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Link to original content: https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/library/tech/98/04/cyber/articles/08catholic.html
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April 8, 1998
For Bishops, Net Is Tool - Both Useful and Worrisome
By MATT RICHTEL
ierre DuMaine uses a Macintosh at work and one at home. He is conversant in e-mail, surfs the Internet, is known to telecommute. In short, he is the picture of the Silicon Valley worker.
He does not, however, fit the more staid image of his chosen profession: DuMaine is a Roman Catholic bishop serving Santa Clara County, the heart of Silicon Valley. "Some days, my office isn't even sure where I am working," joked the 66-year-old bishop, who telecommutes between his home and office in San Jose, Calif.
But he does represent the direction the Catholic Church is heading -- albeit with caution, even trepidation. Seven cardinals and 50 bishops, including Bishop DuMaine, have recently returned from Denver, where two weeks ago they participated in the church's first conference on information technology. It was an experience that Bishop DuMaine said at once reinforced the group's desire to fully use technology, but also touched on deep and important issues for the church.
Illustration: Nicole Schooley
The attending bishops, cardinals and representatives of the Vatican said the technology revolution invokes pressing philosophical and moral questions down to such basic issues how to create a church intranet and what resolution to make the images on the Vatican Library's Web site. They concluded that technology can be a powerful tool for the church.
And the conference brought back some painful memories, too. As the church debates how best to integrate the latest technology, it is reminded of a failed foray into television, the Catholic Telecommunications Network of America. Church sources say the effort, which spanned from 1982 to 1994, cost the church $30 million and was a mistake the church doesn't want to repeat. Indeed, Bishop DuMaine, who has been an ardent advocate of using technology within the church, said that one of the key lessons of the Denver conference is "caution."
"There are complexities, hazards, cost appropriateness," DuMaine said. "This is a very powerful tool we have to put to work."
The initial flurry of news from the conference centered on the morality of the Internet, thanks to some austere warnings from Leo Hindery, president of Telecommunications Inc., the world's largest cable TV company. Hindery called the Internet "one of the greatest threats to morality and decency that we face today." He showed the assembled clergy images from at least one pornographic Web site.
Hindery's words in particular touched off a discussion about whether the Internet poses an entirely new set of moral questions or merely repackages existing issues in a widely accessible medium. Bishop DuMaine said the feelings of the conferees was that the issues — like pornography — are not new, but merely that their scope has broadened. He, and other conferees, said the message of the day was carried by Neil Postman, chairman of New York University's department of culture and communications.
"I doubt that the 21st century will pose for us problems that are more stunning, disorienting, or complex than those we faced in this century, or the 19th, 18th, 17th, or, for that matter, many of the centuries before that," Postman said.
Bishop DuMaine added that while ethical issues might not have changed, the Internet has in some ways made them more glaring. "It's a matter of scope and scale we haven't talked about before," he said. But he added that the overwhelming feeling after the conference was positive. "We are very enthusiastic, and we just need to be very focused."
Bishop DuMaine is not necessarily the most tech savvy of the Roman Catholic bishops and cardinals, nor does he hold himself out to be. In fact, the Denver conference showcased some of the church officials who have taken a lead on the issue. Among those in attendance in Denver, for example, was Cardinal Dario Castrillon, who is a member of Pope John Paul II's cabinet, and who is developing an international online version of the Vatican Library. Cardinal Castrillon also is the patron of a program called Riall, a several year old attempt to connect Latin American dioceses by computer network.
The Vatican already has a Web site, as do numerous dioceses, including the San Jose Diocese and the San Francisco Archdiocese.
On the flip side, there were several bishops at the conference, including at least one from the United States, who don't even have a basic working knowledge of the Internet, said Francis X. Maier, special assistant to Denver Archbishop Charles J. Schaput, who sponsored the conference. Maier said the conference had an ambitious lesson to teach the bishops: "We wanted to get them to understand this technology is not just another iteration of TV," Maier said. "This will have as profound an impact as the printing press."
ishop DuMaine's interest in technology is not new. In the 1960's, he was among the best and the brightest in the church who came up with the concept of using local television stations to communicate and create programming within individual dioceses.
It is an idea that since has spread far and wide. Shirley Connolly, general manager of the Catholic Telemedia Network, a Menlo Park, Calif.-based operation that serves three Bay Area dioceses, said the network concept helped solidify Bishop DuMaine's reputation as one of the U.S. bishops with a vision for the use of technology in general.
Indeed, if there is one message DuMaine advocates regarding the Internet, it is that it, like other information technology, is a tool. A tool for education. For internal communication. For evangelizing.
That said, Bishop DuMaine offers some words of caution about the Internet, particularly when it comes to relying upon the networks to replace personal contact. He seems worried that technology could be used to take the wrong kind of shortcuts. "There can be no cyber-sacraments," DuMaine said. "You can't anoint e-mail and you can't eat and drink Cyberspace."
Bishop DuMaine said he also worries that technology is creating another layer of haves and have-nots: those with computers and computer literacy and those without it. He said he hopes that as technology becomes less expensive, the gap will become more narrow, but that viewpoint wasn't necessarily validated in Denver.
"I raised the question with Esther Dyson," Bishop DuMaine said. "She didn't buy it."
Bishop DuMaine will have an audience with Pope John Paul II in September. Asked if he will raise technology issues with the Pope, Bishop DuMaine said it will likely take a back seat to raising more general social issues, including poverty, education, immigration and the income gap.
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Matt Richtel at mrichtel@nytimes.com welcomes your comments and suggestions.
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