The Vatican has unveiled a new cute anime girl mascot, hoping to create characters that "can represent the sentiments that resonate in the hearts of the younger generations". The new character named…
So they choose Luce, so close to Lucifer, and they expect the Internet to NOT bring it up? There's Lucy, Daughter of the Devil on Cartoon Network for shit's sake.
Nevermind the connections to Death Note, a far more popular anime about Light Yagami, and the subtle connections between his name and Lucifer the Lightbringer.
This seems so much worse on it's face, even if you leave out the undertones of children's abuse by the church and Rule 34 that will come out (which are worse, but the church keeps trying to bury it)
I know nothing about anime, but I guess it is not that bad? Luce is straight up "light" in Italian, and Lucifer just means "the one who brings light" because it's the Angel's name, before the fall according to the fairytale. So from their POV it should all make sense.
But Light is like a generic incarnation of god but also knowledge, revelation etc., it's way more absolute than peace or even love. I think Light does make sense from their perspective, and in the catholic symbolism it is identified basically with all positive stuff.
You had a bunch of other references that make sense eh, I am not familiar with them, so I respect that people might have different perceptions.
I get things like "enlightenment", etc. But the average person (at least in the US) that isn't already Catholic has a strong possibility of already being told they aren't real Christians, and isn't going to know or care about etymology, and will assume it's Lucifer. They could call the main character Satin after the cloth and it's have the same effect, even though they aren't related.
Luce means light in Italian. Lucifer means "light bringer" and the mythos is about trying to steal the light (luce) of god. It doesn't mean "luce" is bad.
I guess the Catholic church overestimated the education of its followers.
It's simple word association. I'm aware of the Latin translations. I'm also aware that most people are not going to think about it too long, and immediately going to jump to conclusions. They also believe in Bigfoot. What end of the Bell curve are we talking about, here?