The Internet has arrived full and center at the Vatican. Pope Benedict XVI is daring to go where no other Pontiff has gone -- to YouTube and Google.
The
Vatican issued a "Pontifical Council for Social Communications" called, "The Church and Internet" in February of 2002.
"A longstanding interest in the media of social communication: Seeing the media as an outcome of the historical scientific process by which humankind advances further and further in the discovery of the resources and values contained in the whole of creation, the Church often has declared her conviction that they are, in the words of the Second Vatican Council, marvellous technical inventions that already do much to meet human needs and may yet do even more."
So it makes perfect sense that now, the Vatican is not only getting its own YouTube channel, but it will also acquire a video channel on Google. On the video-sharing site
YouTube, the Catholic faithful as well as the curious will be able to watch Pope Benedict XVI pontificate at various church events. The Vatican's press office says texts and video of the pope's speeches as well as news about the pontiff will be posted directly onto the channel.
The entire deal will be presented Friday at a press conference to be attended by Vatican officials, along with Henrique de Castro, the managing director of media solutions for Google, which owns YouTube.
Since the Vatican opened up its website in 1995, under the late Pope John Paul II, this is its deepest plunge into new media. The new collaboration will involve Google, the Vatican Television Center and Vatican Radio.
