back to article Vatican confirms Simpsons as Catholics

The Vatican has declared that the Simpsons are a fine example of the Catholic ideal, and given parents the green light to let their kids watch the animated show. The declaration, in Vatican in-house mag Osservatore Romano, confirms both an earlier paean to the show, and the Simpsons' own onscreen conversion a few years ago. …

COMMENTS

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  1. Alan Esworthy
    IT Angle

    Ave

    Dohmine, dohmine, dohmine.

    1. Anonymous John

      No no no!

      D'ohmine, d'ohmine, d'ohmine.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Boffin

        Real Simpsonites know it's

        <annoyed grunt>mine, <annoyed grunt>mine, <annoyed grunt>mine.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Yep.

    "The Vatican can deal with beer-swilling, child-whacking screw-ups and their conniving, underachieving children. It's the wild-eyed evangelicals it has a problem"

    Yep. The view is that we are all sinners and we can but try, and the Catholic church aint big on bible bashing, dispite what some may say.

    Anon because we are sure to get a few wild-eyed evangelicals posting (both christian and agressivly not)

    1. The Other Steve
      Thumb Up

      Catholic church aint big on bible bashing

      That's because anyone who actually reads the fucker finds much at odds with Catholic doctrine. But then you could say that about all sky pixie fetishists and their documentation.

      Or actual science and the "sky is falling" greenies.

      Weird coincidence, that.

      1. Annihilator
        Go

        But Homer knows the bible well

        "Lisa, if the bible has taught us nothing else - and it hasn't - it's that girls should stick to girls' sports, like hot oil wrestling, foxy boxing, and such and such."

  3. Red Bren
    Coat

    Simpsons can't be catholic

    Their vicar, Reverand Lovejoy, is married. Or perhaps the Vatican is about to announce a massive shift in doctrine?

    I'll get my cassock...

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      that...

      and that they call him Reverend Lovejoy.

      Catholics call priests Father!

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Google Translate

    Oh for crying out loud, don't throw everything in with Google would you. Just for once give babelfish a chance.

    1. Code Monkey

      Babelfish

      Given most Catholic outpourings start as gibberish, I'd be interested to see what Babelfish made of them. Not interested enough to wait for it to load, of course...

  5. FARfetched

    Wait for it…

    Now you know the producers will have the priest chasing the alter boys in at least one episode next season.

    But I've tried to explain a similar sentiment (as that expressed by the Vatican) to Mrs. Fetched: the Simpsons are a good example at the very bottom. They're rude and crude, but they pull together as a family when things get tough.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Joke

      Watch out for transgender youth!

      ... or did you mean altar boys?

  6. Colin Millar
    WTF?

    Have u lost your frickin' minds!!??

    Got bored with iTards vs PCTards?

    Fed up with MS/Penguin hate fests?

    So start a Roman/Evangelical thread, sit back and watch the conflagration.

    Whats next? An Is/Pal story?

  7. GettinSadda
    FAIL

    Eh?

    Are they ignoring the fact that anyone who has seen the show knows that the Simpson family are all members of the Protestant "First Church of Springfield" (apart from Lisa who converts to Buddhism in season 13) ?

  8. Anonymous Coward
    WTF?

    Religion is weird

    Strange that it still exists in this modern age.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      weird

      Keeps them off the streets.

      oh, hang on...

    2. JaitcH
      WTF?

      @ Religion is weird

      No more strange than people who buy equipment knowing that it is defective!

      1. Originone

        Its much much stranger.

        Have you ever invited a mormon into your home and let them talk at length about their religion. I have and those people are completely loopy.

        Its also quite a bit stranger than poeple whose posts have no discernable connection to what their replying to

        1. Dagg Silver badge
          Gates Horns

          Loopy?

          Well what do you expect when you feed them hash cookies...

  9. Joseph Haig
    Thumb Down

    Ho hum.

    You are reporting a 10-month-old opinion piece from Osservatore Romano as church teaching? Slow news day?

  10. PassiveSmoking

    We are NOT going Catholic!

    It's in the show itself that they're not Catholic.

    Bart: “Mom, can we go Catholic so we can get communion wafers and booze?”

    Marge: We are NOT going Catholic! Three kids is enough!

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Old episode about baptism in river

    Wasn't there an old episode where Homer freaked out because they were going to baptize Bart in the River?

    1. Code Monkey

      Yup

      It was Flanders though, so a heretical Wossnametarian baptism (from a Catholic POV).

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Sweet Jebus!

    I wonder if the pontiff approves of the renaming of Mr Christ. Meanwhile, the bit about The Simpsons being shown to children: although children are frequently amused by elements of the show, there are certainly parts which are probably not suitable for young minds. Of course many people seem to think, "Ooh, a cartoon for the kiddies!" That kind of simplistic thinking led to a bunch of people complaining that South Park was teaching their children bad language...

  13. Danny van der Weide
    WTF?

    Anticompetitive behavior

    "It's the wild-eyed evangelicals it has a problem"

    Yep, the Catholic church never had much up with competition in general.

    Go ask the Cathars and the Protestants, or the Muslims during the cruisades.

    But really, who gives a f*ck anyway.

    They are an anachronistic leftover.

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Stop

    The Vatican thought police have a whitelist?

    Now I've heard everything.

  15. NoneSuch Silver badge
    Joke

    No Politics or Religion please gentleman....

    You know, the one with all the well-meaning rules that don't work in real life -- uh, Christianity.

    -- Homer Simpson, telling what religion the family belongs to

    Christianity may be the catch religion, but as for the specific one they belong too:

    The Western Branch of American Reform Presbylutheranism (a cross between Presbyterianism and Lutheranism) is the fictional Protestant Christian religion that Rev. Lovejoy preaches at the First Church of Springfield. (Taken from Wikipedia)

  16. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Flanders too sexy for the vatican.

    Stupid sexy flanders.

  17. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

    @Eh?

    Specifically “The Western Branch of American Reform Presbylutheranism”

  18. The Fuzzy Wotnot
    Pint

    Stuff the Simpsons!

    What about Family Guy?!

    Peter is a good...yeah OK, Peter is a paid up RC member, his father being especially proud of the church!

    Oh, the pop-culture references having a pop at everything under the sun, including Jesus, yeah I see your point. OK.

  19. Anonymous Coward
    Megaphone

    Interesting

    So let me get this right; Stephen Hawking (atheist) is a Nazi and Homer Simpson (imaginary made up cartoon character who physicaly abuses his small child and consumes alot of drink) is a Catholic.

    I'm so glad the pope is making sence, what with saying aithests are nazi's and cartoon charcters are catholic. It's wonderful how somebody with such a audience of voice can put out such a positive message to the people of the World focusing on the good things and leaving the negative stuff to the tabloids.

    I would make a joke about the pope but I feel that it would only cast him in a more positive light given recent events.

  20. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    hmm

    Speaking as a regular attender at catholic services, I call foul. The people I meet are not big on "questioning their faith" - indeed you'd get very strange looks if you even mentioned the concept.

    The Catholic church is not keen on people reading the bible unsupervised, especially any translation other than their approved one since it tends to undermine some of their more recent ideologies, such as the cult of Mary which presupposes she remained a virgin until she died - an idea adopted in the 19th century, as was papal infallibility. Since protestant christianity is based on bible study this explains why the vatican interpretation of 'ecumenical' is 'convert the mistaken'.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Agreed

      Catholics are definitely not in to questioning their faith. In fact, I'd argue that they take not questioning to such an extreme that, though many of their personal beliefs directly contradict their Church's teachings, they remain purposefully ignorant (even when told) so they can feel that they are faithful adherents. This is in contrast to protestants, who try to (logically or not) find some way to resolve inconsistencies discovered by themselves or pointed out by others.

      I too go to Catholic mass regularly (my wife is Catholic), and have found that Catholics, at least here, are, at least int heir faith, living paradoxes and, largely, entirely in denial about it.

      As for the bible, pretty much every Catholics believes that they should read the bible and try to understand it AND that they should not read it too closely so as to gain an understanding of it that could differ from what the Magisterium tells them to understand. I think the best way for most of them is the way that happens in a Rosary; namely they take a bunch of small quotes from various different books (of the bible) and tie them together as if they were one continuous excerpt. This makes them feel like they are being good biblical scholars AND the support for the status quo (in this case the cult of Mary) is upheld.

  21. BlueShiftNZ
    FAIL

    Accuracy? What's that then?

    The Simpson family are, as noted above, Protestants. Additionally, Krusty the Clown (in addition to being spelt with a 'K') is Jewish.

    A more accurate headline would be "Vatican approves Simpsons as model family" - see, just as rabble rousing, but not a flat out lie.

  22. Jason Togneri
    Pint

    An old chestnut...

    "Religious wars are conflicts between adults about who has the coolest imaginary friend."

  23. John F***ing Stepp

    Wow, a religious argument that doesn't involve. . .

    Windows, Macintosh or Linux.

    Impressive.

    1. Rattus Rattus
      Troll

      That's because

      we all know Jeebus uses CP/M.

    2. Gavin King

      Well...

      it didn't, until about three posts from now.

      (Or until the lovely Moderatrix/not-quite-so-lovely Moderator catches on).

    3. Elmer Phud
      Alien

      religion

      Ah, the Unholy Trinity

    4. Anonymous Coward
      Pint

      Re: Wow, a religious argument that doesn't involve. . .

      Could have involved GNU Hurd, Minix and Haiku. Then I'd have to get popcorn.

      Beer: d'oh.

      1. The Other Steve
        Troll

        Re: Wow, a religious argument that doesn't involve. . .

        "Could have involved GNU Hurd, Minix and Haiku."

        Two of those are as mythical as Jesus. There is some historical evidence of their existence, but little proof of the miracles their followers claim they have performed.

  24. Silent but Deadly
    Coat

    I thought they were a model of ....

    a Nuclear Family?

    My coat is the one labelled HAZMAT.

  25. Winkypop Silver badge
    Stop

    One fiction commenting on another fiction

    Classic.

    Heads-up guys, it's ALL made up, OK?

  26. Anonymous Coward
    Alert

    Father, Son and Krusty Clown.

    But everyone knows that Krusty is Jewish!

    1. asiaseen

      Last I heard

      so was the Son.

  27. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I bet George Bush Snr feels a right plonker now...

    and Im also betting that the vatican are relieved that Jnr is no longer in control of the army with the biggest kill rate of recent years, or he'd be on his way over to prove daddy right...

  28. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Must be desperate...

    The Catholic church must be desperate for members if it's now inducting imaginary ones.

    1. frank ly

      Why Not?

      They have an imaginary god, so it seems quite reasonable

    2. Winkypop Silver badge
      Troll

      2000 year habit...

      ...why break it now?

  29. bill 36

    biggest scam ever

    And no computers required. Just a few million brainwashed people.

    You can just imagine the first conversations in an Inn a few thousand years ago...........All we need to do is invent a leader, insert the name of your choice here....Jesus, Mohammed, Brian,.......tell the people that he will look after you, get them to pray to him, believe it, and they will fill our pockets with gold.

    And they do!!!

    Amazing!

  30. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    A fun game for the whole family!

    "Are they Catholic?" looks like it might be a bit more challenging for the uninitiated than "Is it Islamic?", particularly when applied to western TV programmes.

  31. jon 2

    No, The Simpsons are

    members of The Western Branch of American Reform Presbylutheranists!

  32. Tony S

    It doesn't matter one iota

    For reference: the origin of the phrase "it doesn't matter one iota" - iota (the Greek letter i) was the difference in the naming of the doctrines espoused by the two sides in the dispute over the substance of Christ in the earlier days of the church.

    Homoousion (Greek, of one substance) Term used by Augustine to express the identity of the substance of the members of the Trinity; the principal doctrine affirmed in the Athanasian creed, drawn up to confute the Arian heresy.

    Homoiousian (Greek, of like substance) Of similar but not identical essence or substance; a subtle compromise between the belief that the members of the Trinity are of one substance (homoousion) and the belief that they are of different substances.

    Got to be honest, I don't know nor care about the difference - but as a result of the above, the church split and a series of very nasty conflicts were the result with great number killed in a variety of exciting and painful ways.

    I can think of a lot of things that are worth living for, but dying for a letter I seems a bit sad.

  33. bugalugs
    Coat

    A library card bookmarks the*

    Can't say I've watched much of The Simpsons recently.

    Reason being that seeing Homer ( to say nothing of Bart )

    constantly rescued from the results of his

    ignorance/arrogance/stupidity/sexism/drunkenness/avarice etc

    ( all presented as good ol' boy stuff ) by ( usually ) Marge or Lisa

    makes the whole show come across as an ideological platform

    for reverse mysogyny. That the Vatican can find anything good

    to say about it is merely further evidence of their desperation

    to retain at least the distaff side of their shrinking subscriber

    base, er, congregation.

    *copy of the Index Librorum Prohibitorum in the pocket of mine, thanks.

    1. Sarah Bee (Written by Reg staff)

      Re: A library card bookmarks the*

      "reverse mysogyny"

      Well, that's an interesting reading of it. I think the women are more or less equally fallible and there's no suggestion that Homer is somehow in thrall to matriarchy, but if that's how you see it, I'll look forward to your paper on the matter.

      And you mean 'misandry'. Sounds like it might be a handy word for you to incorporate into your vocabulary. You're welcome.

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