"Puffs of smoke, speeches in Latin and multipage encyclicans have all been used by the Vatican to communicate with the faithful. Now the pope is trying to broaden his audience by joining wannabe musicians, college pranksters and water-skiing squirrels on Youtube.

 

In his inaugural YouTube Forray Friday, Pope Benedict XVI welcomed viewers to this "great family that knows no borders" and said he hoped they would "feel involved in this great dialogue of truth". "Today is a day that writes two new pages in history for the Holy See," Vatican Radio said in describing the launch of the site www.youtube.com/vatican

 

The Vatican said that with the Youtube channel, it hoped to broaden and unite the pontiff's audience - an estimated 1.4 billion people are online worldwide - while giving the Holy See better control over the pope's internet image. The pontiff joins President Barack Obama, who launced an official White House channel on his inauguration day, as well as Queen Elizabeth, who went online with her royal Youtube channel in December 2007. For the Vatican, it was the latest effort to keep up to speed with the rapidly changing field of communication and new media for a 2,000-year-old institution known for being very set in its ways, it was something of a revolution.

 

At the same time, though, the pope warned he wasn't embracing virtual communication without some reservation. In his annual message for World Day of Communication, Benedict praised as a "gift to humanity" the benefit of social networking sites such as Facebook and Myspace in forging friendship and understanding. But he also warned that virtual socializing has its risks, saying 'obsessive' online networking could isolate people from real social interaction and broaden the the digital divide by further marginalizing people and he urged producers of the new media to ensure content respected human dignity and the "goodness and intimacy of human sexuality"... ...

 

What is significant about the Youtube initiative, he said, was that "it's a way of communicating the church's message beyond the walls of the church" ... ... A search of "Pope Benedict XVI" Friday turned up videos of fake pope dancing and juggling and images of the real Benedict doctored to show him dressed as a superhero, Darth Vader or Yoda. While there is little the Vatican can do legally to shut down blasphemous or pornographic sites, Celli said it can help control the content of what it puts on its own channel.

 

"We just want to put the image at the disposition of the public in the correct way," said Vatican spokesperson Rev. Federico Lombardi. He said no money exchange were used to launch the channel and the Vatican wouldn't earn anything with the publicity. He said for now there were limited plans to use Youtube's interactive options, saying the Vatican would receive messages but not respond to them. The Vatican will update the Youtube site daily with papal news items produced by the Vatican television station CTV and Vatican Radio. They will be translated into Italian, German, English and Spanish." - CBS

just what we need.... some idiot spreading more untruths in the name of truth.

 

the human race will not, can not, evolve whilst we shackle ourselves with the yolk of religion. but far from the human race ditching religion, things i suspect will get more and more polarised until there IS a huge religious war...

:rofl: Oh dear.

 

I agree. Its bad enough i got people coming up to me saying that if "i dont join jesus then i will go to hell" on the streets but now its on the net?! If its for catholics to watch back speeches (which i doubt) then fine. Otherwise....

If people join the catholic church its by choice. Your not gonna get anymore members by deluding people with bull. The bible is being taken well out of context. I am a catholic myself and i do not agree with the way its being taught. I do not see why the pope should have something against giving out condoms to people in africa so that AIDS does not spread. Sure its "going against Gods will" to have children and bring them up as catholics but isnt just as wrong to not prevent from AIDS spreading???

:rofl: Oh dear.

 

I agree. Its bad enough i got people coming up to me saying that if "i dont join jesus then i will go to hell" on the streets but now its on the net?! If its for catholics to watch back speeches (which i doubt) then fine. Otherwise....

If people join the catholic church its by choice. Your not gonna get anymore members by deluding people with bull. The bible is being taken well out of context. I am a catholic myself and i do not agree with the way its being taught. I do not see why the pope should have something against giving out condoms to people in africa so that AIDS does not spread. Sure its "going against Gods will" to have children and bring them up as catholics but isnt just as wrong to not prevent from AIDS spreading???

 

taking it to its logical conclusion... if its against gods will to wear condoms, wouldnt the wearing of clothes also be under the same criteria? :lol:

Seems like a pretty lame attempt to be "down with the kids" if you ask me..... :lol: Besides, isn't YouTube a bit 'passe' these days....? Aren't the "cool kids" doing Social Networking/Facebook/Bebo/Myspace/blogs, etc....... :P

 

I'd love to see what the Pope's blog would be like...... :lol: :lol: :lol:

 

In all seriousness though, I agree with Rob on this issue.....

just what we need.... some idiot spreading more untruths in the name of truth.

 

the human race will not, can not, evolve whilst we shackle ourselves with the yolk of religion. but far from the human race ditching religion, things i suspect will get more and more polarised until there IS a huge religious war...

That would be one of the worst things to happen. One example of a situation is the middle east, they can't sort it out, never will be sorted out. Doesn't help when you've got countries like us and the U.S. sticking noses in to. One big religious war would be catastrophic.

 

The Pope is a total nob to. I don't care if I offend religious believers, the Pope is a fake. :lol: No man has contact with a god. Especially one that doesn't exist.

I wonder if the Pope would allow comments to his videos?

I wonder if the Pope would allow comments to his videos?

 

I had the same question. There are a lot of atheists on the net these days, coalescing in unusual places like facebook, reddit.com and other user-generated fora. Though it's not an atheist group, the "Anonymous" group's campaign against Scientology shows that even online groups can cause a stir.

 

It's probably only a matter of time before the Pope's youtube is hacked :lol:

The Pope is a total nob to. I don't care if I offend religious believers, the Pope is a fake. :lol: No man has contact with a god. Especially one that doesn't exist.

 

And Catholics believe he's infallible!

 

I've often wondered which is worse... Catholics believe they don't know/understand God's will so they rely on priests/Popes to determine it. Protestants believe anyone and everyone can decide what they think about it. One is so very undemocratic but can "force" people to be good (in theory)... the other one places the decision in the hands of the individual (sounds lovely), but opens the door for absurd interpretations to suit one's own preconceived world view.

 

In the end, of course, Rob's comment in this thread is true.

the human race will not, can not, evolve whilst we shackle ourselves with the yolk of religion. but far from the human race ditching religion, things i suspect will get more and more polarised until there IS a huge religious war...

 

Interesting. I was listening to an Israeli academic a few weeks back who used the same argument to justify the war in Gaza. He claimed that when tensions simmer for years, it's like a pressure cooker, they need to be released via war. The goal of war is, in the end, eventual peace. So once the war is finally done, people have gotten it out of their systems and peace will come.

 

Not that I buy a word of it but someone might! But I digress...

taking it to its logical conclusion... if its against gods will to wear condoms, wouldnt the wearing of clothes also be under the same criteria? :lol:

 

Perhaps I’m beating a dead horse by continuing to post in this threat, but I have ONE more point to add.

 

The Catholic church, pre Vatican II, officially claimed that life began when the brain was formed in the fetus. But in the 60s after the Vatican II Council, the church declared that life actually begins at the MOMENT of conception. Thus justifying the restriction on contraception in the decades following.

 

Onward the church marches BACKWARD...

Edited January 28, 200916 yr by Consie

Perhaps I’m beating a dead horse by continuing to post in this threat, but I have ONE more point to add.

 

The Catholic church, pre Vatican II, officially claimed that life began when the brain was formed in the fetus. But in the 60s after the Vatican II Council, the church declared that life actually begins at the MOMENT of conception. Thus justifying the restriction on contraception in the decades following.

 

Onward the church marches BACKWARD...

 

please post what you want, im only talking from my knowlege base which if needs to be updated may change my stance on things...it has happened before! lol

 

tbh i dont get it.... so what if life begins at the moment of conception? thats still post coitus! so using a condom or even the pill doesnt kill life, it just prevents it starting...

so what if life begins at the moment of conception? thats still post coitus! so using a condom or even the pill doesnt kill life, it just prevents it starting...

 

Exactly....

 

At the end of the day though, I still think that until the moment it's born, the foetus is still something of a parasite using the mother as a host.... So, Abortion up to 24 weeks is not really a problem in my eyes.. Obviously it is better for people to use sensible birth control options such as the Pill, and especially condoms given the fact of STIs, particularly when it's one night stands you're talking about....

 

The Catholic Church want us all to be scared of sex though... Just because that lot in the Vatican give it up, they expect the rest of us to do so, they even refer to sex as procreation as "original sin"... JESUS, they are so fukked up, ridiculous, stupid, ignorant people who expect us all to live our lives feeling guilty for following perfectly natural urges, ie, enjoying perfectly CONSENTUAL sex whether it be straight or gay..... Then they cover up the real sins these fukkin paedophile priests commit on innocent kids..... <_< Hypocrisy, thy name is The Vatican..... :rolleyes:

 

 

 

So once the war is finally done, people have gotten it out of their systems and peace will come.

 

Not that I buy a word of it but someone might! But I digress...

 

Me neither mate... We had The Crusades in the 12th Century, I'd hardly say that got it "out of our system"..... Because then we had the Spanish Inquisition, "Witch" burnings, the Bosnian Serb Catholics murdering thousands of Bosnian Muslims..... It's never gonna end as long as we have this totally fukked up belief system which just creates divisions by its very design.... The Jews, Christians and Muslims are basically just arguing about the same bloody thing, they all worship the same God, but they cant agree on the semantics or the detail.... The Devil really IS in the detail here..... :rolleyes: If "Satan" really exists, he's loving all this sh!t, because the likes of the Pope, Bin Laden, the US and the Israelis are all in reality just doing his work.....

Exactly....

 

At the end of the day though, I still think that until the moment it's born, the foetus is still something of a parasite using the mother as a host.... So, Abortion up to 24 weeks is not really a problem in my eyes.. Obviously it is better for people to use sensible birth control options such as the Pill, and especially condoms given the fact of STIs, particularly when it's one night stands you're talking about....

 

The Catholic Church want us all to be scared of sex though... Just because that lot in the Vatican give it up, they expect the rest of us to do so, they even refer to sex as procreation as "original sin"... JESUS, they are so fukked up, ridiculous, stupid, ignorant people who expect us all to live our lives feeling guilty for following perfectly natural urges, ie, enjoying perfectly CONSENTUAL sex whether it be straight or gay..... Then they cover up the real sins these fukkin paedophile priests commit on innocent kids..... <_< Hypocrisy, thy name is The Vatican..... :rolleyes:

Soo true. People who are overreligious and it really can p*** you off when they label you by what you do, meanwhile they're the ones playing the lottory and sleeping around behind their 'perfect spiritual life'. I'm not athiest but for the church to judge you before judging themselves isn't spiritual or religious in anyway, IMO. A person doesn't have to go to church or a mosque to prove how religious they are, and yet thats what people base it on. That just scares people away, really, a church is supposed to be a place where everyones equal before God or whatever, where people support each other if they had an abortion or starred in a porn movie. That's their choice and everyone has to make wrong choices at some time (that's if abortion ends up being a bad choice) but really the whole 'holy/perfect' thing is going completely overboard.

There is lots people don't know about the royal Pope but I guess that's what makes him this role model in the religion world. . Apparently his channel gets a million plus views every day, so the 'online message' maybe isn't such a bad thing. . I think it's a step forward for promoting religion, better promoting than what the 'perfect' and hypocritical church people do these days. .

There is lots people don't know about the royal Pope but I guess that's what makes him this role model in the religion world. . Apparently his channel gets a million plus views every day, so the 'online message' maybe isn't such a bad thing. . I think it's a step forward for promoting religion, better promoting than what the 'perfect' and hypocritical church people do these days. .

Well, if they're promoting false teachings then we are more doomed. <_<

So promoting a religion in which it is false makes people sick to the stomach...

Edited January 29, 200916 yr by funmaker11

I'm agnostic, and I disagree with most things the Church does. I asked somebody "Do you like discussing your sins with child molesters?". I wasn't trying to be cheeky, I honestly wanted to see how they think it's justified. I got a response which worried me slightly: "Not all of them are like that..." :mellow: So, they know that some are, but they still let themselves and possibly their future children be put at risk?

 

There was a priest in this village I used to live near. He used to come into the pub and start yelling at everybody about how they are sinners and how they're going to hell. It turned out he had a child in America with a girl he slept with one night. He had the cheek to preach his arse off when he was the one who committed a "sin".

 

 

 

 

 

I'm agnostic, and I disagree with most things the Church does. I asked somebody "Do you like discussing your sins with child molesters?". I wasn't trying to be cheeky, I honestly wanted to see how they think it's justified. I got a response which worried me slightly: "Not all of them are like that..." :mellow: So, they know that some are, but they still let themselves and possibly their future children be put at risk?

 

There was a priest in this village I used to live near. He used to come into the pub and start yelling at everybody about how they are sinners and how they're going to hell. It turned out he had a child in America with a girl he slept with one night. He had the cheek to preach his arse off when he was the one who committed a "sin".

That's why we don't believe and listen to those so-called religious freaks.

That priest should be expelled. <_<

Edited January 29, 200916 yr by funmaker11

That's why we don't believe and listen to those so-called religious freaks.

That priest should be expelled. <_<

 

:D!

 

I'd have so much more respect for the religion if it wasn't "run" by a bunch of twatwaffles.

Me neither mate... We had The Crusades in the 12th Century, I'd hardly say that got it "out of our system"..... Because then we had the Spanish Inquisition, "Witch" burnings, the Bosnian Serb Catholics murdering thousands of Bosnian Muslims..... It's never gonna end as long as we have this totally fukked up belief system which just creates divisions by its very design.... The Jews, Christians and Muslims are basically just arguing about the same bloody thing, they all worship the same God, but they cant agree on the semantics or the detail.... The Devil really IS in the detail here..... :rolleyes: If "Satan" really exists, he's loving all this sh!t, because the likes of the Pope, Bin Laden, the US and the Israelis are all in reality just doing his work.....

Totally true, ever since the churches 'great schism' it's been one argument after the other, and the things they actually go to war for is ridiculous. I'd say that a lot of the arguments back in 10AD (or whatever it was) was the fact that a group actually decided for a leader who has special contact with a god, but what god? :lol: This being created by men, yet millions have died over centuries for it. -_-