Carol Burnett? Charles Constantine Pise? Jim Furlong? Jim Obert? Art Lewis? Anonymous?
Question for Quote Investigator: When the answer to a question is obviously affirmative the respondent can employ the following rhetorical phrase:
Is the Pope Catholic?
Is the Pope a Catholic?
This reply suggests that the original question was ridiculous, but the insult is leavened with humor. Would you please explore the provenance of this remark?
Reply from Quote Investigator: Scholar Charles Clay Doyle calls this phrase a sarcastic interrogative, and he mentions other phrases in this family such as “Is water wet?”, “Can birds fly?”, and “Is the sky blue?”.1 The wonderful website “Green’s Dictionary of Slang” lists several examples together with citations.2
The earliest match for the target phrase with the desired sense found by QI appeared in August 1952 within a San Antonio, Texas newspaper. An article about adventurer Jim Furlong described his journey sailing halfway around the world in a small sailing boat. Unfortunately, he suffered an accident that damaged his foot. Furlong was asked about his experience:3
Would he do it all over again?
“Is the Pope a Catholic,” grinned Furlong. “Sure I would. I’m already planning my next trip — and it’s going to be the biggest yet.”
QI has found the phrase “Is the Pope Catholic?” in print many years before 1952, but these earlier instances were not used as sarcastic interrogatives.
Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.
In 1839 U.S. Roman Catholic priest Charles Constantine Pise published a novel titled “Father Rowland; or The Force of Truth” which contained a similar phrase. But the phrase was about the famous English poet Alexander Pope:4
“You remember, mamma, the answer of Pope to Dean Swift, when urged to abandon the Catholic church, of which he lived and died a member.”
“Was Pope a Catholic?” asked Virginia, with surprise.
“He certainly was,” replied Rowland, “and so was Petrach, and so was Dryden.”
In December 1854 “The Boston Herald” of Massachusetts printed a short item titled “A Catholic Know Nothing” which contained the phrase, but it was not used sarcastically:5
An Irishwoman in this city, not long since, while listening to some conversation respecting Nicholas and the Pope, inquired, very innocently — “Is the Pope a Catholic?” Fact.
In January 1855, this anecdote was reprinted in “Herald of The Times” in Newport, Rhode Island.6
In 1912 the “Catholic School Journal” of Milwaukee, Wisconsin printed an instance which was not sarcastic:7
… we teachers are prone to take it for granted that our pupils know obvious things that they should know, but which in reality they sometimes do not know. Once a teacher gave a fervent little talk about the Vicar of Christ; and after it was all over a little girl raised her hand. “Please, Sister,” she asked, “is the Pope a Catholic?”
In June 1939, the phrase was used as the punchline of a joke highlighting comical ignorance:8
Another good Catholic story deals with a man who spoke disrespectfully of the pope at a dinner he (the man, not the pope) was attending. Two Catholic guests became offended and withdrew. The host took the critic to task and scolded him for offending Catholic friends by speaking disrespectfully of the pope, whereupon the critic exclaimed, “My gosh — is the pope a Catholic!”
In July 1939, the joke above appeared in “The Sikeston Standard” of Missouri.9
In August 1952 adventurer Jim Furlong use the target phrase with the desired sense as mentioned near the beginning of this article:10
Would he do it all over again?
“Is the Pope a Catholic,” grinned Furlong. “Sure I would. I’m already planning my next trip — and it’s going to be the biggest yet.”
In 1955 journalist Jim Obert wrote a piece about golfer John Montague in “The Peoria Star” of Illinois. Obert indicated that Montague could drive a golf ball a long distance:11
Could Montague hit that long ball? Is the Pope Catholic?
In 1957 a newspaper in Roanoke, Virginia reported that football coach Art Lewis used the phrase:12
“Did your team look better today than it did against Virginia?” was the first question I put to Coach Art Lewis of West Virginia. The big fellow looked me squarely in the eye and fired back: “Is the Pope a Catholic?”
In 1962 the UPI News Service published a piece which quoted entertainer Carol Burnett using the phrase:13
One of the more penetrating reporters among us wanted to know if Kaye and Miss Burnett were Democrats.
“Is the Pope Catholic?” replied Miss Burnett.
In conclusion, the earliest rhetorical instance found by QI was spoken by Jim Furlong in 1952, but QI conjectures that the catchphrase was already in circulation, and the creator remains anonymous. In addition, non-sarcastic instances were used in comical stories in 1854, 1912, and 1939. These jokes may have facilitated the emergence of the catchphrase.
Image Notes: View of St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City by Giovanni Battista Piranesi at WikiArt. The image has been cropped and resized.
Acknowledgement: Great thanks to quotation expert Nigel Rees whose inquiry led QI to formulate this question and perform this exploration. Also, thanks to research on this topic performed by Charles Clay Doyle, Jonathon Green, and Rees. Further thanks to the following participants in a discussion thread about sarcastic interrogatives: Bill Mullins, Wilson Gray, David A. Daniel, William Salmon, Jonathan Lighter, George Thompson, Victor Steinbok, and Laurence Horn.
- 1975 Spring, Midwestern Journal of Language and Folklore, Volume 1, Number 1, Sarcastic Interrogative Affirmatives and Negatives by Charles Clay Doyle, Start Page 33, End Page 34, Indiana State University, Terre Haute, Indiana. (HathiTrust Full View) link ↩︎
- Website: Green’s Dictionary of Slang, Website author: Jonathon Green, Entry title: does a bear sh-t in the woods? Is the pope (a) Catholic? phr., Website description: Online version of Jonathon Green’s historical dictionary of English slang. (Accessed greensdictofslang.com on Nov. 6, 2025) link ↩︎
- 1952 August 24, San Antonio Express, Loss of Foot Can’t Stop Adventurer, Quote Page 11, Column 8, San Antonio, Texas. (GenealogyBank) ↩︎
- 1839, Father Rowland; or The Force of Truth: A Catholic Tale of North America, Edited and enlarged by a Catholic Priest (Charles Constantine Pise), Second Edition, Chapter 8, Quote Page 121, Richard Grace, Dublin, Ireland. (Google Books Full View) link ↩︎
- 1854 December 28, The Boston Herald, A Catholic Know Nothing (Filler item), Quote Page 2, Column 4, Boston, Massachusetts. (GenealogyBank) ↩︎
- 1855 January 4, Herald of The Times, A Catholic Know Nothing, Quote Page 2, Column 2, Newport, Rhode Island. (Newspapers_com) link ↩︎
- 1912 May, Catholic School Journal, Volume 12, Number 2, The Essentials in Christian Doctrine, Quote Page 45, Column 2, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. (Internet Archive) link ↩︎
- 1939 June 29, Monroe County Appeal, Untitled short item, Quote Page 2, Column 1, Paris, Missouri. (Newspapers_com) link ↩︎
- 1939 July 4, The Sikeston Standard, Untitled Article, Quote Page 4, Column 1 and 2, Sikeston, Missouri. (Internet Archive) ↩︎
- 1952 August 24, San Antonio Express, Loss of Foot Can’t Stop Adventurer, Quote Page 11, Column 8, San Antonio, Texas. (GenealogyBank) ↩︎
- 1955 June 8, The Peoria Star, “Montague” Could Win the Open by Jim Obert, Quote Page B2, Column 2, Peoria, Illinois. (GenealogyBank) ↩︎
- 1957 September 30, The Roanoke World-News, Too Much Hesitation — That’s Tech Story by Bob McLelland (World-News Sports Writer), Quote Page 17, Column 1 and 2, Roanoke, Virginia. (GenealogyBank) ↩︎
- 1962 December 1, The Pensacola News, No Ticket Sales, Just Gifts by Dick West (UPI News Service), Quote Page 4, Column 7, Pensacola, Florida. (Newspapers_com) ↩︎