Good article on ridiculous "Homer is Catholic" meme

L'Osservatore Romano gets owned by Hilary White for the stupid irrelevance about Homer Simpson. They deserve it.

When I discovered the internet hullabalooo over that silly article, the latest in a string of silliness from L'Osservatore Romano, telling the world that Homer Simpson is a "real" Catholic, I just sighed. It was just one more little bit of cringeworthy sophomoric nonsense from a paper that seems to be struggling with a humiliating mid-life crisis.

The Daily Telegraph in England broke the "story" to the Anglosphere, and pretty much called it:

Once a staid and sober paper of record, L'Osservatore Romano has ventured into popular culture in the last three years under a new editor, praising Barack Obama and commenting on everything from The Beatles and The Blues Brothers to the blockbuster film Avatar and the Harry Potter books and films.

"Yep," I thought, "that about sums it up. L'Osservatore Romano is an old person trying to be hip and cool. And there is nothing more excruciatingly, exquisitely embarrassing..."

Here's her best sentence: "Is it too much to ask to have this most prominent of all Catholic papers, to please, please stick to talking about grown-up things? The pope does it; let's go with his example." Besides the fact that Homer Simpson is supposed to be stupid, he has never even claimed to be Catholic on the show. Why some Catholics insist on doing and saying things which goof on their own religion is beyond me. Words mean things, and the word "Catholic" should mean a lot to Catholics. If praying before meals and believing in an afterlife makes you Catholic then Protestants and most Jews are also Catholic. Gee, wonder if they knew that.