The morning after Bergoglio was elected Pope, he
ran to a shop and purchased a white iPad which he immediately called
“iPapapad” and was given to Francis on the morning of 16 March, at the
end of the Pope’s audience with journalists.
48-year-old Mgr. Lucio
Adrian Ruiz, from Santa Fe, Argentina, has been working as the head of
the Vatican Internet Service since 1997. He is basically the Pope’s
webmaster.
He served the Congregation for the Clergy for a number of
years, building the www.clerus.org
website and looking after the technical side of teleconferences – a
sort of theological forum which brought together theology experts from
all around the world around the same table in one morning.
As of 2009
Ruiz has been Head Office of the Vatican Internet Service and
telecommunications department and is in charge of the Vatican’s entire
web service.
“We are like a border agency,” the Pope’s webmaster
said. We are the part of the chain that has to provide the technology
and support necessary for the Pope’s message, teachings and gestures to
get to the furthermost corner of the world. In a way, we are the arms,
legs and digital voice of the Pope. But we are not the only ones
ensuring the Pope’s active online presence, we are a big family, which
includes the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, the Press
Office, the Vatican Television Centre, Vatican Radio and the Vatican
newspaper L’Osservatore Romano. Communication is carefully
studied, thought out, prepared and produced, in the awareness that this
family is assisting the Pope in his Petrine ministry.”
What is your work all about exactly?
“We deal with the technological, planning and
engineering and creation of the Holy See’s websites and other Internet
services with the domain “.va”, a top-level domain which is equivalent
to national domains. There are thirty of these today, but at least ten
others are currently being prepared.
The ones with the most followers,
which generate the most traffic, are the institutional websites www.vatican.va
Then there are the websites of the various
dicasteries and those built for special recurrentevents, for example, www.annusfidei.va
How long has the Vatican been present on the web?
“The Vatican has been online since Christmas 1995, when
John Paul II’s Urbi et Orbi message was published. But it got the
current form and structure in 1997. Interestingly, the Church in general
and especially the Vatican, has been there since the early days of the
web! The Church jumped on the bandwagon straight away and immediately
became a part of the cultural transformation the Internet was bringing
about. And it is continuing to do so today by using social networks.
Just as it once did through paining, architecture and music, the Church
is now taking part in and creating culture with the evangelisation, via
the Internet.”
Where is your office located and how many people work there?
“We are a small office comprising about thirty people,
but highly motivated in our collaboration with the Holy Father and our
service to the universal Church. It is a great, challenging feeling to
know that our work reaches the whole world, all continents, countries
and people who want to know about the Pope’s teaching! For now our
offices are located in Via della Conciliazione 1, but once work is
finished we will move to another office above the Vatican post office.
The information systems department has been located inside the Vatican
since 1995.”
What are the main challenges you face?
“One big challenge is managing to get the Pope’s
teachings, his messages and love across in a technological format.
Creating a “real meeting” space online is no easy task. Another
challenge is that all tasks involve engineers, technicians and various
other internal professional figures. This is great but it is very
challenging, it requires a great deal of dedication and involves
constant updating. As I said though, we are one big family and together
with other Vatican bodies we try to make the most of this cultural
moment and keep in step with the times. But there's also another
challenge: taking the situations of different countries across the world
into consideration. For example, all countries must have access to our
contents, even countries that do not have broadband or where technology
is not very advanced yet. So we can't go over the top with technology
without taking the poor into consideration. They also need to have
access to the Pope's teachings and feel his love!”
Are you in charge of the content?
“No, the Secretariat of State and the Roman Curia's
various dicasteries are responsible for the rich content published
across the various media. We take care of one part of this “communional
chain”, that is, designing, dealing with the technological aspects and
putting all Pope-related content online. We are also responsible for
producing past Popes' speeches and addresses in digital format, a task
which requires a great deal of patience and dedication. Our dream is to
make all key papal documents available online, but this will take some
time... The volume of translated content has also increased.”
What about the number of visits to the websites?
“These have been going up and up in recent years and
particularly since Francis was elected Pope. There are peaks (millions
of visits) during certain events or when the Pope goes on visits. For
example, when John Paul II was beatified, more than twelve million
people accessed our websites over the course of two days. Photos and
messages are very popular. Lots of people search for the words
pronounced by the Pope.”
Where do most of the internet surfers accessing your websites reside?
“Most visitors are from the US, Italy, Spain, Germany
and Brazil, followed by South Korea, Mexico, Canada, France and China.
Internet traffic reaches its peak between 3 pm and midnight CET.”
Do you also manage the e-mail service? Does the Pope have a public e-mail address?
“We do also deal with e-mail, yes. But Popes have only
been assigned e-mail addresses for special events, for example John Paul
II had one for the Jubilee of Priests. Interactive chats are not being
considered. The letter is still the preferred format of delivery for the
Holy Father's personal messages...”
How are you doing in terms of hacker attacks?
“Working in the digital world means thinking about security on a
daily basis. We have to deal with this, just as any other important
entity that is present on the web does. It is a physiological presence
but our efforts are focused on providing a service and on how we can
best get messages across. For the rest everything's normal, just like
when someone's walking down the street and has to pay attention...
Anyone who forms part of the Internet world needs tp pay attention to
security, privacy, etc. Let's say that original sin can also emerge in
the digital world.
How has your work changed now that Francis is Pope?
“Francis likes to be close to people, he attracts people and is very
mediagenic. Just look at the photos of him with other people; these are
messages of love and hope in themselves. Just look at how many more
people are attending the General Audiences and the Angelus prayer. This
increased physical presence goes hand in hand with an increased virtual
presence: more and more people search for videos of the Pope's messages
and download texts and photos. Pope Francis uses strong words that reach
deep into all our hearts. Website visitor numbers have gone up by alot!
We've had to make the system ten times more powerful in the past year
and twenty times more powerful during the Conclave.”
The Pope has more than ten million followers on Twitter...
“Pope Francis uses such beautiful and powerful expressions and these
are very effective on Twitter. I once told him: “Holy Father, you're a
“digital Pope”, your closeness, your words and your love speak the
language of today's digital culture. And I really meant what I said; you
can see it from the flow of messages and images on the Internet.
Twitter is like a short digital prayer that accompanies God's people
every day...it's nice to feel the Pope so close on our daily journeys.”