Xt3

+ Cardinal George Pell, Archbishop of Sydney
22 Jun 2008

Ten days ago Xt3 was launched at the Telstra Experience Centre in the Sydney C.B.D.

This online social networking site was put together by John and Robert Toone from the U.K. and is sponsored by the Sydney World Youth Day.  In effect it is like a Catholic Facebook.

It will revolutionize the way young Christians will follow their religious interests and share their enthusiasms with the like-minded, or those who are simply curious.  Already young people are organizing their social life and travel, keeping in contact with their friends and exploring career options through the internet, even for priesthood.

The immense volume of traffic indicates the potential influence of this medium for good or ill.  Many will be surprised to discover the two topics which provoke the most use of the internet: pornography and religion.

On reflection we should not find this too surprising because an interest in pornography is never advertised publicly and many, especially from a non-religious background, are reluctant to admit publicly to an interest in religion.

Xt3, a virtual world for communication, evangelization and networking, already has 10,000 users with the numbers growing steadily even before the World Youth Day, when all registered pilgrims will be invited to join at www.xt3.com

450 people have joined the “ask a Priest” group, while we have 100 young volunteers online to assist in welcoming and building this virtual community.  And 200 kind people, mostly young, have asked to be my friends!  The network will evolve to meet the interests of its young users.

Would Christ use the internet if he was alive today as 2000 years ago he had to teach in a world without even a microphone, a newspaper or a radio?

I am sure he would, because God gave clever people the intelligence to develop modern technology.

The Vatican was the first State with its own radio station, inaugurated by Pope Pius XI and Marconi and the first country to put all its documents on the net.  Technology can be abused but it is good in itself, a blessing.

The brief history of the internet, which has its origin in the U.S.A. in 1973, is like the history of transport with several threads and significant developments at different stages.

Before the World Wide Web was trialed in Switzerland in 1990 at the CERN laboratories, a huge research facility, the internet was useful for accessing and even exchanging information, but it was limited, inflexible, and confined to a few users.

Various technical developments were important, such as the invention of the mouse, but the breakthrough came in 1993 when the CERN’s directors declared www technology would be free.  No fees.

By the end of 1994 a million browser copies were in use and by 1998, 750,000 commercial sites existed on the world wide web.  The field is wide open.

The devil need not have the best lines, nor the best sites.