The Catholic faith has claimed those two renegades, Bart and Homer Simpson, as its own: in an article published on Sunday, the Vatican newspaper, L’ Osservatore Romano, claims that the American cartoon series depicts a particularly Catholic kind of morality.
Quoting an earlier paper by Jesuit priest Father Francesco Occhetta, the newspaper points to the fact that the Simpsons say a prayer before meals, ask questions about God and, in their own way, believe in the afterlife.
The newspaper also draws attention to a 2005 episode of the series entitled, “The Father, the Son and the Holy Guest Star", in which Bart goes to a Catholic school after being expelled from Springfield Elementary School and Homer decides to convert to Catholicism.
Marge Simpson, however, is horrified, mainly because of the Catholic Church’s ban on birth control and does all she can to bring Homer back to the “true” Presbylutheran Church. This episode was much criticised at the time of screening for using Irish stereotypes and offending Catholic sensibilities.
Executive producer Al Jean says that the series has clearly shown that the family are not Catholic and that Homer Simpson would never be able to get through Friday without eating meat.
Do you think Bart and Homer are Catholic?
