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The Vatican Lauds Hackers

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the papal-soldering-gun dept.

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.""

4 of 375 comments (clear)

  1. Hackers=christians?? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Hackers are more like heretics. Trying to uncover the hidden truths. The church has a long history of trying to hide the truth.

    1. Re:Hackers=christians?? by characterZer0 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The church has a long history of trying to hide the truth.

      The Catholic Church as a religious organization has a long history of trying to find and understand the truth, theologically. The Catholic Church as a political organization, as with any political organization, has a long history of trying to hide the truth of the politics of the church. In these writings, the comparison is made to the former, not the latter.

      --
      Go green: turn off your refrigerator.
  2. Apocalypse by Talderas · · Score: 5, Insightful

    So the Vatican gets the difference between hacker and cracker before the general populace...

    We have entered the beginning of the end.

    --
    "Lack of speed can be overcome. In the worst case by patience." --Znork
  3. After all ... by PPH · · Score: 5, Funny

    ... Jesus Christ hacked Christianity out of Judaism.

    And Martin Luther wrote the open source version.

    --
    Have gnu, will travel.