NEWS STORY: Don’t expect to chat with the pope on Vatican’s new Web site

c. 1997 Religion News Service VATICAN CITY _ When the Roman Catholic Church unveils its first World Wide Web site on Easter Sunday, don’t expect to find a chat room with Pope John Paul II. He’s not taking confessions. At least, not in cyberspace. With that caveat, the church hopes to spread its evangelization efforts […]

c. 1997 Religion News Service

VATICAN CITY _ When the Roman Catholic Church unveils its first World Wide Web site on Easter Sunday, don’t expect to find a chat room with Pope John Paul II. He’s not taking confessions. At least, not in cyberspace.

With that caveat, the church hopes to spread its evangelization efforts to the tens of millions of Internet users worldwide. For now, the site (http://www.vatican.va) will make available some 1,200 official documents, such as papal encyclicals and letters, schedules of the pope’s pilgrimages, and biographical sketches of this pope and his predecessors.


In addition, the site _ available in six languages, including English _ will publish information about the Vatican curia, or administration; as well as reports from church news services, such as Vatican Radio; activities for the upcoming millennium celebrations; and limited selections on the Vatican’s museums and vast archives.

Within the next year the Vatican Web site will feature color illustrations of paintings and other art featured in the Vatican’s richly endowed museums and broadcasts now available on the Vatican’s radio stations, which reach nearly all regions of the globe.

Officials say they expect users to make more than 2 million monthly”hits”on the site.”With the homogenization of global communication the Holy See has decided to be a presence, so that every person in every country can listen to the Holy Father,”said Monsignor Claudio Maria Celli, president of the Vatican Internet Commission.

But speaking to the Holy Father is another matter.”We’re not ready for that yet,”said Sister Judith Zoebelein, technical director of the project, which the church began formulating a year ago with Digital Equipment Corp., the computer maker that designed the system.”That’s a very serious matter, one that has to be studied,”she said.

In a medium that often invites free exchange of materials and ideas, the Vatican is intent on insuring its message is fully managed. The Vatican site will be handled by three computers _ named Raphael, Michael and Gabriel, after three archangels.”A little extra protection always helps,”Zoebelein joked.

Raphael, the fastest system, will store documents, graphics and navigation paths, the means by which a user moves through the system from one document or subject heading to another. Michael is the so called”fire wall,”or protective device, that blocks would-be intruders. That is, computer hackers who might wish to alter a church document. Gabriel is the go-between for the other two computers.

What does the 76-year-old pontiff, who still writes in Polish by hand and does not have a computer in his office, think of all this techno wizardry?”He was elated”by news the system is operational, said his spokesman, Joaquin Navarro-Valls.”He was fascinated and asked lots of questions,”Celli added.”He saw the importance of this to evangelize and for dialogue.” Notwithstanding Vatican assertions that the new site would facilitate evangelization efforts, the fact is, many societies in which the church is seeking to spread the Gospel don’t know what the Internet is, much less how to navigate the Web.


As for dialogue, the interactive component of the new tool will be non-existent. There will be no chat room for laity and others to share their ideas, opinions and aspirations for the church. Nor is there any process by which academics and scholars can post their work on the site.

Still, introduction of a Web site, which the Vatican sees as critical to competing with the myriad other religion sites in cyberspace, marks a milestone for the church in its continuing effort to go electronic.

More than a year ago, the church began using e-mail to communicate with its nuncios and bishops worldwide. Consequently, many computer users started to write to their bishops, and the pope himself _ even though he doesn’t respond _ using e-mail.

But Vatican officials say the medium, much like the Web project, is intended to encourage renewed interest in the church’s teachings among Catholics.

For the first time in its history, the church’s newly published 1997 directory of offices, bishops and committees, known as the Annuario Pontificio, lists e-mail addresses of such notable officials as Secretary of State Cardinal Angelo Sodano (vatio26(AT)relstat-segstat.va).

As for the Web site, Celli said,”little by little, everyone will have access.” In addition to English, the service will feature information in Italian, French, German, Spanish and Portuguese. Within the next six months, Arabic and Chinese will be added.


Why Chinese and Arabic, and not Korean or Japanese, which would be accessible to far more Catholics? Celli insisted to one Korean reporter who asked that question that the”choice was not made on the basis of politics.” Nonetheless, the pope has reaffirmed in recent months he will use every means at his disposal to communicate with Catholics in China, who are under the tight thumb of communist authorities, and with the minority Catholic community in the Arab world.

MJP END HEILBRONNER

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