No Longer For Scholars' Eyes Only
17 December 2002

Martin Luther, the father of the Lutheran Church, was branded a heretic by fellow Catholics when he nailed his "95 Theses" to the door of Wittenburg Castle Church in 1517.

But nearly five centuries later, the Vatican is doing its part to distribute writings by Luther worldwide on the Internet.

As part of its recently expanded Web offerings, the Catholic Church is giving the public its first glimpse of numerous historic documents from the Vatican's Apostolic Library, including Luther's handwritten letters and translations of Æsop's Fables into German.

Over the past 18 months, the Vatican has been working closely with technology giant Hewlett-Packard on a project to bring the Vatican's historic archives to the Web. HP is providing the Vatican with the wherewithal -- namely, hardware, services and Internet consulting -- free of charge to make it happen.

Visitors to the website can view such resources as photographed pages from papyrus Bibles and a selection of rare illuminated manuscripts.

On Sunday, the site made collections from the Vatican Museums, as well as virtual tours of the Sistine Chapel and the Raphael Room, available online. Next year, the site's Secret Archives section will display rare documents such as treaties between the church and different governments.

The Vatican has had a website since 1995, but some of its archives became available to scholars through an FTP service as early as 1985. Rare artifacts and manuscripts were off limits to all but the academic community, until now.

"We're not just focusing on scholarship," said Sister Judith, technical director of the Internet office of the Holy See. "A good website should reach people who know nothing about the church as well as meet the needs of people who do."

That particular mission comes at an opportune time, as the church attempts to repair its reputation amid a spate of sexual abuse scandals involving priests.

In November, U.S. bishops passed a motion to set up clergy-run courts to review future abuse cases. In addition, lay Catholics were given unprecedented power to monitor the bishops' promise to remove all abusers from active ministry. The groups will also work to prevent future cases.

Didier Phillippe, chairman of EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Asia), HP's board for philanthropy and education, said the recent scandals didn't influence his company's decision to donate its services to the project.

"We are simply offering public access to great art," he said. "We try to be totally agnostic. The Vatican project is not a church project –- it's a museum project."

He said the company supports many public access projects for museums and educational establishments worldwide, and working with the Vatican is no different than, for example, HP's relationship with the Jewish Museum in Berlin.

As far as HP is concerned, the main sticking point about working with the Vatican is one of time management. In Silicon Valley, postponing a meeting or delaying delivery can cost you a client, but when you're on Vatican time, there's always tomorrow.

"We have all had to adapt to a change of pace," Phillippe said. "While we're thinking in terms of deadlines, they have eternity in front of them, so nothing is ever late."

Copyright Wired Digital Inc.