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Pope John Paul II goes online this Easter
But don't expect virtual confessions on Vatican's Web site
March 24, 1997
Web posted at: 4:23 p.m. EST (2123 GMT)VATICAN CITY (CNN) -- Pope John Paul II may still write out his speeches in longhand, but as of Easter Sunday the Holy Father will officially be aboard the information superhighway.
After more than a year of tests, the Vatican unveiled its World Wide Web site Monday. The full version of the site (www.vatican.va) will go up next Sunday, which is Easter.
Powering the Vatican's Web site are three computers, which have been given the angelic names Raphael, Michael and Gabriel.
"A little extra protection always helps," explained Sister Judith Zoebelein, an American nun who has been coordinating the project.
The Vatican's site will offer access to more than 1,200 Catholic Church documents and papal speeches in English, French, German, Spanish, Portuguese and Italian. More languages will be added later. Catholics who have questions about doctrine will be directed to the information they need.
Within the next year, Vatican officials say the site will be expanded to offer interactive images of treasures from the Vatican's museums and archives, as well as sound bites from Vatican Radio.
The pope, who has no personal computer in his office and writes his speeches by pen in Polish, was "fascinated" by the project, says Archbishop Claudio Celli, head of the department responsible for the site.
"The pope asked many questions about the project. He is a man of culture and dialogue," Celli says. "The technical aspects are as strange to him as they are to me, but he understands the Internet's potential to promote dialogue."
And, apparently, its potential to reach the masses: During a one-month experimental period last year, a scaled-down version of the Vatican's Web site received nearly 1.5 million "hits."
However, the pope won't have a personal e-mail address. And no virtual confessions will be allowed.
The information superhighway, it seems, still stops at the thick velvet curtain of the confessional box.
Reuters contributed to this report.
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