Vatican: Homer Simpson is Catholic

From AOL News:

The thick-headed couch potato star of the popular TV cartoon "The Simpsons" might not be the poster boy for religion. But in its latest venture into pop culture, the Vatican's official newspaper has declared that Homer Simpson is a Catholic.

In an article Sunday headlined "Homer and Bart Are Catholics," the Vatican daily L'Osservatore Romano cited a Jesuit priest's media study calling "The Simpsons" one of "the few TV programs for kids in which Christian faith, religion and questions about God are recurrent themes."

The study points to a 2005 episode in which Bart enrolls in a Catholic school and meets a hip priest. Attracted perhaps more by free pancake dinners than eternal salvation, Homer also joins the church and converts to Catholicism.

The Simpson family "recites prayers before meals and, in their own peculiar way, believes in the life thereafter," the newspaper said, according to The Daily Telegraph. Catholic parents should encourage their children to watch "the adventures of the little guys in yellow," Reuters also quoted the Vatican paper as saying.

"Few people know it, and he does everything to hide it. But it's true: Homer J. Simpson is Catholic," the L'Osservatore Romano article read, according to the Italian news agency ANSA.

The creators of "The Simpsons" disagree. Executive Producer Al Jean's reaction to the Vatican article was "shock and awe," according to The Washington Post.

"I guess it makes up for me not going to church for 20 years. We've pretty clearly shown that Homer is not Catholic," Jean was quoted as saying. "I really don't think he could go without eating meat on Fridays -- for even an hour."

Very strange.