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July 8, 2009 3:00 PM PDT

Pope gets a Sony HandyCam

by Matt Hickey
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Here! Now I'm all good with the Big Guy, right?

(Credit: Sony Insider)

So let's say you're a type of head of state, a prime minister. And you're going around Europe on a tour of the G8 nations. And you're Roman Catholic. Why not stop by the Vatican and give the pope a Sony camcorder?

That's what Taro Aso, prime minister of Japan and a member of Japan's tiny Roman Catholic minority, did Tuesday. According to Sony Insider, the product appears to be an HDR-XR500V HandyCam. They're good consumer models and a great papal gift.

We're wondering if Il Papa will actually use the thing, and if so, what he'll shoot. Secret rites? Classified Vatican secrets? His clearly gold-plated bathtub? No, he's likely going to be making YouTube videos. In HD.

December 23, 2008 6:50 AM PST

Vatican endorses iPhone prayer app

by Candace Lombardi
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(Credit: iBreviary)

Doing any last-minute holiday shopping for that religious yet tech-savvy someone in your life?

On Monday, the Vatican formally endorsed an iPhone application that allows users to load the Breviary prayer book, prayers for saying a Catholic Mass, and other prayers.

The application, called iBreviary, was created by Rev. Paolo Padrini and Web designer Dimitri Giani. It's available for purchase in Europe, and in the U.S. at Apple's App Store for 99 cents with free upgrades planned. Languages included in the U.S. version are Italian and English.

The Catholic Church is "learning to use the new technologies primarily as a tool or as a mean of evangelizing, as a way of being able to share its own message with the world," Monsignor Paul Tighe, secretary of the Vatican's Pontifical Council for Social Communications, told the Associated Press.

If you read Italian (or are handy with translation software) you can read more about the iBreviary application on Dimitri Giani's Web site.

While the Catholic Church may still be lagging behind on several social and political issues, Pope Benedict XVI's attempts to modernize his organization's communications and reach out to youth through technology are widely known.

Last December the Vatican issued 10 driving commandments which ruffled some feathers at Ferrari.

The Pope is even down with using acronyms in his text messages, famously signing a mobile text sent to gatherers at last year's Catholic youth day rally in Sydney, Australia with "BXVI."

October 28, 2008 10:13 AM PDT

Vatican gives its blessing to gadget evangelism

by Erica Ogg
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Cross MP3 player (Credit: Chinavision)

More than 500 years after Johannes Gutenberg produced the first Bible with a movable type press, the Vatican has deemed the printed word no longer sufficient as the only way to spread The Word.

At a gathering of Catholic bishops this month, church officials said that the Bible should be available in all relevant forms of communication in today's Digital Age.

Besides printed text, "The voice of the divine word must also resonate over the radio, Internet channels with virtual online distribution, CDs, DVDs, iPods, and on television and cinema screens," an official statement read.

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