Its always nice to see the Church not always slagging off the popular stuff that people actually enjoy, so enjoy this from Digital Spy:

The New York Times reports that an article in L’Osservatore Romano celebrated the cartoon’s 20th anniversary.
The piece, called ‘Aristotle’s Virtues and Homer’s Doughnut’, praised the show’s “realistic and intelligent writing” and congratulated it on its handling of the characters’ faith.
The article claimed that Homer “finds in God his last refuge” and said that his sometimes problematic relationship with religion is a “mirror of the indifference and the need that modern man feels toward faith”.
However, the article also criticised the programme for “excessively crude language, the violence of certain episodes or some extreme choices by the scriptwriters”.
Um, no, the Vatican does not approve or disapprove of the Simpsons. The Vatican Newspaper does. There is a distinction, maybe you’re not aware of.