Yesterday the international group of hackers known as Anonymous claimed responsibility for taking down the Vatican’s website for several hours. The group – which was behind cyber-attacks earlier this year on the US Department of Justice, the FBI, and the Motion Picture Association of America, among others – has said that the move against the Vatican was in protest against Catholic teachings and practices. From CNA:
An entry on the blog of Anonymous Italy said the attack was in response to the “doctrines, liturgies and the absurd and anachronistic precepts” that the Church spreads worldwide. It cited the sexual abuse of children, various historical and alleged misdeeds, and Church “interference” in Italian daily life and public policy as motives for the digital assault.
The hackers also objected to the Catholic stance against abortion and contraceptives.
They claimed the attack was not on the Christian religion or the Christian faithful but targeted the “corrupt Roman Apostolic Church.”
Over at Patheos’ new religion-and-technology blog, God and the Machine, Thomas L. McDonald describes the cyber-attack: “The most powerful, feared, super-skilled hakerz in the whole wide world managed to mildly inconvenience some people for a few hours while calling attention to their childish grasp of history and reality.”
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