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 ...
Not exactly. They were shooting tea shirts into the crowd with a tea shirt cannon and she got knocked over the edge of the stadium.
So a ding on NASCAR FANS, well that’s the Simpsons for you!
Tea = tee. (tee hee)
RE: Do you think theyve really actually watched the show?
I would think so... I mean, I’ve traveled all over Europe more than once and inevitably, when you turn on the TV in your hotel, you would see THE SIMPSONS dubbed in Italian, German, French or Spanish.
It’s one of the most popular American “exports” in the world.
Well, sort of. Maggie Roswell (voice of Maude Flanders, Helen Lovejoy, Miss Hoover, and Luann Van Houten) left the show in 1999 due to a salary dispute with Fox. She returned in 2002 and has been back since to varying degrees.
You mean they found an Italian/Frog/Kraut with Homer’s voice? Impossible.
You mean they found an Italian/Frog/Kraut with Homer’s voice? Impossible.
oh OK, I stand corrected
L’Osservatore Romano got a new editor/director a couple years ago... it’s been a train wreck ever since. It was cool when it wasn’t trying to be, now... not so much.
I recall her being knocked off the top row of the grandstand and falling on her back on the ground below, so it was probably the fall that did her in.
It was a shocking moment.
I wonder if it had something to do with the status of the actor portraying her? When an actor leaves a series, perhaps due to the actor’s own death or disability, the writers often kill off his character.
Aha!
It’s hilarious to watch these dubbed shows; I remember in particular Hogan’s Heroes on German (!) TV.
And the voices usually sound nothing like the originals. Go figure.
≤}B^)
The fact that a Jesuit priest claims The Simpsons as Catholic is proof positive of its true hostility toward Catholicism. In fact, there are several episodes that are outrageously offensive to Catholics
What’s with the Vatican? Don’t they have some control over the content of what’s being published in their official organs anymore?
Homer Simpson and his family are Protestant.
From Reuters...
"We've pretty clearly shown that Homer is not Catholic," Jean said. "I really don't think he could go without eating meat on Fridays -- for even an hour.""...But executive producer Al Jean told Entertainment Weekly on Monday he was in "shock and awe" at the latest assertion, adding that the Simpsons attend the "Presbylutheran" First Church of Springfield.
Meant to ping you to 36, too.
One would think that the RC’s must be shredded by their contradictions . . .
It’s like they invented shame yet have no shame.
Incredible.
lol. Yep.
Self-deception is a real drag.
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