In the past week, there has been an excellent Congress held on digital media in Italy, called "Testimoni digitali. Volti e linguaggi nell’era crossmediale" [Digital Witnesses. Faces and Languages in the Cross-Media Age]. For an insiders view of what the conference was like, check out our favourite priest from the Netherlands – Father Roderick (http://fatherroderick.sqpn.com) However, I’d like to focus this article on the closing address Pope Benedict XVI gave.

In his address, the pope talked about the challenge the world faces with the advent of the internet – the expansion of communication on a global scale and across multiple forms of media comes with the risk of both creating a new divide between those that have access and those that don’t, and also the risk of people becoming lost within the digital world – without a clear moral compass.

The attendees were called by the pope, as we are all called, to bring a human face to these new forms of media to counter the anonymity of the internet – thus helping the men and women of our digital age to sense the Lord’s presence.

To finish, in the words of Pope Benedict:

“Let us set sail on the digital sea fearlessly, confronting open navigation with the same enthusiasm that has steered the Barque of the Church for 2,000 years. Rather than for technical resources, although these are necessary, let us also qualify ourselves by dwelling in this world with a believing heart that helps to give a soul to the ceaseless flow of communications that makes up the web.

This is our mission, the inalienable mission of the Church.”

Whenever I hear people talk about how the Catholic Church is old-fashioned or out of touch or not moving with the times, I always sigh a little. For you see, while some people like to cling to old, inaccurate stories about guys like Galileo, or refer somewhat foolishly to the average age of the clergy, I tend to focus more on the facts.

Take for example the recent article in the Telegraph newspaper in the U.K. referring to a meeting in November at the Vatican. You might note that that is not anything special by itself; there are hundreds of meetings in the Vatican every year. So what does this have to do with technology and the Church? Well, the meeting was not between heads of state and the clergy, but rather with heads of the internet and some bishops. Specifically, representatives from Facebook, Google, YouTube and Wikipedia were at a four-day conference organised by the Pontifical Council for Social Communications.

The Vatican, it seems, has fully realised the importance of these new technologies in reaching out to people of all ages and creeds across the world. And, as such, they have invested the time and money in this meeting of the minds in order to better understand how to spread the Good News of Christ in a modern world.

Quite frankly, this is another example of the wider Church being at the forefront of modern technology. Be it papyrus and the written word, or the Gutenberg press, or radio, or TV, or now the Internet – the Catholic Church has always tried to explore new technologies and techniques of reaching people wherever they may be. I applaud this new research by the Vatican, and I hope they continue to explore technology – not afraid, but eager to preach and teach online!

With all the bad publicity that the internet gets, you could be forgiven for wondering if it brings any good at all! How many recent stories have you read (this column excluded) talking about the internet and crime, porn or privacy violations? Conversely, how often do you read about the internet being seen as a blessing, or that it has provided “an omni-directional flow of transversal and personal communications”?

Well, probably only once, if at all. The quote above is from a speech by the Rev Federico Lombardi SJ, Director of the Vatican Press Office, Vatican Radio and of the Vatican’s television channel (CTV). Fr Lombardi gave this speech in May as part of a lecture for World Communications Day.

The speech (available in two parts: here and here) talks in depth about the changes the press agencies of the Holy See have had to go through in recent years, and starts to talk about some of the changes they will need to go through in years to come.

Interestingly, Fr Lombardi does not recommend the Church forget traditional media in an effort to be seen as being up-to-date with the young people. He instead talks about the “digital divide” and notes that the Church’s responsibility is to reach everyone – not just those who can afford broadband.

But he has some great insights into the traps and challenges of using the internet to spread a message that is often “against the grain”. However, far from being put off by these challenges, Fr Lombardi finishes by calling for us all to “work even harder, so that every day it will be more and more true to say, and so that we might be able to say with greater and greater conviction: the internet is truly blessed!”

There has been much said about our technologically savvy Pope Benedict XIV – texting the pilgrims at World Youth Day and having an iPod. However, he’s not the only IT-literate one – have you checked out the official Vatican website, http://www.vatican.va? It’s been around a lot longer but is an excellent resource for Catholic doctrine.

If you follow the Saints and Blessed URL you can see all the people John Paul II made Saints during his pontificate which makes for inspirational reading. Following the Resource Library URL takes you to an online Bible (The New American), the Catechism of the Catholic Church (both the full version and the compendium), the Code of Canon Law (covering topics from being a minister of Holy Eucharist to ‘cases to declare the nullity of marriage’) and the documents of the Second Vatican Council. There is a special link for WYD information and one where you can read the letters from our Pope to Chinese Catholics.

To gain access to all the papal documents, follow the Papal Archive URL. This will take you to a menu based on each Papacy. John Paul II was well known for his prolific writing. Here you can read the encyclicals, apostolic letters, homilies, messages, speeches etc that he proclaimed. Among his most popularised writings are the encyclicals Evangelium Vitae and Veritatis Splendor. Probably the most ‘famous’ encyclical is Humanae Vitae which was written by Pope Paul VI 1968 and can also be accessed online – well worth a read! And of course, Benedict XVI is just getting started. So go forth and learn more about your faith!!!

Of course, the Vatican site is just the beginning. Do you have any other sites about our rich faith you’d like to see highlighted? Share them with all @ www.catholic.geek.nz. If there’s anything you’d like to hear more about – feel free to join in and let us know!

About this time last year, we talked about New Years resolutions with your computer. These are still important, and well worth revisiting. However, thanks to the web, I don’t need to rehash them here – go to http://www.catholic.geek.nz/Blog/?p=70 to see last years tips and tricks.

This time round, lets to talk about keeping your PC up to date. Across the board, computer software has a habit of being released with a small smattering of bugs and hiccups in the software. As such, they need regular updating. This is especially important when you’re connected to the internet – unfortunately there’s plenty of malicious people out their just waiting to take advantage of any holes your computer might have in its armour to take control.

Windows users should visit update.microsoft.com and install all critical updates on a regular basis. You can also set your PC to automatically go out and check for updates, and to then install those updates on a regular basis. See http://support.microsoft.com/kb/306525 for some instructions on how to do this

Apple users aren’t immune – check the Software Updater under the Apple menu on your Mac to see if there’s any patches out there for your system.

If you’re interested in learning more about how to protect your computer, Microsoft have some great tips that are well worth having a read through – check out http://www.microsoft.com/protect/default.mspx to read more, and remember – security starts at home!

So I read in the paper earlier this week about the research being undertaken into subatomic physics currently at CERN in Geneva. Scientists are building a giant particle accelerator, which will be used to recreate the early moments of the universe, and with which they hope to prove the existence of the Higgs boson, also known as the “God particle”, the vital link to completing the Standard Model of all matter. After geeking out on the awesome technology being built here, it got me to thinking about the links between science and religion – and how, despite what the vocal minority might try to have us believe, the two are not incompatible.

The problem as I see it is that people seem to get stuck up on is that they see science as explaining away the need for God – because why does God need to exist if we understand how everything works? The reality that we need to face, in my humble opinion, is that even if we feel we’ve explained “everything”, we need to realise that we’ve only explained our perception of the problem – and the reality can be vastly different to what we see. Remember, a little over 100 years ago, if you had told someone that you could get from Auckland to London in under 24 hours, travelling in a giant metal bird, they would have had you committed to the asylum! The claim that science and religion are incompatible are similarly just as bogus. Science doesn’t disprove God, it merely illustrates the beauty of His creation. God truly is in the Details!

I bet you thought this was going to be another month, and another apology from the Cg team on how we have not been writing as much as we would like. But I have a pretty good excuse this month: pretty much all of our spare time has been spent sewing up a deal with the NZ Catholic newspaper to publish our posts in their fortnightly paper!

How cool is that?

What this means is that we will have to get a lot more regulated on our posting, if only to meet our obligation to provide fresh content to the paper. That also means more information for you on this site – everybody wins!

So, if you’re in New Zealand and want to read a great paper that covers off a whole heap of local and international Catholic news – and that will be having an insightful column for Catholic geeks in it as well – pick up a copy of the paper at the back of your local parish (it’s only $3) and/or subscribe and get reading!

According to the latest figures, more than one million New Zealand households now have internet access. That’s a lot of houses! That’s nearly two-thirds of all houses in the nation.

What’s not surprising is the list of the main uses of the internet for those surveyed:

* Sending and receiving email
* General web browsing
* Getting information on goods and services
* Internet banking

No real surprises there.

So, what does it all mean? Well, I think that it bodes well for any projects that are looking to evangelise using the internet. It also bodes very well for those trying to get their message out there cheaply and effectively – look at the explosive growth of sites like YouTube.

All in all, it makes for some interesting times ahead. Better get on with claiming back some of the cyberspace (who even use’s that term anymore?!?) for God, I say!

According to the latest figures, more than one million New Zealand households now have internet access. That’s a lot of houses! That’s nearly two-thirds of all houses in the nation.

What’s not surprising is the list of the main uses of the internet for those surveyed:

* Sending and receiving email
* General web browsing
* Getting information on goods and services
* Internet banking

No real surprises there.

So, what does it all mean? Well, I think that it bodes well for any projects that are looking to evangelise using the internet. It also bodes very well for those trying to get their message out there cheaply and effectively – look at the explosive growth of sites like YouTube.

All in all, it makes for some interesting times ahead. Better get on with claiming back some of the cyberspace (who even use’s that term anymore?!?) for God, I say!

The Economist is reporting that, according to Hitwise, traffic to “sex-related sites” (a.k.a porn) on the internet is diminishing.

I kid you not!

Apparently, people are using the internet for less porn, and more MySpace and Facebook.

…

I honestly wondered if this day would ever come. Are we finally starting to realise that this global community actually has a lot more going for it that the spreading of smut?

Before we get too excited, no one is saying that the internet is going to be porn-free anytime soon. Obviously, there is still a lot of easy access to a lot of porn, and that’s a situation that still needs a lot of work. We need to remind people (men especially) that porn is not normal, not natural, and not something that we should be taking lightly.

Moreover, as the article points out, “pornographic content is often the first to take advantage of new media, from photography to videocassettes to satellite television.” So, maybe the internet is getting old. I mean, it isn’t really “new” anymore, is it? And, as the article also points out, there are plenty of other new technologies that are stepping up to fill the gap – P2P networks, torrents and the newer “virtual worlds” like Second Life are just some examples.

But to me, this article and the stats therein, are an encouraging sign. You can either read it very optimistically – as a sign that demand for porn is decreasing – or a bit more conservatively, but there are other signs to. Searching Google for “porn addiction” returns (at the time of this post) around 1.3 million hits. Maybe, just maybe, society is starting to wake up to the fact that porn has gone too far?

We can only hope and pray that this is a good sign, and that in a few years time, the only hits for porn addiction will be links to history pages talking about that problem we used to have.