CBS, announced its infamous and unprecedented $16-million settlement with Trump over the editing of a “60 Minutes” story, Colbert called it “a big fat bribe” offered to the president, whose approval was needed to finalize the selling of Paramount to Skydance.
Soon after the sale went through, “The Late Show” was canceled. CBS cited financial reasons, but many believe it was an attempt by David Ellison, chairman and CEO of Paramount Skydance, to curry favor with the president. Trump, who has openly called for the dismissal of those who criticize him, including Colbert and fellow late-night host Jimmy Kimmel, made his appreciation and pleasure well known.
Even so, when Colbert later won an Emmy for “Late Night,” he made no mention of Trump or the cancellation that had left the entertainment industry roiling in fury. Instead, he offered CBS nothing but gratitude, and closed his short speech with: “I have never loved my country more desperately. God bless America. Stay strong, be brave and if the elevator tries to bring you down, go crazy and punch a higher floor.”
Stephen Colbert accepts the Emmy for talk series for “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” during the 77th Primetime Emmy Awards in September.
(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)
A cheek has never been turned more obviously, publicly or sincerely.
Which raises CBS’ axing of Colbert and his show, ending Thursday, from egregious pandering to a “To Kill a Mockingbird” level of sin — an attempt to remove a voice that existed only to sing to us. Perhaps not in the key some of us wanted to hear but then, some folks find mockingbirds annoying, too.
There is a stomach-churning, and quite illuminating, irony to the sight of a president who has so blatantly leveraged Christianity as a political tool, celebrating the dismissal of the most openly Christian presence in late-night.
Even as MAGA supporters decried what they perceive as the diminishment of Christianity in American culture, there was Colbert, an actual Sunday school teacher, appearing with a smudged forehead on Ash Wednesday, quoting scripture as often as he did J.R.R. Tolkien (another devout Catholic), regularly inviting members of the clergy on his show and often engaging in deep, spiritual conversations about loss and hope, the importance of forgiveness and faith.
He is equally open and insightful when discussing the transformative power of seeking God in grief, as he has done several times with Anderson Cooper, and the importance of the division of church and state, as he recently did on “The Spiritual Life with Fr. James Martin” podcast.
Which is why, of course, none of the Trump administration members who recently gathered for a nine-hour prayer festival to celebrate America’s Christian history protested CBS’ cancellation of “Late Night With Stephen Colbert.”
Not only is Colbert Catholic (which, as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth recently made clear, is not the administration’s preferred form of Christianity), but he’s a progressive Catholic. One who takes seriously Christ’s Sermon on the Mount, with its directive to place the care of community, especially the outcast, vulnerable and afflicted, over the desire for personal gain.
Colbert is not a proselytizer — he is, more than anything else, a comedian. But far from compartmentalizing his faith, as many entertainers do, he speaks of it often, just as he speaks of his family, both being a vital part of who he is.
And while humble is not a word one can accurately apply to any comedian — as Colbert said, almost regretfully, during a “Late Night” segment with Martin, “that is the problem with comedy, somebody is usually the butt of a joke” — his talent for the satiric has always risen, as good satire must, from a place of sincerity.
This is obvious in his role as interviewer, where his curiosity about his subjects and his willingness to actively listen to and engage with what they are saying (as opposed to simply ticking off prewritten questions) have always been among his greatest strengths as a television host. I cannot think of another who would call for, and take such cathartic pleasure in, Helen Mirren’s reading of “Ulysses” by Alfred, Lord Tennyson.
For those of us who have struggled with certain doctrines and the many institutional failings of the Catholic Church, the easiness with which Colbert navigates the seeming contradiction of cultural comedy and unapologetic religious faith offers a beacon of hope.
Far from being at odds with critical thinking, his faith in, and familiarity with, the lessons of the Gospels appears to gird his willingness to point out the corruptible nature of power and influence, while always holding out hope for change and forgiveness.
In a 2022 while speaking with Dua Lipa about her upcoming podcast, Colbert asked her to interview him. Mentioning that his faith was something that many viewers connected with, she asked him if his faith and comedy overlapped.
This is how he answered:
“I’m a Christian and a Catholic, and that’s always connected to the idea of love and sacrifice being somehow related and giving yourself to other people. And that death is not defeat. Sadness is like a little bit of an emotional death, but not a defeat, if you can find a way to laugh about it. Because that laughter keeps you from having fear of it, and fear is the thing that keeps you turning to evil devices to save you from the sadness. As Robert Hayden said, ‘We must not be frightened or cajoled into accepting evil as our deliverance from evil. We must keep struggling to maintain our humanity, though monsters of abstraction threaten and police us.’ So if there’s some relationship between my faith and my comedy, it’s that no matter what happens, you are never defeated. You must understand and see this in the light of eternity, and find some way to love and laugh with each other.”
As Dua Lipa said when he had finished, “Stephen Colbert, everybody.”
It’s tough not to see the recent election of the first American pope as an act of divine intervention. Pope Leo XIV may have been Colbert’s dream guest for his final season, but in many ways, down to the clashes with Trump, His Holiness is already stepping in to fill the cultural gap that Colbert will leave behind.
Over his long (and still ongoing) career, Stephen Colbert has been many things to many people: comedian, satirist, political gadfly, cultural provocateur and, for the last 11 years, host of the No. 1 late show, CBS’ “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.”
For me, the soon-to-be-former late-night host has also been the single greatest argument for married Catholic clergy.
Colbert has never mentioned a desire to be a priest, but for an often struggling Catholic such as myself, there have been more than a few times when, watching him wield his signature blend of scathing yet deeply human theology, it was tough not to wonder, wistfully, what Mass would be like if he were delivering the sermons.
Though in his chosen profession, Colbert has undoubtedly had a far greater impact, ministering to millions in a way few, if any, cultural figures who exist outside the religious sphere have ever done. For more than two decades, he has offered a modern vision of active and informed faith, while still being culturally grounded, politically fearless and funny as hell.
There’s no denying that as a comedian, he is often unkind. When Fox News CEO Roger Ailes resigned following a cascade of sexual harassment charges, Colbert referred to him as a “Jabba the Hutt cosplayer,” which wasn’t really the point, and a generally reviled joke about President Trump’s mouth being Vladimir Putin’s “c— holster” was acknowledged by Colbert as being “cruder than it needed to be.”
But he has long taken the spiritual demand to speak truth to power seriously, and balanced it always with a belief in the power of forgiveness.
When Paramount Global, which owns CBS, announced its infamous and unprecedented $16-million settlement with Trump over the editing of a “60 Minutes” story, Colbert called it “a big fat bribe” offered to the president, whose approval was needed to finalize the selling of Paramount to Skydance.
Soon after the sale went through, “The Late Show” was canceled. CBS cited financial reasons, but many believe it was an attempt by David Ellison, chairman and CEO of Paramount Skydance, to curry favor with the president. Trump, who has openly called for the dismissal of those who criticize him, including Colbert and fellow late-night host Jimmy Kimmel, made his appreciation and pleasure well known.
Even so, when Colbert later won an Emmy for “Late Night,” he made no mention of Trump or the cancellation that had left the entertainment industry roiling in fury. Instead, he offered CBS nothing but gratitude, and closed his short speech with: “I have never loved my country more desperately. God bless America. Stay strong, be brave and if the elevator tries to bring you down, go crazy and punch a higher floor.”
Stephen Colbert accepts the Emmy for talk series for “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” during the 77th Primetime Emmy Awards in September.
(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)
A cheek has never been turned more obviously, publicly or sincerely.
Which raises CBS’ axing of Colbert and his show, ending Thursday, from egregious pandering to a “To Kill a Mockingbird” level of sin — an attempt to remove a voice that existed only to sing to us. Perhaps not in the key some of us wanted to hear but then, some folks find mockingbirds annoying, too.
There is a stomach-churning, and quite illuminating, irony to the sight of a president who has so blatantly leveraged Christianity as a political tool, celebrating the dismissal of the most openly Christian presence in late-night.
Even as MAGA supporters decried what they perceive as the diminishment of Christianity in American culture, there was Colbert, an actual Sunday school teacher, appearing with a smudged forehead on Ash Wednesday, quoting scripture as often as he did J.R.R. Tolkien (another devout Catholic), regularly inviting members of the clergy on his show and often engaging in deep, spiritual conversations about loss and hope, the importance of forgiveness and faith.
He is equally open and insightful when discussing the transformative power of seeking God in grief, as he has done several times with Anderson Cooper, and the importance of the division of church and state, as he recently did on “The Spiritual Life with Fr. James Martin” podcast.
Which is why, of course, none of the Trump administration members who recently gathered for a nine-hour prayer festival to celebrate America’s Christian history protested CBS’ cancellation of “Late Night With Stephen Colbert.”
Not only is Colbert Catholic (which, as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth recently made clear, is not the administration’s preferred form of Christianity), but he’s a progressive Catholic. One who takes seriously Christ’s Sermon on the Mount, with its directive to place the care of community, especially the outcast, vulnerable and afflicted, over the desire for personal gain.
Colbert is not a proselytizer — he is, more than anything else, a comedian. But far from compartmentalizing his faith, as many entertainers do, he speaks of it often, just as he speaks of his family, both being a vital part of who he is.
And while humble is not a word one can accurately apply to any comedian — as Colbert said, almost regretfully, during a “Late Night” segment with Martin, “that is the problem with comedy, somebody is usually the butt of a joke” — his talent for the satiric has always risen, as good satire must, from a place of sincerity.
This is obvious in his role as interviewer, where his curiosity about his subjects and his willingness to actively listen to and engage with what they are saying (as opposed to simply ticking off prewritten questions) have always been among his greatest strengths as a television host. I cannot think of another who would call for, and take such cathartic pleasure in, Helen Mirren’s reading of “Ulysses” by Alfred, Lord Tennyson.
For those of us who have struggled with certain doctrines and the many institutional failings of the Catholic Church, the easiness with which Colbert navigates the seeming contradiction of cultural comedy and unapologetic religious faith offers a beacon of hope.
Far from being at odds with critical thinking, his faith in, and familiarity with, the lessons of the Gospels appears to gird his willingness to point out the corruptible nature of power and influence, while always holding out hope for change and forgiveness.
In a 2022 while speaking with Dua Lipa about her upcoming podcast, Colbert asked her to interview him. Mentioning that his faith was something that many viewers connected with, she asked him if his faith and comedy overlapped.
This is how he answered:
“I’m a Christian and a Catholic, and that’s always connected to the idea of love and sacrifice being somehow related and giving yourself to other people. And that death is not defeat. Sadness is like a little bit of an emotional death, but not a defeat, if you can find a way to laugh about it. Because that laughter keeps you from having fear of it, and fear is the thing that keeps you turning to evil devices to save you from the sadness. As Robert Hayden said, ‘We must not be frightened or cajoled into accepting evil as our deliverance from evil. We must keep struggling to maintain our humanity, though monsters of abstraction threaten and police us.’ So if there’s some relationship between my faith and my comedy, it’s that no matter what happens, you are never defeated. You must understand and see this in the light of eternity, and find some way to love and laugh with each other.”
As Dua Lipa said when he had finished, “Stephen Colbert, everybody.”
It’s tough not to see the recent election of the first American pope as an act of divine intervention. Pope Leo XIV may have been Colbert’s dream guest for his final season, but in many ways, down to the clashes with Trump, His Holiness is already stepping in to fill the cultural gap that Colbert will leave behind.
