That's why adapting those messages to reach people through their Blackberries, cell phones or e-mail accounts was a canny move on the part of the Vatican. It shows not only that the church is trying to preserve the 2,000-year-old messages upon which it was founded, but that it is flexible enough to think of new ways to do it. This flexibility may well ensure that it will survive as a dynamic force in its followers' lives for another 2,000 years.
Interestingly, an editorial from a small California newspaper hammered home just how tech-savvy John Paul II was. Karol Wojtyla became pope in 1978, two decades ahead
of the Internet boom, and the Vallejo Times-Herald's editorial noted that 1978 was "same year 'the global village' arrived -- satellites and videotape editing machines in the field helped him become one of the first 'superstars' of global technology. Combining his natural crowd-pleasing charm and this new technology, he was able to well project his fervent desire to spread human rights, freedom and faith across the globe, even into repressive governments."
| ___About Random Access___ Random Access is a daily column by Robert MacMillan that explores the latest trends in technology and how they are changing daily life. Random Access won't tell you why a new gizmo will revolutionize your ad server. It will tell you about episodes from daily life -- exasperated waiters who use blogs to vent about their customers, whole runs of salmon injected with nanoparticles for individual tracking in Norwegian fjords and the growing number of DJs who are sick of being sidelined in favor of iPods. (Only one of these stories is fake.) Most of what you see will be culled from news sources and blogs from around the world, though we will supplement Random Access with original files on the novel, unusual, bizarre and reactionary happenings in the world of technology and society. E-mail: Send links and comments. | | |
|
Larry Magid, a technology columnist for CBS News, also
noted the Vatican's embrace of technology, highlighting a 2002 speech in which the pope directly addressed the Internet. While the pope celebrated the potentials of the new communications medium, he also said it "true that electronically mediated relationships can never take the place of the direct human contact." Magid's column also includes a photo of the pope working at a laptop. News.com carried its own look at how the Vatican embraced technology under John Paul II.
The Vatican Online
The Holy See's Web site contains Web pages in a number of languages, including German, English, Spanish, French, Italian and Portuguese, not to mention a press office with updates in the same languages. Also see the Vatican's own newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano.
Most important for many people are the pope's official teachings, released in "encyclicals." They all are listed on the Vatican site, including the controversial stands against gay marriage and abortion. Most are available in English, Latin, Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese and German, though some were released in other languages, including Polish (the Pope's native language) and Arabic.
Following the English site deeper in, visitors get links to the pontiff's biography, "Secret Archives," the Vatican Library, the Curia, the legendary Swiss Guard and the Vatican II council documents. Keep in mind that having an Italian speaker, or at the very least Internet-based translation software, is advisable for the documents. For the rest of us, they must remain secret as they are almost all written in Italian.
The Treasures section of the Vatican site provides fascinating online presentations on topics as diverse as the face of Jesus Christ and ancient manuscripts. Also, see an interesting section on the "I Vangeli dei Popli," or "The Word and Image of Christ in Culture and History." It's not an exact translation, but no matter. Despite the language barriers, the images in many cases are self-explanatory and never fail to intrigue.
If you're interested in how the global Catholic church interacted with the United Nations, the Vatican's permanent mission to the U.N. is online at www.holyseemission.org
And for all of us, not just the geeks, the Vatican plans to dub St. Isidore of Seville the patron saint of computer users, technicians and the Internet, News.com noted.
Catholics U.S.A.
There are many U.S.-based online resources for people interested in learning more about the Catholic Church, including the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, the bishops' congressional affairs office and movie and television program reviews authored by the conference's Office of Film and Broadcasting. Then there are links to the individual U.S. dioceses. Also receiving attention is the Office of Child and Youth Protection, the site that provides the church's response to the child sexual abuse committed by some priests during the past decades.
Al Tompkins of the Poynter Institute noted two online resources provided by U.S.-based Catholic organizations -- the St. Louis Archdiocese's Catholic Glossary, another glossary provided by the Milwaukee Archdiocese.
Keeping up With the News
Several Catholic news organizations are available online, the most visible of which is the Catholic News Service -- which describes itself as and "editorially independent and a financially self-sustaining division of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops." See that site for an interesting article by correspondent Cindy Wooden on the apparent gulf between the Vatican's commitment to being more open with the public and the actual information delivered to the press following the decline of John Paul II's health on Feb. 24. Also see the Catholic World News Service and Inside the Vatican, as well as Vatican Radio, for other news feeds.
A basic online translation tool will give readers access to coverage from Italy's premier newspapers. Among the ones to watch are Corriere della Sera and La Repubblica. Even if you don't speak Italian, having some command of French, Spanish, Portuguese or other Romance languages can get you through the most important parts of the story. And as usual, BBC News remains an excellent worldwide news service with breaking items. Reuters also provides updates at its Web site.
One of the most important issues with the papacy is succession, a subject now under open discussion. The cardinals of the Roman Catholic Church are listed here, and some are expected to be candidates for the next pontiff. CNN has a list of possible successors. For a look at detailed biographies of nearly all of the 265 popes back to St. Peter, try the newadvent.org Web site.
Commonweal, a U.S.-based Catholic magazine, puts some of its contents online. As of this morning, the site didn't have a lot of information about John Paul II's passing, but it did have an article on how the church will choose its next leader.
Send links and comments to robertDOTmacmillanATwashingtonpost.com.
