Vatican Hires LGBT Maker of Sex Toys to Produce Creepy Anime “Mascot” Best Suited to Groomers

The "Luce" mascot belongs on a white windowless van full of candy and video games parked near a playground.

The unveiling of Rome’s mascot for the Jubilee Year in 2025 has sparked fierce criticism from leading Catholics who are accusing the Vatican of infantilizing Catholics, endorsing LGBT+ ideology, and even normalizing clerical pedophilia.

Archbishop Rino Fisichella, pro-prefect of the Dicastery for Evangelisation and organizer of the Jubilee Year, told a Vatican press conference on Monday that the mascot had been created by Italian artist Simone Legno, cofounder of the Tokidoki lifestyle brand. Within hours it emerged that Legno’s Tokidoki company has been involved in promoting LGBT+ events like Pride Month and has created several “mobile wallpapers celebrating Pride” specifically directed at children and young people.

The Tokidoki website also sells multiple Pride-themed gifts for children, including a Pride Snapback baseball cap (€37.95), a Pride Lulu Unicorn (€15.95), a Sandy Pride doll (€20.95), and a Pride Prism Unicorn (€15.95). In 2017, Tokidoki created images for a line of mini-vibrators in collaboration with the Lovehoney brand. The sex toys can still be purchased on Ebay.

Adapting Catholicism to Pop Culture

Fisichella said the mascot is intended to attract more young people to the Church through “pop culture,” stressing that it underscores the Church’s will “to live even within the pop culture so beloved by our youth.” In a press statement, the Vatican bragged that Tokidoki

has grown into an internationally recognised pop-culture lifestyle brand and has amassed a cult-like following for its larger-than-life characters, megawatt partnerships and extensive range of products from apparel and handbags to home décor and even slot machines.

The statement cited quotes from Legno, who does not give any indication of being a practicing Catholic or a Christian. “I grew up in Rome in a Catholic family, where I learned the principles of a faith grounded in generosity and respect for others,” he said, calling the Jubilee “a unique opportunity for encounter and dialogue for millions of people, including many young people.”

“I hope that the pilgrim Luce can represent the sentiments that resonate in the hearts of the younger generations. I am extremely grateful to the Dicastery for Evangelisation for opening its doors to pop culture as well.”

Vatican Explains Mascot’s Symbolism

The mascot named “Luce” (light) is wearing a yellow raincoat, mud-stained boots, and a multicolored rosary with a pilgrim’s cross. Luce is apparently a girl (although many viewers understood the figure to be male) with blue hair and extraordinarily large eyes.

A Vatican press release explained that Luce’s mission is to guide young pilgrims toward hope and faith. The various elements of the mascot’s clothing and accessories symbolize the pilgrimage toward eternity.

The “sailor’s raincoat” is “a symbol of journeying through the storm” which “shows that life’s pilgrimage doesn’t always navigate calm waters.” The iconic yellow of the raincoat recalls the color of the Vatican flag.

The sanrocchino, Luce’s short canvas cloak, serves to protect pilgrims from the elements and symbolizes divine protection on the pilgrimage toward eternity. The rosary beads represent a life filled with deep prayer.

Luce’s dirty boots are “a symbol of humility and a long, arduous journey.” The boots are green because that is the color of hope. The shells in Luce’s eyes symbolize perseverance in faith, the Vatican statement explained.

Luce is accompanied by her dog Santino, a sign of Divine Providence that assisted St. Rocco in times of extreme need and symbolizes his fidelity to God’s calling. The dog also represents friendship.

The mascot has three friends — Fe, Xin, and Sky, who have different skin colors (brown, white, black), a nod to the Vatican’s commitment to multiculturalism.

Catholics Blast Mascot’s Child Abuse Overtones

“It is impossible to close your eyes to the pedophilic overtones of the framing of the picture,” Dr. Gavin Ashenden, a prominent British commentator and Catholic convert from Anglicanism, wrote on X. He is also a columnist for The Stream.

Ashenden posted an image from the press conference portraying Fisichella extending his hand to touch the mascot from the rear. “The vacant eyes of the mascot are marginally less frightening than the veiled eyes of the archbishop,” he noted. “It is no accident that the optics of this produce a small wave of disgust and revulsion.”

Raymond Arroyo, a celebrity television host for Catholic network EWTN also posted Fisichella’s picture on X. “Featuring a blue-haired, prepubescent waif in a raincoat might not be the most edifying image at this moment for the church,” he wrote. “Nor is this photo. Thoughts?!”

The responses were immediate — and blistering.

“Maybe they’re trying to acquit themselves of sodomitical assault — since most molestation cases concerned preying on pubescent or slightly older boys and young males — and say ‘No, no, we just luuuuv children.’ What a bunch of perverted psychos,” one Catholic posted.

“Once the Church inspired the young with noble models like St. Dominic Savio and his motto ‘Death rather than sin.’ Now we have … whatever the hell this ‘Luce’ thing is,” Catholic philosopher Edward Feser wrote on X. “Infantilising the young with a dumbed-down version of Catholicism does them a disservice.”

Catholics Defend Luce from Criticism

Several prominent conservative Catholics rushed to defend the mascot from criticism.

Canon lawyer J. D. Flynn responded to critics by pointing out that the multicolored rosary around the mascot’s neck is not a “LGBT rainbow-themed dog whistle,” but was designed by the godly Archbishop Fulton Sheen in 1951 as a “World Mission Rosary.” But “That is not the rosary depicted on Luce,” Irish podcaster Robert Nugent corrected Flynn. “Well, fair enough,” Flynn replied.

Scores of Catholics on social media said “Luce” is Vatican code for “Lucifer.”

“If you claim ‘Luce’ the little pilgrim (Vatican mascot) refers or is short for Lucifer, you are just showing your ignorance of Latin and Italian,” Fr. Matthew P. Schneider maintained. “‘Luce’ is a female name in Italian. The word ‘luce’ means light in Italian and in Latin (in the ablative case).”

“Luce isn’t a female name in Italian, it’s Lucia and though I like the mascot it’s not far-fetched to connect Luce to Lucifero,” another X-user added.

“Lucifer also means light or light bearer. We aren’t stupid,” a Catholic wrote.

“What’s Italian for ‘creepy pederasty vibe?’” Catholic Ryan Ellis, who is the president of the Center for a Free Economy, shot back.

Rome’s Record on Clerical Sex Abuse

“The modernists always choose vestments, and graphics, and pictures, of the same distinctive type — studied attempts to seem juvenile, careful poses of innocence. They’re sending a message, all right,” Stream Senior Editor John Zmirak wrote in a 2018 article titled “Tide Pod Vestments and Child Abuse.” He explained:

What these bishops are doing is keeping up the atmosphere where sex abuse tends to happen, along with every other kind of evil. They’re playing the mood music for sin, like jazz pianists in a brothel.

The Vatican is yet to discipline Fr. Marko Ivan Rupnik, a celebrity mosaic artist and ex-Jesuit priest who has been accused of physically, mentally, spiritually, and sexually abusing at least 25 nuns and engaging in blasphemous sexual acts with some of them.

Rupnik was excommunicated by the Vatican’s doctrine watchdog in 2019 for sacramentally absolving a sexual partner in the confession, but swiftly reinstated a month later — reportedly on the orders of Pope Francis, his friend and fellow Jesuit.

In June 2023, the Society of Jesus announced that it had expelled Rupnik “due to stubborn refusal to observe the vow of obedience.” However, the Slovenian cleric retains clerical faculties to minister as a Catholic priest anywhere in the world as the Vatican continues to drag its feet on the investigation.

Dr. Jules Gomes, (BA, BD, MTh, PhD), has a doctorate in biblical studies from the University of Cambridge. Currently a Vatican-accredited journalist based in Rome, he is the author of five books and several academic articles. Gomes lectured at Catholic and Protestant seminaries and universities and was canon theologian and artistic director at Liverpool Cathedral.