A Second Vatican Web Site
Deep inside the Vatican, a white-haired nun dressed in a brown habit opens the door to a room full of computers. The whirring machines hold some of the mysteries of the Holy See, including photographs of the Vatican Secret Archives and of ancient illustrated manuscripts. No, this isn't a movie trailer for The Da Vinci Code. Our guide is Sister Judith Zoebelein, the editorial director of the Internet Office of the Holy See. She's showing off a small but potent Vatican data center, which bristles with servers and other high-tech gear.
It's no secret that the Vatican has a fantastic Web site. It brims with fine art and practical information about the Catholic Church. The site, www.vatican.va, which comes in six languages, was even nominated for a prestigious Webby Award a few years back. But little is known about the woman who is behind it. Sister Judith, a 57-year-old American, grew up in a middle-class household in the Hamptons on the eastern tip of Long Island. She and a handful of colleagues were Internet pioneers when, in 1995, they launched the Vatican Web site. Since then, she has greatly expanded the site, including images of art from the Vatican Museums, a powerful search engine, and videos of restoration projects.
Now Sister Judith is creating a second Vatican Web site, set for launch in the fall, that is aimed at bringing together the faithful so they can interact. Think of it as MySpace.com (NWS ) for Catholics. There will be personal news updates, e-learning programs, and areas set aside for families, young people, and parishes. Collaboration is key, and that should differentiate the site from others in its genre. "People will be able to find each other and work together online, and then go back and use what they have learned or done in their own communities," says Sister Judith.
MySpace for Catholics is an unfortunate phrase considering all the stories recently of perverts and sexual abusers hanging out at MySpace looking for victims. That aside I wonder if at the Vatican they call the position Web Servant instead of Web Master? It will be interesting to see what Sister Judith comes up with. Though of course I have poked fun at the Vatican's website before.
Known as 
Funny you should wonder about the title. Web Servant is what my husband has titled himself on our parish homepage which he maintains.
Julie,
That's my title at our parish site also. :)
You good guys are all humble servants ...
Vatican MySpace? Just what the Church needs, another outlet for predator priests to molest kids.
That would be so cool! My nieces and nephews aren't allowed to have a MySpace account, but they'd like a webpage or something similar that can be monitored for content. The Vatican site would probably have the advantage of not having the annoying pop-up ads that are on family-friendly sites. (Although Jeff could probably think of some really cool pop-up ads... hint, hint!)
It sounds like a good idea to have a single, reliable source to unify Catholics on the internet.
I wish Sr. Judith would first fix the organization of the first Vatican website because it's rather difficult to find certain documents sometimes.
I think the fear people hold for websites like MySpace are kind of silly. Sure there are sexual predators on Myspace, but there are also sexual predators monitoring blogs, in chat rooms, on message boards, etc..etc... They're not limited to myspace.
Websites like myspace are not the problem, but rather parents who are not closely supervising their children seem to me to be the problem.
the Vatican website is very beautiful, and exceptionally difficult to navigate. They should drop the art and use buttons etc