“I want to ask you and everybody else about something that happened last week that was important to me because I’m an atheist,” Maher said. “But you know people always say when somebody says something obvious, ‘Oh is the pope Catholic?’ I think he might not be. I think the pope might be an atheist like I think Obama is. He said this week, ‘Pope Frank’ said the Lord has redeemed all of us, not just Catholics, even the atheists. And I was like, I’m going to book my flight to heaven right now. And then of course — it’s funny because just like politics, the hierarchy at the Vatican was like, ‘What the fuck did this guy —?’ You could almost see them preparing the poison. Luckily we’ve got a spare pope. You know, one of the key things in this religion and most religions is monopoly only through us. Even hippie Jesus said that. Only through me. So this guy is saying everybody gets to heaven. So then they had to walk it back.”

Maher was referring to a statement from Vatican spokesman Rev. Thomas Rosica.

“People who truly know the Catholic Church cannot be saved if they refuse to enter her or remain in her,” the statement said.