vatican

Porn piracy tracked to computers in Vatican City

Even the residents of Vatican City need to be entertained, but are they pirating porn?

The blog TorrentFreak recently compiled a report alleging that computers located in Vatican City are downloading pornography. A recent tale of Irish priests enjoying first-run hits at their home movie nights piqued the blog's interest to see what the residents of Vatican City have been downloading.

TorrentFreak recruited the help of ScanEye, a Web site that tracks and analyzes this type of online activity. ScanEye's data found that computers inside Vatican City were downloading films like "Love Actually" and TV shows … Read more

The 404 1,244: Where we take a spa day (podcast)

Leaked from today's 404 episode:

- Microsoft may announce the next generation of Xbox on May 21.

- Chinese people burn Apple products to pay respect to the dead; Americans do it just because.

- Here's a list of porn currently being watched in the Vatican.

- The season finale of "Alf": could it have been done differently?… Read more

Pope's tweets dissolved

The Catholic Church is one of the few remaining organizations that believes in absolutes.

Sometimes, though, this gives an impression of harshness.

No sooner had the pope bid farewell to his flock than his tweets were summarily removed from Twitter. Pope Benedict XVI officially left office today.

It's true that last week the Vatican announced that Pope Benedict XVI's last tweet would be on February 27.

Yet to see the @Pointifex account deserted feels a little severe.

Currently, the account is open, but is marked simply with the words "Sede Vacante," the Latin for "vacant … Read more

#askpontifex meme takes off before pope's first tweet

Pope Benedict XVI has signed up for Twitter, and though the pontiff has yet to bestow his first tweet upon us, he's racked up nearly half a million followers.

He is also already facing a backlog of questions -- ranging from sincere to raunchy -- from the faithful and the not-so-faithful alike.

Twitter made the announcement Monday that the pope's personal Twitter handle was live and that Vatican City's most famous resident would be taking questions via the #askpontifex hashtag, some of which will be answered by the pontiff himself during a live tweeting session on December 12.… Read more

Vatican: Anonymous hacked us again

The Vatican has confirmed a second attack against its Web site by the Anonymous hacking group, and an infiltration of its radio database.

"There was a second attack we are aware of directed against the [Vatican IP] address," said a Vatican spokesman today. "[Concerning] Vatican Radio, a database on an old server was accessed. Thirty percent of the information on the server was so outdated it was of no use."

Anonymous claimed to have hacked Vatican Radio in protest against the Vatican Radio allegedly using "repeaters with power transmission largely outside the bounds of the … Read more

Tweet Jesus! Pope starts tweeting on iPad

If you believe the Pope is God's rep on Earth, you can now get the word from above in 140 characters or less.

Pope Benedict XVI has joined the masses on Twitter, using the microblogging service for the first time yesterday.

"Dear Friends, I just launched News.va. Praised be our Lord Jesus Christ! With my prayers and blessings, Benedictus XVI," the pontiff tweeted.

The new Vatican portal brings together various print and broadcast news streams into one site.

The tweet is part of the Holy See's campaign to proselytize online. Although the Vatican wasn't crazy about a confession app that came out recently, it previously endorsed an iPhone prayer app.

It has also joined Facebook and YouTube in an effort to connect with younger, digitally savvy generations. The Vatican's English-language Twitter feed has nearly 50,000 followers. … Read more

The 404 795: Where we're shutting down for the weekend (podcast)

Two Natali Morris appearances in one week? It must be Friday. She joins us for the first half of today's episode, where we discuss today's top stories in tech and culture, including new terror alerts coming to Facebook and Twitter, a Vatican magazine that says hackers are doing God's work, a study linking physical pain to social rejection, and "LOL" earning its place in the English Oxford Dictionary.

The 404 Digest for Episode 795

The impact of a government shutdown. Terror alerts make their way to Facebook and Twitter networks. Vatican magazine compares hackers to the work of God. Scientists at Columbia link physical pain with social rejection. Laughing out loud all the way to the English Oxford Dictionary.

Episode 795 Subscribe in iTunes (audio) | Subscribe in iTunes (video) | Subscribe in RSS Audio | Subscribe in RSS Video… Read more

Vatican: No, you can't confess to your iPhone

Some may call it the "Jesus Phone," but the Vatican is seeking to remind the faithful that there are limits to mixing the sacraments with technology--even when it comes to the iPhone.

A new application for the iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch that lists sins to be taken to the confessional earned a cautionary warning from the Vatican today. Actually, it wasn't so much the app getting a rebuke as it was the hype that accompanied it.

When it debuted earlier in the month, the $1.99 application, Confession: A Roman Catholic App, was described as preparation for Catholic confession and the ''perfect aid for every penitent."

Users create password-protected profiles and then go through a series of soul-searching questions related to the Ten Commandments. The app displays sins along with a written act of contrition for the penitent. It also lets users log "custom sins" and create "custom examinations of conscience."

Prayers stored in the app include such classics as the Lord's Prayer, the Apostles' Creed, and Hail Mary.

After Kevin Rhodes of the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend in Indiana gave the app an imprimatur, the story turned viral, with some articles referring to the app as a "virtual priest." But in a statement put out by the Vatican, Father Federico Lombardi was quoted reminding Catholics that absolution requires a personal dialogue between penitents and the confessor. … Read more

Pope asks priests to become more Web savvy

The pope is asking priests to become more media savvy by preaching to the faithful from the Internet as well as the pulpit.

In his message for the Catholic Church's 2010 World Day for Social Communications, Pope Benedict XVI called on the ministry to use the latest technologies, such as Web sites and blogs, to preach the gospel and encourage a dialogue with their practitioners.

Scheduled for May 16, the theme of the World Day will be "The Priest and Pastoral Ministry in a Digital World: New Media at the Service of the Word." In his message … Read more