By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Journalist
Criticism is raging from all corners about a recent article appearing in the Vatican’s L’Osservatore Romano newspaper in which the crude Homer Simpson character is declared to be Catholic.
The article, which appeared in this weekend’s edition of the paper, declares Homer and his son, Bart, to be Catholics. “Few people know it, and he does everything he can to hide it, but it is true: Homer J. Simpson is a Catholic,” the paper insists.
The articles goes on to stay that “the Simpsons remain among the few programs for children in which the Christian faith, religion and the question of God are recurring themes” and cites the fact that the family “recites prayers before meals and, in their own peculiar way, believes in the life thereafter” as further evidence. The story also recounts a 2005 episode in which Homer converts to Catholicism after Bart is enrolled in a Catholic school where he is treated with kindness by a priest.
Writing about the article on her blog, Judie Brown, president of the American Life League is calling for “heads to roll” over the gaffe which has done nothing but bring ridicule upon the Church. Citing headlines such as the Associated Press’ “In excelsis D’oh! Vatican says Simpson Catholic”, Brown says the article “has drawn the jeers of an already hostile secular media ready to take aim at the Catholic Church.”
She goes on to call the article “just one more gaffe in a long list of them since Father Federico Lombardi took over the Vatican Press Office. The Simpson debacle proves to faithful Catholics once again that it’s time to shake up the newspaper staff at the Vatican. Clearly heads should roll over this one.”
Catholic Culture also lamented the fact that an “accolade for a lowbrow television show captured the interest of the mass media and generated dozens of headlines, crowding out coverage of such other weekend events as the canonization of six new saints, the Synod of Bishops, and the Pope’s letter to seminarians.”
Brown is calling upon the Vatican to make “a complete change in management” at the paper, and to do so “the sooner, the better.”
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