The Cathrix

Tim Boucher points out the story of a new PR campaign for the Catholic Priesthood:

An edgy poster showing a somber Catholic priest in full black cassock and sunglasses posed like "The Matrix" star Keanu Reeves is proving so popular that the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has snapped up 5,000 of them. "If we can get high-school youth to hang a picture of a priest in their room, that’s huge in helping young men to answer the call to the priesthood," [Father Jonathan Meyer] said. "Anyone who is a ‘Matrix’ guru looks at the picture and automatically gets it." Crucifix in hand, Father Meyer posed for the poster, rated R for "restricted to those radically in love with Jesus Christ." Running time is "all eternity," and its title reads, "The Catholic priesthood: The answer is out there ... and it’s calling you."

Both The Christian Post and Catholic Online include a copy of the graphic in their reportage. I saved a copy of the image as well:

Personally, I think the poster is a tad lame. But that Father Meyer quote about getting "high-school youth to hang a picture of a priest in their room," ... yikes! Color me disturbed.

[January 2025: Links updated to remove missing pages and dangerous sites. I'm using previously saved versions of the links via Internet Archive.]