Last week, the Vatican revealed the official mascot of the Catholic Church’s 2025 Jubilee year: an anime girl named Luce . Jubilee chief organizer Archbishop Rino Fisichella hopes the chibi bible-thumping mascot will assist the church in penetrating the anime community to spread the good word to kids with an affinity for the genre. Unbeknownst to Fisichella, the Catholic Church created a biblically accurate anime character to help the community skyrocket to the top of power rankings against the medium’s mightiest warriors.
Luce (pronounced “loo-chay”) was created by Italian tokidoki creator Simone Legno. Like her namesake (Italian for “light”), Luce is a quant little blue-haired girl with bright, piercing eyes; she wears a yellow raincoat and muddy galoshes, and carries a staff. Most importantly, Luce is sporting her Jesus piece across her neck to let people know she rocks with Christ.
As with any self-respecting anime character, she’s accompanied by a diverse group of friends who likely have their assortment of visual motifs tied back to the virtues of Catholicism. They aren’t Luce, though. Folks online have taken to depicting her, through the power of God and anime , dominating the medium as a holy warrior.
Be it on X/Twitter or TikTok , anime fans around the world have been hard at work concocting memes and fan art of Luce depicting the holy child—meant to symbolize weathering the storms life deals out to God’s children—as a storm to be reckoned with..