The Associated Press is reporting that L’Osservatore Romano, the Vatican’s newspaper, has declared the “Simpsons” okely dokely on the show’s 20th anniversary, “praising its philosophical leanings as well as its stinging and often irreverent take on religion.”
While the paper does critique some of the series’ crude language and violence, it gives the longest-running animated series of all time the highest compliment possible, stating that, without the show, “‘many today wouldn’t know how to laugh.”
We here at Beliefnet couldn’t agree more and have been covering the spiritual side of the Springfield family since the site’s beginnings in 1999. Check out some of our “Simpsons” coverage over the years:

• D’Oh! Top 10 (Plus One) Religious Episodes on The Simpsons
• D’oh! and the Deity
• Apu: Springfield’s Intro to Hinduism
• The Gospel According to the Simspons
• That Prime Time Religion
• Lisa Simspon Dabbles in Wicca