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April 20, 2005

The New Pope's Unauthorized Domain Name

http://www.benedictxvi.com/ was registered on April 1, nearly three weeks before the world knew the chosen name of the newest pope. Was this an act of divine premonition, or was it something more sinister?

Actually, the domain name was registered by a Florida writer. If you try it, you will find his blog, which is getting 100 hits a minute.

Before you think he's psychic, he also registered ClementXV.com, InnocentXIV.com, LeoXIV.com, PaulVII.com and PiusXII.com. He would have registered JohnPaulIII.com and JohnXXIV.com, but they were already taken.

He's a good Catholic, so it's unlikely he will extort the church for the website. In fact, he said "If I didn't do it, someone less reputable would."

My source for this story was Picking the Pope's Domain Name on Wired News.

UPDATE: 4/22/05: Another pope inspired preditor predator is selling the e-mail address popebenedictxvi@hotmail.it (claiming the "Holy Hotmail account" is a "truly divine way to stay in touch with friends"). The pope's real address is benedictxvi@vatican.va for english speakers.

The article Papal e-mail address goes on sale also claims that "A Canadian seller has a starting price of $100,000 for popebenedictxvi.com."

By the way, the official website for the pope is www.vatican.va.

Posted by Melody Wirz at 08:55 AM.
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