Bart in Rome
Ashley Baxstrom: The Simpsons are now officially a little holier-than-thou. Last Sunday’s L’Osservatore Romano, the official Vatican newspaper, claimed the characters Homer and Bart Simpson for its flock. The article’s main source, however, has since retreated from the claim (and from the web! only the Italian version can yet be found online). “Few people know it, and he does everything to hide it. But it’s true: Homer J. Simpson is Catholic,” author Luca Possati said in the article headlined “Homer and Bart are Catholics.”
The show – which in its 22nd season is the longest running prime-time TV show in the United States – regularly presents humorous or satirical depictions of religion and the afterlife. Possati’s article cited a recent study by the Rev. Francesco Occhetta, a Jesuit priest. Occhetta focused on a 2005 episode, “The Father, the Son, and the Holy Guest Star,” in which Bart has to go to Catholic school and converts briefly, followed by his father Homer, who likes the idea of forgiveness via confession. In the end they decide against it, but that didn’t deter the Holy See. Continue Reading →