One more example that manga is slowly taking over the universe: the Catholic Church’s Vocations Office for England and Wales are using manga-styled cartoon characters to raise awareness about the priesthood and religious life in the hopes of attracting a teenage and twenty-something audience:

In cartoon strip style, visitors to the site can take a closer look at the lives of each of the five ‘Manga’ characters ­ who are not fictitious, but actually real people, with real stories to tell ­ testimonies from a priest, two nuns, a monk and a lay brother can be read online.

“Cartoons, particularly Manga-styled ones, are a good way of reaching young people, even up to the age of 25,” says Father Embery. “We want more young people to consider the call to priesthood and religious life, whilst at the same time acknowledging that many more people are making commitments later in life. We have a ‘both-and’ rather than ‘either-or’ policy, as we recognise that older candidates bring different life experiences with them.”

They’ve even launched a Web site devoted to the characters, entitled Called Today. I’m not quite certain if the site will have actual comics content or just manga-styled illustrations. I’d think the former would be a bigger draw for the audience they’re trying to attract, but that doesn’t seem to be the case.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 24th, 2007 at 9:38 am and is filed under Art and Design, Manga, News & Views, Pop Culture. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.