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The Vatican Lauds Hackers

angry tapir writes "Internet hackers have acquired a dubious reputation for piracy, sabotage and the spilling of sensitive secrets, but an authoritative Vatican publication appears to rehabilitate them and traces parallels between hacker philosophy and the teachings of Christianity. The charitable view of hackers was expressed by the Jesuit priest Father Antonio Spadaro in an article for the fortnightly magazine Civilta Cattolica, the text of which is vetted by the Vatican Secretariat of State prior to publication. Hackers should not be confused with crackers, Spadaro wrote, citing a definition penned by technology writer Eric S. Raymond: "Hackers build things, crackers break them.""

2 of 375 comments (clear)

  1. Re:After all ... by Tom · · Score: 0, Troll

    Still, I'm pleased to see that the Catholic Church is not virulently anti-Internet,

    Of course not! After all, as our politicians tells us all the time, the Internet is great for finding child porn.

    --
    Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
  2. Just a thought. by ipquickly · · Score: 0, Troll

    Judging from (almost) all the comments thus-far.

    I'm glad that we (techies) aren't running the world.

    We, collectively are SO FULL OF SHIT.

    It's sad that when someone mentions anything to do with the Catholic church, the first thoughts are not related to how much it has helped people.

    The Catholic church is one of the most scientific religions out there.
    The idea that faith and reason both are needed is one of it's fundamental tenets.