VATICAN CITY — The Vatican took a giant step into the electronic age Jan. 15 — with a major reservation. Italians can now receive a papal thought for the day on their cell phones, but they still have to go to church to make their confessions.
The Italian TIM cell phone firm is now offering a daily thought from Pope John Paul II to Italian clients who can send and receive text messages, and plans are under way for wider dissemination of the service, developed by the international ACOTEL wireless service provider.
For a charge of .15 euros (about 16 cents) a day, TIM will transmit a brief excerpt from a papal message, speech or teaching chosen by the Vatican Press Office. It is also offering the press office's daily news bulletins by text or by Web-accessible messaging to accredited journalists.
The developments fit in with the strong endorsement the pope and his Pontifical Council for Social Communications have given in recent years to the use of the Internet to spread the gospel.
But another Vatican office, the venerable Apostolic Penitentiary, told bishops late last year they must not accept online or telephone confessions. Penitents must confess in person in a church, face-to face with a priest, it said.
The penitentiary, which dates from the 12th century, is an internal tribunal that issues decisions on questions of conscience, absolutions, dispensions and commutations and acts on nondoctrinal matters pertaining to indulgences.
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