L'Osservatore Romano said 'The Simpsons are among the few TV programmes for children in which Christian faith, religion, and questions about God are recurrent themes. It often mirrored the "religious and spiritual confusion of our times".
Posted on 10/18/2010 6:57:23 AM PDT by WebFocus
The long-running cartoon series explores issues such as family, community, education and religion in a way that few other popular television programmes can match, according to L'Osservatore Romano, the Vatican's daily broadsheet.
The newspaper acknowledged that Homer snores through the sermons of the Reverend Lovejoy and inflicts "never-ending humiliation" on his evangelical neighbour, Ned Flanders.
But in an article headlined "Homer and Bart are Catholics", the newspaper said: "The Simpsons are among the few TV programmes for children in which Christian faith, religion, and questions about God are recurrent themes."
The family "recites prayers before meals and, in their own peculiar way, believes in the life thereafter".
It quoted an analysis by a Jesuit priest, Father Francesco Occhetta, of a 2005 episode of The Simpsons, The Father, the Son and the Holy Guest Star, which revolved around Catholicism and was aired a few weeks after the death of Pope John Paul II.
The episode starts with Bart being expelled from Springfield Elementary School and being enrolled in a Catholic school where he meets a sympathetic priest, voiced by the actor Liam Neeson, who draws him into Catholicism with his kindness.
Homer then decides to convert to Catholicism, to the horror of his wife Marge, the Rev Lovejoy and Ned Flanders. The episode touches on issues such as religious conflict, interfaith dialogue, homosexuality and stem cell research.
"Few people know it, and he does everything he can to hide it, but it is true: Homer J Simpson is a Catholic," insists L'Osservatore Romano.
It is not the first time that the Vatican newspaper has praised The Simpsons. Last December, as the television series celebrated its 20th anniversary, the paper said that "the relationship between man and God" is one of its most important themes
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
Forgot to add the header of this article. It says :
“He is an idle, pea-brained glutton with a permanent craving for doughnuts and Duff beer, but Homer Simpson has been declared a true Catholic by the Vatican’s official newspaper.”
The newspaper acknowledged that Homer snores through the sermons of the Reverend Lovejoy and inflicts "never-ending humiliation" on his evangelical neighbour, Ned Flanders....
...."Few people know it, and he does everything he can to hide it, but it is true: Homer J Simpson is a Catholic," insists L'Osservatore Romano.
It is not the first time that the Vatican newspaper has praised The Simpsons. Last December, as the television series celebrated its 20th anniversary, the paper said that "the relationship between man and God" is one of its most important themes and that it often mirrored the "religious and spiritual confusion of our times".
Well, duh.
/Sarc
If I were Catholic, I don’t think I’d consider this an endorsement.
Are there any scenes where Homer Simpson and family ever attend mass? I don’t think I’ve ever seen it.
I’ve seen several scenes where they attend Protestant worship services though...
he is? did I miss that episode? plus, the family is Protestant
The ironic thing about The Simpsons is that when it started almost 30 years ago, it was a parody of the nuclear family. As culture and the rest of TV have devolved towards barbarity, the Simpson family has remained unchanged until it is now the most traditional family on TV.
One day, if the show continues and society continues to destroy itself, I expect children to ask the adults they live with, “why do Marge and Homer have the same last name? Are they brother and sister?”
“The Catholic Church is for saints and sinners alone. For respectable people, the Anglican Church will do.”
- Oscar Wilde
Welcome, Homer.
Did the writer in this Catholic newspaper ever watch the Simpsons? I know that the few times I have, mild profanity was tossed around like it was no big deal. For kids? I think not.
Yes Rev. Lovejoy has a wife—the church is an unspecified
Protestant denomination.
One episode of All In The Family had next door neighbor Irene
Lorenzo (IIRC) bringing Edith to a Catholic church. Archie is not happy at this attempted conversion (they’re Protestant)
and says he doesn’t not want his wife “turned from a Christian into a Catholic”. Archie does admit that their
preacher, the “Rev. Fletcher”—”Felcher,” Edith corrects him—”whuddever!”—actually turns more Protestants into
Catholics...
And Edith says after her visit to the Catholic Church that she admires the confessionals. “Oh my! They’re like little
telephone booths to God.”
The only way to explain this widespread insanity is that someone, somewhere, is putting something the water.
It makes you wonder. If Homer is considered a “True Catholic”, then what’s that say about the state of the Catholic Church? This doesn’t reflect so much on The Simpsons and their views as much as it does on what has happened to The Christians and their views.
Another AITF episode I remember revolves around Edith denting a car owned by Father Majeski (Barnard Hughes) with her shopping car; and later in the series, when Edith’s friend
Beverly LaSalle—a transvestite—is killed, she is so dis-spirited that she stops attending church. “Why! What’s it good for!,” she tells Archie, who replies, “Edith I really think someone in the family should attend Church for us.”
“The newspaper acknowledged that Homer snores through the sermons of the Reverend Lovejoy and inflicts “never-ending humiliation” on his evangelical neighbour, Ned Flanders.”
Many of the episodes including the Movie are actually quite fair to the Flanders character despite presenting him somewhat as a milquetoast. The haven’t corrupted him or showed him as an adulterer or a fornicator. He actually cares about his kids and does things with them as opposed to the lout that is Homer! Flanders is sober and serious minded. I haven’t followed the story as to what happened with Flanders’ wife in the series. Flanders always seems to be the fair minded sunny optimistic neighbor we all wish we had...if one thinks of him as a little preachy...then well as freepers we are all guilty of that...the whole lot of us!
shopping CART that should say
Flanders’ wife was killed by a tire that flew off a vehicle at an auto race, IIRC.
Do you think they’ve really actually watched the show?
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