Google, YouTube and Vatican Unite to Create PopeTube

The Pope is entering the digital age with Google at his right hand side, creating the Vatican’s own Youtube channel. Christianity was last at the cutting edge of information technology back in the 13th century, when the holy words went through Gutenberg’s printing press to mass publication. The Vatican’s modernity remained stagnant for centuries until 1995 when it launched its first website. This changed last Saturday when it announced that it will be heading into Web 2.0 with ‘Pope-tube’, which will bring news of the pontiff, as well as video and text of his speeches, through partnerships with Google, the Vatican Television Centre and Vatican Radio.

You can seek religious sanctuary with the click of a button and have Pope Benedict XVI himself on your own glowing computer monitor: salvation in a box. Catholics may question placing their religious figurehead on the Internet along with the mass collection of pornography and other sinful items floating around, but the Archbishop Claudio Maria Celli, head of the Vatican’s Department of Social Communications, said it, “creates new conditions and possibilities for mankind to use and apply this resource for the common good, placing it at the foundation of a widespread cultural growth”.

But Benedict has some competition from Christian.com, which rips off the interface of MySpace and the colour scheme of Facebook to create another God-fearing networking site. When you enter the site you’re greeted by pictures of men and women under the headings “the men who serve him” and “the women who serve him”. You can even do some browsing through the singles who “serve him”. Or IM that special Christian single you discover, check out podcasts, prayers, videos, forums and even look for friends lost in the wilderness. Christian.com website pretty much has every platform covered so it’s no wonder the Vatican felt the need to step up their technological game.

God even has a website called GodTube, founded by Dallas pastors Christopher Wyatt and Dr. Mike Miller a social networking site where users can express their faith in God through watching videos, video blogging, chatrooms, posting prayers, reading the bible online, or indulging in some homemade Christian hip-hop freestyling.

So are religious groups going too far by transforming their ancient messages into mere kitsch sideshows, or is the Internet just a new tool for religious groups to preach to their followers with? Can religion and the Internet be friends? And is Christianity finally down with the kids? Based on the evidence of this video from GodTube, the answer would seem to be a resounding ‘yes’.

Posted by Trista Orchard in Creative Economy | January 21, 2009 1:35PM |