Meet ‘Luce’ – the Vatican’s official mascot for the 2025 Jubilee, kicking off on Christmas Eve.
As unbelievable as it sounds, the doll is inspired by the Catholic Church’s desire ‘to live even within the pop culture so beloved by our youth.’
It was unveiled by Archbishop Rino Fisichella, the chief organiser of the Holy Year 2025.
Luce – translating to ‘Light’ from Italian – is supposed to represent the Catholic pilgrim.
Wearing a bright yellow rain jacket, muddied boots and a rosary, her image includes some traditional symbols of Catholicism.
Her outfit is also supposed to represent the Vatican flag and the ‘journey through life’s storms.’
Meanwhile, the cartoon’s eyes are the shape of scallop shells, which are traditional symbols of pilgrimage and hope within the religion.
Designed by Simone Legno, founder of Japanese-inspired lifestyle brand tokidoki in Italy, Luce has been compared to an anime character.
The mascot will debut this week at the Lucca Comics and Games, Italy’s celebrated convention for all things comics, video games, and fantasy.
The Vatican’s Dicastery for Evangelisation will host a space dedicated to ‘Luce and Friends’ there, the Catholic News Agency said.
It will be the first time that a Vatican dicastery participates in a comics convention.
Fisichella, who serves as the the pro-prefect of the Dicastery for Evangelisation’s section for the new evangelization, hopes that taking part in the convention ‘will allow us to speak to younger generations about the theme of hope, which is more central than ever in the evangelical message.’
Luce, he said, will also be the face of the Holy See’s pavilion at Expo 2025 in the Japanese city of Osaka.
She will represent the Vatican’s pavilion theme, ‘Beauty Brings Hope,’ alongside Caravaggio’s ‘The Entombment of Christ,’ a painting that will be temporarily on loan from the Vatican Museums for the expo.
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