The Father, the Son and the Holy Guest Star/References

Cultural references

 * The title is a reference to the Catholic phrase: In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost.
 * The Ministry Machine is an obvious parody of the Mystery Machine, from .
 * The ragtime music playing during the montage of Homer and Bart at the catholic school is the "," a public-domain ragtime piano piece composed by in 1899.
 * After Bart speaks Latin at the dinner table, Lisa states that Latin is Plutarch's language. However, Plutarch was a Greek who wrote in Greek during the Roman Empire.
 * Homer mistakes Plutarch for Mickey Mouse's dog.

Trivia

 * The statue plaque reads: "St. Jerome. He died for our sins. Now it's your turn."
 * It is made clear in this episode that most of the main characters in Springfield are Protestants, who attend Rev. Lovejoy's church. The episode does give some insight into who are the (probable) Roman Catholics in Springfield. At the church's pancake dinner one can spot: Bumblebee Man (Hispanic); Mayor Quimby (Irish, but he may only be attending a community event for political reasons); Luigi Risotto and two members of Fat Tony's crew (Italian). Fat Tony is sitting at a different table as his fellow mob members.
 * This episode was nominated for the 2006 WGA Award (TV) for Animation.
 * Originally scheduled to air April 10, 2005. It was pulled due to the death of the previous week.
 * Homer confessed that he wiped a booger on Father Sean's shirt, he made a dog and a cat kiss, he swiped a bolted-down TV from a Holiday Inn, he coveted the wife in , he lied to a waiter, and he had masturbated eight billion times and had no plans to stop masturbating in the future.

Continuity

 * This is the third time a Simpson family member attempts to convert to a new religion and Marge, Ned, and Reverend Lovejoy attempt to bring that family member back. The previous episodes were "The Joy of Sect" and "She of Little Faith".
 * This is the second time in the series that Bart is expelled from school since the episode "Whacking Day".

Goofs

 * In one scene in Catholic Heaven, Homer is missing his halo.
 * In this episode, it is stated that it took Marge five years to toilet-train Bart. But in the episode "Sweet Seymour Skinner's Baadasssss Song", he was about two before he was toilet trained.
 * Frank Ormand is seen at the pancake dinner despite being dead.