5 years ago... The Pope makes net debut

NEWS 11.08.98:The Pope is to make his internet debut this Saturday. The Vatican said the head of the Catholic Church will appear live, via a streamed RealPlayer webcast, as he leads a celebration for the Feast of the Assumption. The Pontiff's appearance will be recorded by Vatican Television and Vatican Radio, and will be streamed using the RealNetworks software. It will also be archived on the Vatican's 'Octava Dies' weekly magazine. In the past, the Pope has expressed an interest in the Catholic Church using technology to reach the masses. The Vatican called the latest developments "another sign of the Vatican's effort to promote its image in the world of modern social communication". 11.08.03:Although the Pope's credentials as IT innovator are kept well hidden Il Papa has figured a great deal in technology stories over the past five decades - though he is yet to get his own email address. (While we are aware it is very unlikely the man-himself gets down on his knees and fiddles with cabling, installs software or personally plans his online strategy, work with us here.) Most recently the Pope identified the need for greater security on his website to guard against attacks from "young Americans". The controversies surrounding the Catholic Church and religion in general means the Vatican website has set itself up as a target for hacktivists - a recent phenomenon of protestors who deface websites and plot cyber attacks to make a political or social statement. Virus writers, hacker and crackers will also no doubt be keen to add the scalp of the Vatican to their lists of conquests but to date the site has yet to report a successful attack according to Archbishop Claudio Celli, the Vatican's spokesman. While most people were discussing the Y2K bug, the religious significance of the year 2000 brought the Pope's own millennium problem. He was forced to open a call centre to deal with the huge increase in enquiries from Pilgrim's visiting the Vatican during the year. However, the Pope's relationship with technology has not always been a happy one. In 1998 he voiced his scepticism, warning that technology is sucking people into a maelstrom of information - leaving no room for humanity.