- Jonathan Meyer
Jonathan Meyer (born in 1977) is a
Catholic priest in the Archdiocese ofIndianapolis . His responsibilities include serving as director of youth and young adult ministry for the Archdiocese, and as associate pastor at St. Luke Catholic Church.In 2005, during his time as associate pastor at Our Lady of the Greenwood Catholic Church in Greenwood, Indiana, Meyer was producer and model in a poster created by a local artist in the visual style of the Matrix movies. In this poster, shaded in black and phosphor green, he is standing in a pose similar to the Matrix character Neo, holding a
crucifix in one hand and arosary in the other. He is wearing a pair of stylish black sunglasses, again reminiscent of the style of "The Matrix." The background consists ofMatrix source code that spells out Latin hymns. The goal of the poster was to promote members of the Catholic community to elect to participate in the vocations that lead the Catholic priesthood (hence the title of the poster). The poster's design mimicks a theatrical movie poster, complete with a "rating" and list of "actors" in the production (the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit).The concept was originally jokingly proposed by one of the members of the Youth Council of the archdiocese. The concept was influenced by Meyer's daily preference in the wearing of the
cassock , the everyday vestment of Catholic priests that, in one of his question-and-answer columns in a weekly newsletter in his recent tenure for Our Lady of the Greenwood parish, Meyer believed to be appropriate to his duties. The trenchcoat that the character of Neo wears in the Matrix movie trilogy is very similar to the priestly vestment.The poster has proved very popular, with wide distribution in the local area and across the US and around the world. Thousands of copies were distributed at the 2005
World Youth Day inCologne ,Germany .External links
* [http://www.dioceseofgallup.org/vosw/july05/24.pdf PDF contains a high resolution image of the poster]
* [http://www.christianpost.com/article/20050815/5695_'The_Matrix'_Gives_Boost_To_Priesthood_Vocations.htm Article with low-res image of poster]
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
