The Internet and the Catholic Church

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This essay addresses the question: Does more harm than good come from the internet? And the answer is sought from the largest Christian denomination (one billion members) - the Catholic Church. There is no condemnation of the internet by this church body; rather the Vatican, official voice of the Catholic Church, maintains that the internet is "not a threat"(Church).

Calling the Internet an opportunity and a challenge and not a threat, the Vatican issued two documents encouraging the church to embrace the technology and help guide it to benefit all humanity. The documents said the Internet's interactive nature could help the church achieve the vision of communication between its members, moving away from the one-way, top-down communication of the past.

Among practical responses to potential ethical and social problems related to the Internet, the documents recommended more industry self-regulation, a voluntary church "certification" of sites that call themselves Catholic, and careful supervision of children's Web surfing(Ethics).

The two 27-page documents, "Ethics in Internet" -- a reflection on ethical issues -- and "The Church and Internet" -- an assessment of online pastoral opportunities -- were released at a Vatican press conference. The documents were prepared by the Pontifical Council for Social Communications. Russell Shaw, a U.S. journalist who serves on the council, headed the drafting process.

The Internet ethics document emphasized the technology's tremendous power and opportunities, saying it could help bring together every person on the planet in a "world governed by justice and peace and love"(Ethics) "Today it takes no great stretch of the imagination to e...

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... Internet than their elders, it said good parenting might require adults to improve their Internet fluency. The fundamental parental duty here is to help children become discriminating, responsible Internet users and not addicts of the Internet, neglecting contact with their peers and with nature itself.

It recommended that parents install filtering technology in computers that are available to children "to protect them as much as possible from pornography, sexual predators and other threats"(Church).

WORKS CITED:

Church and the Internet http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/pccs/index.htm.

Ethics in Internet

http://authors.va.mondosearch.com/cgi-bin/MsmFind.exe?CFGNAME=MssFind.cfg&QUERY=ethics+in+internet&EN=X&FR=X&DE=X&IT=X&PT=X&ES=X&NO_DL=X

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