For just A$9.95 a week Australia’s five million Catholics can get an IBM computer which they will eventually own, complete with software and carefully controlled internet access. Launching the new service in the crypt of St Mary’s Cathedral, Sydney Auxiliary Bishop Peter Ingham said in addition to making the communications age accessible to Catholics, it was also a way of building links with the church’s educational, health, welfare and religious interests.
People who sign up will get daily prayers and religious news and for Catholic teachers and students, there will be chat rooms and health information – all within a Catholic context. Catholic telecommunications director Father Michael Kelly, who is working on delivering 40 days of emailed prayers and meditation for Lent, warned some things had to be an actual experience. There would be no on-line confessions, for example, he said. The Catholic package comes with filtering software which can restrict users to safe sites.
