Sid said:

that's what I was thinkin the entire time.

Soldatka said:
A friend of mine used to teach at a seminary in Lithuania. Boy, were there some hot priestlets there! All their lessons were marked in Latin, so he got to write "sex" on their books on a regular basis.

The concept was really brought to life, however, in a meeting with the archdiocese's Youth Council. During the meeting, the concept of Father Meyer dressing up as Neo, Reeves' character in "The Matrix," was jokingly suggested by one of the students.

"It was one of those things where everyone laughs and then you move on to the next topic. Only after the meeting, I came back to this one," Father Meyer explained.

He then called Missy Scarlet, a friend and a graphic designer, who asked him to do a photo shoot. Within a week they had a working model of the poster.

After a few initial edits, the poster was given a trial run at Our Lady of the Greenwood, in Greenwood, where Father Meyer also serves as associate pastor.

Father Meyer said it got a huge response. "They were going like hotcakes. Young kids wanted them to hang in their bedrooms, high school students wanted them to hang in their lockers," he said. "That is invaluable. If we can get kids to hang a picture of a priest in their room, we've done something huge for vocations."

The response, though, seems to make sense to him. It appeals to people at a level that everyone appears to share. "People love heroes. The poster personifies the priest as a hero," he said.

And it speaks of a faith that meets people exactly where they are in their lives. The poster itself says, in a parody of the words which any watcher of videos knows by heart, "This faith has not been modified from its original version. Yet, it is formatted to fit your life."

Distribution for the poster has been widespread. Father Meyer said that since distribution began in November, 1,800 posters have been distributed around the Indianapolis Archdiocese. An order of 100 was recently sent to California and 300 more were shipped to the Diocese of Madison, Wis.

Father Donald Calloway, a member of the Congregation of Marians of the Immaculate Conception, presents the poster as a part of the talk he gives nationwide called "No Turning Back."

And the poster was featured at a recent Indianapolis archdiocesan high school rally. At the rally, 500 posters were distributed during a "big tae kwon do number" performed to music from the movie, Father Meyer noted.

MisterSatan said:
That picture is just SCREAMING to be photoshopped.

Guess I know what I'm doing today at work.

Sorcha said:
Gabriel Byrne makes a MUCH hotter priest...