back to article Vatican declares 'the internet is blessed'

The Catholic Church could be headed for a virtual schism as the Vatican embraces Web 2.0 and declares "the internet is blessed", while a Scottish Bishop warns his flock against the "inane chatter" found online. Father Fredrico Lombardi, SJ, the Vatican's head of communications, marked the Church's upcoming Communications Day …

COMMENTS

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I spy something of an impasse here

    seeing as large chunks of the Internet think that religion is quite sad. Still, if we sic the kids in Guy Fawkes masks on them, we'll soon see who's sadder

  2. Frank

    UNbelievable

    "....which does nothing to promote growth in understanding and untolerance,"

    Did he really say that? lol.

  3. Rob Welsh
    Flame

    My...

    ...how we've moved on from the times of Galileo. Who gives a crap what these dresswearing freaks say! Try blessing the use of contraception in third world countries and help stop the spread of AIDS you fucking useless bunch of inbreds.

  4. Col
    Gates Horns

    Untolerance

    "In dialogue with others we need to be wary of the inane chatter that can go on in the digital world which does nothing to promote growth in understanding and untolerance"

    Huh? "Untolerance"? You want to grow "untolerance" via communication?

  5. amanfromMars Silver badge

    The Sticky Sweet Shop and Venus's Lair ..... Heaven Sent Resources

    ""risks and the ambiguities that attend this stage, the enormous potential for manipulation and moral corruption that are nested in the modern social communications.".... Father Fredrico Lombard.

    Has the good Father given anything thought to experiences in the Yin of that Yang ..... the enormous potential for manipulation and polyamoral education that are also nested and hosting in the modern social communications.

    Valid Exciting XXXXPeriences which may well be Well Outside of and Far Removed from the Personal and Spiritual Ken of a Misogyny and/or Exclusive Church Model.

    ""We should avoid an obsessive need for virtual connectedness and develop primary relationships," he said. Replacing real world relationships with online ones is "profoundly sad", he concluded." .... A strange thing to say whenever Life at the Top is Ruled Virtually. I see old habits die hard in Royal and Ancient Establishment Orders of Chaos .

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Up

    So in colloquial terms...

    ...that's scammers, trolls, moderators, cam whores, WoW players, and 4chan then...

  7. Trevor Pearson
    Alert

    unintentional truth

    "In dialogue with others we need to be wary of the inane chatter that can go on in the digital world which does nothing to promote growth in understanding and untolerance," he thundered.

    Untolerant inane chatter on the internetweb 2.0 ? I don't believe it !

    I believe in Jimmy Wales, social intelligence, the loch ness monster, Aliens, copper braclets for rheumatism, Intelligent Design, honest politicians...

    I need to take my meds now.

    errr, is the church promoting untolerance ? is that a p.c. version of intolerance ?

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    The Right Reverend Philip Tartaglia

    has selected his top 5 hymns.

    Mrs Miggins from Number 42 likes this.

    has become a fan of Jesus.

    Comment . Like. Become a Fan

  9. Richard Porter
    Gates Horns

    There is no such thing as "the internet"

    which I suppose puts it on a par with God.

  10. Dave

    Broaden your horizons

    I find that I've gained enormous benefit from the friends I've made on-line. I married one of them, back in the days before it became popular to meet via the internet. I've visited parts of the world that I might not have had the incentive to do, and met some of my on-line friends during the process. So why is it bad? Perhaps because I'm one of those who prefer to spend my time talking to friends, wherever and however, than sitting in a cold, draughty church with someone droning on up front and trying to get a bunch of reluctant people to sing? Oh, and I've been known to go shopping on Sundays as well.

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    I for one...

    will not be using the internet if the vatican beatify it!

    I enjoy using it as a godless zone for us heathen sinners!

    "In the beginning there was pornography, and it was difficult to obtain. The masses attended the service stations and the railway siding and there was little. But lo, the internet was born and pornography was available to the masses in throngs! And it was good, and bad, and everything in between!"

  12. GrahamT

    Quote -

    "There is the face of debauched sensuality that seeks to use and possess, and has respect neither for the body nor for the image of the other; this face expresses the materialistic hedonism that turns persons into brutes."

    Now is this the Internet or the Irish Catholic church he is talking about?

  13. Chris
    Thumb Up

    Hallowed be thy intarwebs

    Our Father, who art in heaven,

    Hallowed be thy intarwebs.

    Thy data come.

    Thy processing be done,

    On the intarwebs as it is in heaven.

    Give us this day our daily bits.

    And forgive us our adult site visits,

    As we forgive those who hack us.

    And lead us not into service outages,

    But deliver us from corporate content blockers.

    For thine is the intarwebs,

    and the data,

    and the bandwidth,

    for ever and ever.

    Amen.

  14. Geoff Mackenzie

    Hmm ...

    "the enormous potential for manipulation and moral corruption that are nested in the modern social communications" - so that's the potential they see in it: a new vector for their mind-virus.

  15. Camilla Smythe

    Catholic Church

    Exposed in systemic child abuse report. Vatican resorts to internet.....

    Just a mo.. This sounds like another bunch of people with nothing to sell discovering the internet as a means of selling nothing. Does that mean they'll be after a 3% surcharge as well?

    Pope claims invention of internet. Al Gore miffed. Modern age pagans unite against the creeping scourge of Catholicism.

  16. bell

    They sure can write.

    That big excerpt on evil on the Internet is as succinct and comprehensive a criticism of blogWikiRedditTards as I've ever read.

  17. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Now I'm confused

    So does this mean the picture of my naked arse is blessed or cursed?

  18. James

    Ah. I had to re-read ...

    .. the Fathers comments and the article before I realised he was talking about the Interweb and not the Bible. I'm sure all the things he lists are mentioned and approved of at various places in the Old Testament.

  19. Dave
    Flame

    @Richard Porter

    The internet is a lot more real than most religions. /flame

    "Father Fredrico Lombardi, SJ, the Vatican's head of communications, marked the Church's upcoming Communications Day with a lengthy speech"

    Is it just co-incidence that that quote is just two chars shorter than the max for a tweet?

    I'll bet the actual speech needed more than one blog post though.

  20. amanfromMars Silver badge

    Re Hallowed be thy intarwebs

    That Prayer had me Smiling, Chris :-)

    And Thinking that Global Operating Devices are more into ITERWebs for Future Power and IP Energy Generation...... for Virtual Source Unlimited.

  21. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Real v online

    "Replacing real world relationships with online ones is "profoundly sad", he concluded"

    Is he really that wrong?

  22. Anonymous Coward
    Coat

    Pope...

    ...endorses Pr0n

    The flasher mac in the corner

  23. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Up

    @ Chris

    You owe me a new keyboard. This one has suddenly been filled with tea :-).

  24. Anonymous Coward
    Boffin

    Why the false dichotomy?

    "Lombardi might want to work first in Scotland, where the Bishop of Paisley has decided to mark Communications Day by warning against the danger of social networking replacing real relationships."

    I fail to see the conflict here. All advancements can be use for good as well as evil purposes. They are merely embracing the use for "good" purposes, but warning about the potential bad influences.

  25. Nanki Poo
    Go

    Ha ha

    Coffee: 99p

    Screen: £189

    Keyboard: £12.74

    "Hallowed be thy intarwebs": Priceless

    That's gotta go on a Reg t-shirt.

  26. Moss Icely Spaceport
    Thumb Down

    Get off, thy intarwebs are full

    Religion and the net?

    They just want to control another communications channel before their fairy story is fully exposed as the greatest shonk ever told.

  27. Anonymous Scotsman

    More you know etc.

    Didn't know paisley *had* a bishop, and i've lived there for 15 years :D

    But given that the Church of Scotland is heavily overrepresented there (including the Abbey), I have little doubt the man is just making use of his irrelevance to pick at a personal gripe.

  28. Ferry Boat

    In heaven, everything is fine.

    Beware these Catholics. They say one thing but mean another. "It is easy to paint the big picture", he says. Well, that's what they told Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni. "Go on, it'll take you a couple of hours, bit of Genesis that's all. I'll make you tea, four sugars is it?".

  29. J
    Happy

    Yeah...

    Except not even the Catholics listen to the Vatican anyway, so who cares what they say. Well, at least in the largest Catholic country in the world (Brazil), where I went to Catholic school all my pre-college life, nobody does. Maybe some old people do, but then again they don't go on the intarwebs... An example: an ex-girlfriend of mine here in the USA, very Catholic. She had no clue what the Vatican's position on evolutionary biology was (she is a microbiologist, I'm an evo biologist). She was surprised to learn what they think of it (they accept the science completely, and then have their mental contortions to reconcile reality with their superstitions, but nonetheless... that's better than the fundamentalist knuckle-draggers). I, an atheist, know more about the Vatican's positions than she did.

    Anyway, best were the Google ads displayed on this story's page:

    Christian Dating Sites?

    Catholic Singles Meet

    El Reg will get lambasted by a certain Scottish Bishop, maybe?

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