The cartoon by Martyn Turner showed three priests, with one holding a paper stating "Children First Bill" and "Mandatory Reporting".

The three priests were singing "I'd do anything for children (but I won't do that)".

To the side of the cartoon was the statement: "But there is little else you can do for them [children] except stay away from them, of course."

The context was Ireland's Children First Bill, which authorities say will make it mandatory for some professions to report incidents of harm and risk of harm to children.

Dublin Archbishop Diarmuid Martin said many priests felt hurt about the Turner cartoon.

Speaking on Holy Thursday, Archbishop Martin said he is a strong believer in freedom of speech and of the vital role of satire in social criticism.

But he objected to "anything that would unjustly tarnish all good priests with the unpardonable actions of some".

The Irish Times took the cartoon down from its website and apologised for the offence and hurt caused.

Several days later, Dr Martin said that he is open to the idea of married priests.

But he said ordaining women to make up for the shortage of priests was "not on the table at the moment".

There are now only 250 active diocesan priests in Dublin archdiocese to cover 199 parishes.

Dr Martin said he would "wait and see" what Pope Francis decides about married men as priests.

"I'll wait and see, certainly in missionary countries it must be very important," he said.

Bishop Erwin Krautler from Brazil has said that Pope Francis is open to suggestions from bishops' conferences across the world on ordaining viri probati (married men of proven character).

Dr Martin said more focus must also be put on the deacons and discovering where "priests and lay people can take part in a more collaborative way in our parishes".

Sources

• Yahoo News UK
• Irish Times
• Politics ie
• Irish Independent
• The Tablet
• Image: RTE

This longest-running cartoon series on American prime-time network television since 1989 recounts the animated adventures of Homer Simpson and his lower-middle class family who live in the city of Springfield. The father, Homer, is a lazy, unintelligent, beer-drinking safety inspector for the local nuclear power plant at the fictional city of Springfield. Marge, his wife, is a somewhat spacey woman with a huge beehive hairstyle and Bart, their ten-year old son, is a borderline juvenile delinquent. Lisa, the middle child, is a gifted, sensitive and perceptive saxophone player. Maggie is the voiceless toddler, observing all while sucking her pacifier. In addition there are other equally dysfunctional members of the community.

Though the program first appeals to children because the cartoons are immensely funny, like Dean Swift's Gulliver's Travels it is a biting satire on reality. One of the program's writers comments: "We're really writing a show that has some of the most esoteric references in television…We're writing it for adults and intelligent adults at that."

Thus, it is richly laced with satire, sarcasm, irony, and caricature as the authors seek to expose reality as it is, namely chaotic and violent. Hypocrisy, the incompetence of pop psychology, modern child-rearing, commercialism, consumerism, fundamentalism in religion, environmental abuse, corporate greed and deceits of American education are all uncovered in stark and often parodied ways. Homer tells his daughter Lisa that it is quite alright to steal things "from people you don't like." Reverend Lovejoy lies to Lisa about the contents of the Bible to succeed in an argument. There are plenty of disreputable characters in Springfield, but the most loathsome is Mr Burns, the owner of a nuclear power-plant and a cruel example of the worst form of contemporary neo-capitalism. Speaking to a group of school children he said: "Family, religion, friendship: these are the three demons you must slay if you wish to succeed in business."

The spectacular emphasis on violence is especially evident in the television show that Lisa and Bart regularly enjoy, namely "The Itchy and Scratchy Show". The interaction between a cat and mouse is not confined to slapstick mixed with a little violence, but the violence goes to extremes of stark gruesomeness.

The creators of The Simpsons get away with it because it is in the form of a cartoon and, more particularly, because viewers condone violence in many areas of contemporary life. The writers know this and are focused on mirroring back to their audiences what society has come to accept as normal, namely that violence is condoned even for children provided it does not affect the interests of individual viewers. Bart says to Lisa at one point, when she is becoming squeamish about the violence they see on television: "If you don't watch the violence, you'll never get desensitised to it." The show appears to condone in comedic form pervasive and blatant violence, such as bullying in all its ghastly forms, but in fact it is morally critiquing the social, capitalistic and physical brutality that American (and others) people accept as normal. Yet, unlike much contemporary literature and films, this series, while accepting the evil in the world, recognizes that people are capable of goodness at times.

While uncovering hypocrisy in religion, it recognizes the indisputable role it has in American life. Homer does go to Church and he speaks to God from time to time, but his image of God is rather confused. God for Homer is like a parachute that he hopes he will never have to open, but he needs God just in case. Homer's God is a more forgiving and compassionate than the God of Homer's local minister. Lisa and her mother Marge at times do become the social conscience of the family and others (including viewers), reminding them that in the midst of a neo-capitalist world of greed the fundamental virtues of compassion and justice can and should be lived.

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Gerald A. Arbuckle, sm, is the author of Laughing with God: Humor, Culture, and Transformation. Foreword by Jean Vanier (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2008).