Vatican warns against 'libertarian' internet

By Bruce Johnston and Luke Coppen
FIVE months after the Pope hailed the internet as a "great vehicle of evangelisation", the Vatican is preparing a new document warning against abuses of the new media.
Archbishop John Foley, president of the Pontifical Council for Communications, said this week that although the internet was a "marvellous instrument for evangelisation and pastoral service", it could not be used to hear confessions. The reason, he said, was that confession had to "always be carried out in its sacramental context of personal contact".
He said: The internet offers the Church the chance to render the message of salvation through Christ accessible to the entire world.
"In societies that do not permit the presence of priests, nuns, or religious or lay missionaries, the internet can offer to people embarking on a spiritual quest, or to the simply curious, a chance to get information or to gain inspiration that otherwise would be impossible."
But the internet was not all good news, however. Among the problems which Archbishop Foley outlined were the "invasion of privacy and the distribution of pornographic material" These were forms of "dependency" widespread among the young, who "often spend hours in front of their computer screens in search of endless distraction".
The new Vatican document on internet ethics is likely to include a discussion the problem of pornography, but it will also consider the implications of the so-called "digital divide" between rich industrialised nations and developing countries.
Members of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications discussed a draft outline of the document in March. No deadline has been set for its completion.
Russell Shaw, an American journalist, who presented the draft outline, said he expected 23 the document to take a positive approach to the internet, recognising it as "a technological marvel which has the capacity for doing a lot of good". Mr Shaw said the internet raised much more profound ethical questions than most people
realised. In many ways, he said, the internet's de-centralised design lent itself to a "libertarian ethic", which advocates absolute freedom of expression and action.
"The Church for a long time has been talking about community, the common good and solidarity. There's no room for these things in a system of absolute libertarianism or absolute freedom of expression," he said.
The bishops' conference of the United States was the first in the world to issue detailed guidance for Catholics on the use of the internet. In June last year, it issued a 16-point checklist of "safe internet use tips" for families.
These included ensuring that Internet access was in a public area of the house; advising children never to give out personal information; focus on the good sites available and encouraging children to bring anything questionable to an adult's attention.