Vatican not infallible on Homer's theology

"Few people know it," an article in the official Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano proclaimed this week, "and he does everything he can to hide it ... but it is true: Homer J. Simpson is a Catholic."

Or so says the Rev. Francesco Occhetta, the Jesuit priest who arrived at that conclusion after analyzing a 2005 episode of "The Simpsons" called "The Father, the Son and the Holy Guest-Star."

Hold on a tick, padre.

Last time I checked, Homer was a member of the First Church of Springfield, an outpost of what its pastor, the Rev. Lovejoy, claims is the "one true faith": The Western Branch of American Reform Presbylutheranism.

L'Osservatore Romano has caused a bit of a religious kerfuffle by laying claim to the first family of American television. It also surprised readers who are more accustomed to discussing the intricacies of papal encyclicals than the creedal leanings of cartoon characters.

"'The Simpsons' remain among the few programs for children in which the Christian faith, religion and the question of God are recurring themes," the Vatican paper said. "The family recites prayers together before meals and, in its own way, believes in heaven."

With that, L'Osservatore Romano gave "The Simpsons," the longest-running primetime television show in American history, the next best thing to an official papal blessing: two prayerful thumbs up.

This is the second time the newspaper has praised "The Simpsons." Last December, the paper congratulated the cartoon series on its 20th anniversary, describing it as a "tender and irreverent, scandalous and ironic, boisterous and profound, philosophical and sometimes even theological, nutty synthesis of pop culture and of the lukewarm and nihilistic American middle class."

Since a new editor took the helm in 2007, L'Osservatore Romano has taken an unprecedented interest in pop culture, even noting the 40th anniversary of the Beatles' "White Album" (and forgiving the late John Lennon for claiming to be "more popular than Jesus").

Religion has always been a "Simpsons" leitmotif. There's Rev. Lovejoy and evangelical poster boy Ned Flanders. Apu, the convenience store clerk, is famously Hindu. Krusty the Clown is Jewish. And Lisa Simpson is a self-proclaimed Buddhist.

While Simpsons' creator Matt Groenig identifies himself as an agnostic, faith is clearly a fascination for him and his clever stable of writers who have produced some of the most astute religious commentary (and satire) in recent memory.

In the 2005 episode analyzed by Occhetta, Homer becomes enamored with Catholicism after his son Bart is expelled from Springfield Elementary School (for something he, for once, didn't actually do) and enrolls in the local parochial school, St. Jerome's.

I'm not convinced, though, that Homer ever really crossed the Tiber, and he may be just flirting with Rome. Mark Pinsky, a veteran religion reporter and author of "The Gospel According to the Simpsons," seems to agree.

"Homer is enticed by the lure of bingo, pancake breakfasts and, oh yes, absolution through Confession," Pinsky says. "But in the end, Homer doesn't take the last step to conversion, in part ... due to the armed intervention of evangelical Ned Flanders and the Rev. Lovejoy, who are both still fighting the post-Reformation religious wars."

D'oh!