We bought the domain name Vaticano.org and made a copy of the official website of the Holy See. The new website was visually identical to the official one, but contained minor yet significant changes concealed among the sacred texts, that allowed us to satirise and correct the identity of the Holy See, by exalting free love, soft drugs, and online activism.
From the moment Vaticano.org went online – the night of December 10th 1998 – a huge stream of visitors poured into the spoof website, spending thousands of hours reading edited texts featuring heretic proclamations, invented words, unpardonable errors and songs by teeny-bopper-bands. «Quite a big stir – wrote journalist Sofia Basso – was caused by the declaration in favour of abortion, free sex and drug legalisation, all added between the lines of papal encyclicals, accurately quoted».
From the website it was also possible to send emails to all the members of the ecclesiastic system, including the Pope. The editorial team, which included an expert in theology, worked full time to answer all emails, facing the biggest theological questions and correcting the Church opinions on topical issues. The Pope absolved any sinner via email in “a Free Spirit Jubilee”.
«The Vatican itself – reported by the press agency Zenit – has been taken by surprise by the developments. The office responsible for the Vatican’s media affairs registered the name www.vatican.va in 1996, even though it had no plans to launch its own site at the time. Archbishop John Foley, the head of the media office, says: “I thought that by registering the name www.vatican.va we had every angle covered. But, unfortunately, that is not the case”».
With more than 4 million hits and 200.000 visitors, Vaticano.org became one of the first and most successful examples of creative online activism.
