ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, April 27, 1996 TAG: 9604290087
SECTION: RELIGION PAGE: A-5 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: VATICAN CITY
SOURCE: DANIEL J. WAKIN ASSOCIATED PRESS
With much fanfare, one of the world's most traditionalist institutions - the Vatican - jumped aboard the ultracontemporary Internet last year.
But now the pope's solemn words mingle with a cacophony of dissident Roman Catholic voices, including gay activists, leftist Latin American clerics and even a liberal French bishop punished by John Paul II himself.
The battle over the pope's authority has flooded into cyberspace, with all sides treasuring the belief that the Internet preaches right to the heart.
For dissidents, it challenges the authority of Rome and allows fast circulation of information and coordination of efforts. For conservatives, it allows an end run around what many of them consider liberal-dominated diocesan administrations.
Hundreds of Catholic sites are on the Web - Irish women seeking the priesthood, Jesuits in Australia, a ``married priests'' page, a support group for victims of clerical child abuse, a page devoted to the Virgin Mary, plus scores of parishes, national bishops conferences, seminaries and Catholic schools.
The Holy See has seized on the Internet as another forum for this most media-savvy pope to disseminate his message to the world.
The Vatican site began with the pope's Christmas homily and, in the two weeks that followed, more than 2 million ``hits'' were recorded, papal spokesman Joaquin Navarro said. For now, the site remains experimental, containing a small summary of the pope's activities and one or two of his homilies at a time.
But a new computer to furnish the Web site arrived at the Vatican on March 21, and the Vatican is considering using new software by a group of Benedictine monks in the New Mexican desert.
By May, all the pope's encyclicals, the daily bulletin of his doings and all his speeches should be accessible. Slowly, important past documents will be added.
Updates won't be difficult, Navarro said, because the pope's speeches and writings already are placed on computer disk for use by the Vatican's press office, newspaper and printing service. He points out that the site will provide the entire texts for readers, unfiltered by the news media.
``What is the objective? To offer a large database of all the activity of the Holy See, of all the activity of the Holy Father, and all the documents of this pontificate,'' Navarro said in an interview.
``We put the possibility to (the pope), and he said go ahead,'' Navarro said. But John Paul, who writes his texts longhand in Polish, doesn't log on, the spokesman said.
Navarro dismissed any thoughts that the sanctity of the pontifical image would be compromised on a system where mouse clicks can lead a browser quickly from papal pronouncements to pornography.
``You can enter the Library of Congress and read about anything from Mickey Mouse to the private life of Marilyn Monroe to the Constitution of the United States,'' he said. ``You can choose.''
The Vatican does face challenges to its authority on the Internet.
One liberal list has been used to push for a U.S. petition drive modeled on movements that produced a million signatures in Germany and 500,000 in Austria asking for changes in Church policy, including allowing women priests and an end to priestly celibacy.
Paul Halsall, who runs a ``radical Catholic'' and a gay and lesbian site, cites a parallel with dissidents in authoritarian countries who use the Internet to bypass controls on information.
``I get all sorts of messages saying, `Thank God I've found an island of sanity,' '' said Halsall, a Fordham University graduate student in history.
The highest-profile Church liberal on the Net is the Rev. Jacques Gaillot, who last year was removed by John Paul as bishop of Evreux, a diocese outside of Paris, for challenging Church positions on abortion, contraception and homosexuality. It was an unusually harsh measure.
Gaillot answered back by creating a ``virtual'' diocese - a Web pulpit from which he continues to preach.
``I'm trying to make this diocese exist,'' he said in a telephone interview from Paris. That involves answering electronic messages and issuing a monthly letter of his thoughts.
The Internet will become a force in Catholicism ``because it's a media that is going to impose itself on the planet,'' Gaillot said.
LENGTH: Medium: 82 lines ILLUSTRATION: GRAPHIC: Chart: Roman Catholics online.by CNB