Vatican Unveils Luce, Anime Mascot for 2025

The Vatican has the power of anime and God on its side, as it has revealed Luce, the designed tokidoki mascot for the Jubilee Year 2025. According to Archbishop Fisichella, this is the Church’s effort to “live even in the popular culture loved by our youth.” [Thanks, CatholicTV!]

At first glance, little Catholic mascot Luce resembles the quintessential Japanese pop culture character Hatsune Miku, but wearing a rosary and a yellow raincoat while holding a shepherd’s staff. However, there is actually a lot of religious imagery and importance in Luce’s designs. The light of God shines in Luce’s eyes, the raincoat symbolizes the divine protection pilgrims have as they journey to salvation, and the dirty green boots symbolize even hope and humility.

Japanese inspired lifestyle brand tokidoki cooperate with the Catholic Church to design this character. It also reveals several other characters to be Luce’s fellow pilgrims. They were all wearing raincoats, muddy boots and holding sticks. And yes, they are walking around with the light of God shining through their big anime eyes. There are also non-human mascots: pigeons, angels and dogs.

Luce will also appear at the Holy See’s pavilion at Expo 2025, along with “The burial of Christ” by Caravaggio. This is a very famous oil painting that Caravaggio painted between 1603 and 1604 for Santa Maria in Vallicella, with many copies and reproductions throughout history. Since Luce is the mascot of 2025, this implies that the Vatican plans to release more in the future to reach youth through the power of anime. It is unknown whether it will team up again with tokidoki for Luce’s hypothetical and future successor.

Time will tell whether this effort to live among young people through popular culture will pay off for the Vatican.