In southern Europe, in the commune of Rome, Italy, the Vatican has been preparing for the 2025 Jubilee Year. A Jubilee Year is a year of forgiveness, reconciliation, and renewal that is celebrated in not just the Catholic Church but is also a Jewish tradition. For such an extravagant year to come, the Vatican had celebrated the occasion by revealing Luce, their new mascot, by Archbishop Rino Fisichella of the Dicastery on October 28, 2024.
Luce, pronounced as Lu-Chay, is a blue haired girl that holds many elements of religion in her design. For one thing, Luce means “light” in Italian–as she represents the light the Catholic Church hopes to offer to the younger generations. She wears a Rosary and a yellow raincoat, the raincoat’s meaning was that she would be able to prevail through the storm of life and also have the color scheme of the Vatican’s flag. The last element of her design is the staff she holds in her left hand, signifying the pilgrimage of religion to eternity.
The inspiration behind Luce was that Archbishop Fisichella had wanted “to live even within the pop culture so beloved by our youth,” and has been, so far, mostly accepted by Catholics in all age groups. However, Luce’s creation had stirred some controversy from others. Peter Kwasniewski, a Traditionalist Catholic theologian, commented on Luce’s existence on X saying how she was offensive “to the religion of the logos,” and Edward Feser who is a Catholic Philosopher and professor at Pasadena City College said that she had infantilize catholicism but when there are haters, there are also fans. Mostly on X, people fawned over the character with excitement–Michael Knowes, a traditionalist-minded Catholic, spoke highly of her. “I wear bowties. I read old books. I smoke cigars. I’m married with three kids under 4. I’m what they call a ‘trad.’ And I stan (am a fan of) Luce,” (via X).
Whether or not Catholics love her or hate her, Luce is here to stay–already having plans to appear at Expo in 2025 in Osaka, Japan and has already made another at the Lucca Comics and Games convention in Tuscany, Italy.
