Pope: Internet 'wonderful' but needs regulating

[Gauracandra]

Pope: Internet 'wonderful' but needs regulating

January 22, 2002 Posted: 11:09 AM EST (1609 GMT)

 

"Public authorities surely have a responsibility to guarantee that this marvelous instrument serves the common good and does not become a source of harm," the pope said in a message.

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) -- The Internet caters to the best and worst of human nature and needs regulation to stop depravity flooding cyberspace, Pope John Paul II said Tuesday.

 

The 81-year-old pontiff, who last year sent his first message over the Internet, praised it as a "wonderful instrument" that should be used to spread the word of God and encourage global peace.

 

However, he warned that while it offered access to immense knowledge, the Internet did not necessarily provide wisdom and could easily be perverted to demean human dignity.

 

"Despite its enormous potential for good, some of the degrading and damaging ways the Internet can be used are already obvious to all," the pope said in a message prepared for World Communications Day.

 

"Public authorities surely have a responsibility to guarantee that this marvelous instrument serves the common good and does not become a source of harm," he added.

 

Although the pope does not have an e-mail address, the Vatican has an active Web site (http://www.vatican.va) and the church is reportedly searching for a patron saint of Internet users.

 

The question of regulation has inflamed passions since the Internet sprang to prominence in the 1990s, with enthusiasts arguing cyberspace should not be stymied by national boundaries or rules.

 

The pope warned that not only did the Internet allow the spread of depraved material, it could also lead people to believe that facts mattered more than values.

 

'Danger and promise'

"The Internet offers extensive knowledge, but it does not teach values and when values are disregarded, our very humanity is demeaned," he said, adding that the system focused people's attention on an "almost unending flood of information."

 

"Yet human beings have a vital need for time and inner quiet to ponder and examine life and its mysteries," he said. "Understanding and wisdom are the fruit of a contemplative eye upon the world, and do not come from a mere accumulation of facts, no matter how interesting."

 

He said the Catholic Church had adapted to every discovery through the ages, from the Renaissance to the invention of printing and the Industrial Revolution, and must now learn to reach the masses via cyberspace.

 

"Like the new frontiers of other times, this one too is full of the interplay of danger and promise," he said.

 

"For the church the new world of cyberspace is a summons to the great adventure of using its potential to proclaim the Gospel message."

 

In his first message sent to the world directly over the Internet last November, the pope apologized to victims of sexual abuse by priests and other clergy.