September 20, 1995
From Correspondent Norma Quarles
VATICAN CITY (CNN) -- Almost as a preview to Pope John Paul II's visit to the United States, the Roman Catholic Church is making its debut on the Internet. The Catholic Church wants to spread its message to the world from cyberspace. Check out their home page on the World Wide Web.
James Mulholland is the editor-in-chief of the site, called Catholic Information Center on the Internet or CICI. CICI puts the church's faith and teachings on-line and offers continuous coverage of the upcoming papal visit to the United States.
Mulholland says that CICI has something a little different to
offer those interested in the Catholic faith. He says that one
of its most important functions is to allow those not in the
church, including people in the media and academia, to get
information directly, without interpretation or distortion.
The church acknowledges that its use of cyberspace technology is a major leap forward. Monsignor Eugene Clark says that access to the millions on the 'Net is what sparked the church's interest. "If we spoke in church, we'd have 300 people. If you spoke on radio at 2 in the morning, you had hundreds of thousands of people listening. This is almost the completion of being able to reach almost everybody in the 21st century."
People of many faiths, including Protestants, Jews, Buddhists and Hindus, have already made the technological leap onto the Internet. The Catholic Church is playing catch-up and not everyone has learned the computer lingo. At first it isn't easy, trying to figure out the difference between the Web, the Net, and a few thousand other terms that litter the superhighway and make up its own language.
And what can users expect to find on the CICI home page? There's
a directory of doctors who oppose abortion, and chapters from Pope
John Paul II's best-selling book are available. "We'll have a
live forum titled 'Issues and Facts' which will enable home page
visitors to discuss current issues such as natural family
planning, contraception, abortion , the death penalty, marriage
and divorce, evolution and creation ... and other issues,"
Mulholland says.
Peter Awn, a professor of religion at Columbia University, sees the Catholic Web site as a public relations opportunity. "I tend to think it is going to try to reinforce traditional Roman Catholic doctrine, pro-life (activism). As we get close to an election now, the Internet could be enormously effective in mobilizing people for particular issues."
Awn says that while he believes that for the most part, the Vatican's service will be speaking to the converted, he thinks it will be successful, especially in reaching the computer savvy young people.
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