From the “humble shall be exalted” side of the gospel equation comes news that bumbling, beloved Homer Simpson is being claimed as family by none other than L’Osservatore Romano, the official Vatican newspaper.

The paper declared that the beer-swilling, doughnut-loving Homer and his family are Catholic--and what’s more, it says that parents should not be afraid to let their children watch “the adventures of the little guys in yellow.”

“Few people know it, and he does everything to hide it. But it’s true: Homer J. Simpson is Catholic”, the paper said in an article on Sunday headlined “Homer and Bart are Catholics.” The paper cited a study by a Jesuit priest of a 2005 episode of the show called “The Father, the Son and the Holy Guest Star,” which concluded that “The Simpsons” is “among the few TV programs for kids in which Christian faith, religion, and questions about God are recurrent themes.” The Simpsons pray before meals, and the family, “in its own way, believes in the beyond,” the newspaper quoted the Jesuit study as saying.

It’s the second time the animated television series, which is broadcast in 90 countries, has been praised by L’Osservatore. Last December the paper described the show 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.”

But the show’s executive producer Al Jean told Entertainment Weekly he was in “shock and awe” at the latest assertion, adding that the Simpsons attend the “Presbylutheran” First Church of Springfield. “We’ve pretty clearly shown that Homer is not Catholic,” Jean said. “I really don’t think he could go without eating meat on Fridays--for even an hour.”

Source: Articles by Nick Squires for Telegraph.co.uk and by Reuters