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Vatican Joins YouTube Society

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The Associated Press

The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 24, 2009

VATICAN CITY - Puffs of smoke, speeches in Latin and multipage encyclicals have all been used by the Vatican to communicate with the faithful.

Now the pope is trying to broaden his audience by joining the wannabe musicians, college pranksters and water-skiing squirrels on YouTube.

In his inaugural YouTube foray Friday, Benedict 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 a new page 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 launched an official White House channel on 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 communications and new media. For a 2,000-year-old institution known for being very set in its ways, it was something of a revolution.

In his annual message for the World Day of Communication, Benedict praised as a "gift to humanity" the benefits of social-networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace in forging friendships and understanding.

But he also warned that virtual socializing had its risks, saying "obsessive" online networking could isolate people from real social interaction.

Nazi-Era Reprints Seized

BERLIN - Justice officials in the southern German state of Bavaria have ordered reprints of a Nazi-era newspaper seized pending an investigation into whether they violate copyrights and laws banning Nazi symbols.

Bavaria's justice ministry says the reproductions of the Voelkische Beobachter that appeared in a publication called Zeitungszeugen are not allowed. It ordered all copies removed from circulation Friday.

German law prohibits reproduction of Nazi symbols except for education or research.

Bavaria holds the rights to the Voelkische Beobachter and other Nazi publications, including Adolf Hitler's "Mein Kampf."

Zeitungszeugen publishers insist the reproductions are legal because they include commentary and analysis by historians.

Move To Rehab Bishop Opposed

Rome's chief rabbi has asked the Vatican to halt reported plans by Pope Benedict XVI to rehabilitate an ultraconservative bishop who denies the Holocaust.

Richard Williamson says in a Swedish state TV interview that historical evidence "is hugely against 6 million Jews having been deliberately gassed."

Rabbi Ricardo Di Segni says it is "inconceivable" the pope didn't know Williamson's views.

Two newspapers reported Thursday that Benedict will lift the excommunications of Williamson and three other bishops consecrated by the late French ultraconservative Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre.

Lefebvre had rebelled against reforms of the 1960s. Those who followed him were expelled.

The Vatican declined to comment.

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