In an unprecedented communication action within the religious institution, the Vatican has decided to create a kind of mascot that is framed within pop culture and that serves to put a face to the Jubilee Year 2025. Under the direction of Archbishop Rino Fisichella, An Italian studio has designed “Luce”, a female character with an anime aesthetic inspired by Japanese culture.
At a press conference, the archbishop explained that the character was designed integrating elements of the typical pilgrim, as well as other details such as the bright eyes that symbolize hope in the heart. In addition to Luce (light in Italian), the Italian designer Simone Legno, in charge of the project, has also created complementary characters with the same aesthetic, such as his friends Fe, Xin and Sky and the dog Santino.
According to the archbishop, this innovative campaign “will allow us to speak to the younger generations about the topic of hope, more central than ever in the evangelical message.” For his part, the graphic artist commented: “I am very grateful to the Dicastery for Evangelization for also opening its doors to pop culture.”
Beyond this news, what is curious (although also predictable) is that this character inspired by Japanese art has not only inspired memes, illustrations generated by AI and jokes on the Internet, but it has not taken long for a multitude of web pages to be detected in which altered images of Luce are being disseminated in which the character is given sexual connotations.
From 404media, they have found several portals with images that, whether created by artificial intelligence or original animations, turn Luce into a pornographic object. Many of these images have been created from Civitai, a portal that serves to share personalized AI models and generate images.
The character created for the religious festival of the Jubilee year has not only been used for this purpose, but they have also created a cryptocurrency, $LUCE, available for consultation on CoinMarketCap. The cryptocurrency has surpassed $50 million in market capitalization.
Approach to young people
The Internet was quick to do its thing, but that does not mean that the creation of Luce was a bad decision on the part of the Vatican. The combination of Italian and Japanese culture that has made the creation of this figure possible can make it a popular face for the Jubilee year, spread on the channels where young people are (social networks) and Help promote the image of the Church in this group, so disconnected from the institution.
Luce has already inspired costumes among cosplay lovers, and the ability to create AI-modified images also allows many users to make memes in which Luce is introduced into all kinds of elements of popular culture, such as series or movies.
The Jubilee year is celebrated every 25 years, and the next one will begin on Christmas Eve 2024 and end on January 6, 2026.
