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Vatican Presents Mascot for Jubilee Year 2025
The year of Our Lord 2025 is a Holy Year of Jubilee, something that ordinarily takes place every 25 years.
For the Vatican under Novus Ordo occupation, this means, first of all, a logo for the occasion is needed. Back in 2022, we reported on the cringeworthy ‘artwork’ the Vatican had chosen for its Jubilee ’25 logo, which supposedly depicts the Holy Year motto, “Pilgrims of Hope”:
If that is what ‘pilgrims of hope’ look like, one would hate to see pilgrims of despair.
In any case, the Vatican subsequently decided that in addition to the logo, the Jubilee also needed a mascot. Whereas mascots are usually associated with sports teams and featured at sporting events, it was clear the Fun Church of Hipness and Relevance also needed one for its Holy Year.
And thus, on Oct. 28, 2024, the Vatican unveiled its 2025 Jubilee Year mascot. Here she is:
image source: instagram.com/evangelizatio.va (screenshot/fair use)
Interestingly enough, the androgynous-looking mascot is named Luce, Italian for ‘light’. The press conference at which ‘Abp.’ Salvatore Rino Fisichella (b. 1951) of the so-called Dicastery for Evangelization presented the figure, can be watched here.
As Catholic News Agency reports:
The mascot, named Luce — which means “light” in Italian — is intended to engage a younger audience and guide visitors through the holy year.
Archbishop Rino Fisichella, the Vatican’s chief organizer for the jubilee, described the mascot as part of the Vatican’s goal to engage with “the pop culture so beloved by our young people.”
The mascot will debut this week at the Lucca Comics and Games, Italy’s celebrated convention for all things comics, video games, and fantasy, where the Vatican’s Dicastery for Evangelization will host a space dedicated to “Luce and Friends.”
(Courtney Mares, “Meet ‘Luce’: The Vatican’s cartoon mascot for Jubilee 2025”, Catholic News Agency, Oct. 28, 2024)
The creator of Luce is 47-year-old Italian illustrator Simone Legno. His lifestyle brand is tokidoki, and it includes — no surprise there — also some rainbow-colored ‘LGBTQ pride’ items, such as Pride Lulu, the unicorn and sundry digital wallpapers.
Luce has her own web site, by the way, though at the moment there is practically nothing on it yet. The Italian version of the Vatican News YouTube channel has released a brief animation of Luce here.
The official web site for the Jubilee Year 2025 explains the fictitious character thusly:
Luce is a pilgrim dressed as a typical traveler: a yellow anorak to protect herself from the elements, dirty boots that bear witness to the path she has already traveled, a missionary cross around her neck and the pilgrim’s staff in her hand. Particularly evocative are Luce’s eyes, which shine with an intense light: they symbolize the hope that is born in the heart of every pilgrim, and reflect the desire for spirituality and connection with the divine. They act as a reminder of the universal message of peace and brotherhood. The choice of a mascot like Luce is part of a broader context, aimed at reaching new generations and promoting intergenerational dialogue. The mascot not only represents the Jubilee, but is also a symbol of community, of welcome and of sharing.
(“Luce, the official mascot of the Jubilee 2025 makes her debut”, Iubilaeum 2025, Oct. 28, 2024)
Although we won’t claim, simply for lack of clear evidence, that there is some occult or evil meaning behind this character, it is striking that the Vatican so often manages to put out artwork that is ambiguous and suggestive of something sinister (anyone remember the apparent ‘boy lover’ symbolism propagated at World Youth Day in Panama in 2019?).
For one thing, the figure of Luce hardly screams, “I am a Catholic on holy pilgrimage!” Sure, one can read that into the thing, but it’s not obvious. She might as well be some ‘hero’ character in an adventure video game. In fact, it’s not even obvious, just from looking at her, that Luce is a ‘she’ to begin with.
It probably goes without saying that Luce also has friends, and they too are on a pilgrim’s journey. Their robustly Catholic names are Fe, Xin, and Sky. Can you tell which of them is male and which is female? No, you can’t — that’s the point!
If that motley crew doesn’t inspire Jubilee visitors to be Catholic! Well, at least the dog is named Santino (‘holy card’)! And by the way: Why the choice of an artist who promotes sins that cry to heaven for vengeance? Are the Vatican authorities telling us that in their ‘universal church’ they couldn’t find a minimally decent designer for their oh-so Catholic event?
Needless to say, social media and the blogosphere have been abuzz with reactions to Luce and Friends. Here are some video podcasts discussing the absurd mascot:
The Resignationist blogger Ann Barnhardt has described the mascot as a “blue-haired androgyne wearing a sodomy ‘Pride’ rainbow Rosary as a necklace and carrying a witch’s stang, named ‘Luce.’ Is that short for Lucifer? The answer is, ‘Almost certainly, yes.'”
On Twitter/X, EWTN media personality Raymond Arroyo referred to Luce as a “waif”.
Not everyone is appalled at Luce, of course. At The Pillar, J.D. Flynn confesses: “I like Luce”.
As an amusing aside: The 2002 Oxford Dictionary of Word Histories (p. 319) notes that the word mascot is ultimately derived from the word masco, meaning ‘witch’.
The Holy Year anime mascot is not only a topic for Catholics and Novus Ordos, however, it is also a topic for comic and cartoon fans:
- The Vatican Goes Full Anime With New Catholic Mascot: Watch Now (ComicBook)
- Internet Goes Crazy Over The Vatican’s Unveiling Of An Anime-Styled Mascot (AnimeHunch)
Time and again the Vatican has raised eyebrows with its questionable art and pop culture silliness. Just recall the disturbing twisted logo the Vatican chose for the extraordinary ‘Jubilee of Mercy’ in 2015, which had been created by the notorious ‘Fr.’ Marko Rupnik. Then there was the vapid Pokémon-like logo the Vatican used for a pre-synod meeting with youth in 2018. The same year also saw the colorful Latin American ‘youth cross’. Oh, and who could forget Plim-Plim, the mascot for the Vatican’s interreligious soccer match for peace?
If the Vatican is so intent on using a personal being to identify with the Holy Year 2025, why not use a saint instead of creating a fictional character? An advantage would be that each pilgrim would have a true heavenly guide to assist him on his pilgrimage — a real saint who can intercede for him, and to whom all pilgrims can entrust their journey! Furthermore, the saint would be honored in this manner, and pilgrims could learn about the life of the saint, perhaps acquire new virtues, and certainly be edified and spiritually refreshed!
Clearly, the Vatican could have simply appointed a special patron saint for Jubilee years, or at least one for this particular Jubilee. Any saint typically associated with traveling and pilgrimages could have easily been chosen, such as St. James the Greater or St. Christopher.
Instead, the post-Catholic Vatican decided on Luce and Friends. It says a lot about the spiritual state of that wretched crew of apostates occupying the Catholic structures. “When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child. But, when I became a man, I put away the things of a child” (1 Cor 13:11).
One cannot help but be reminded of the words of the prophet Isaias: “And I will give children to be their princes, and the effeminate shall rule over them” (Is 3:4).
Title image: YouTube (screenshot)
License: fair use
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