The Council of the Bishops' Conferences of Europe (CEEM) has convened the conference, which includes Internet experts, bishops, a young Swiss hacker and an Interpol cyber-crime official. Of late, Pope Benedikt has been making efforts to update the Church's approach to the Internet, launching a YouTube channel earlier this year.

The cathedral of the 21st century must be built on the Internet, said CEEM President Bishop Jean-Michel di Falco in his opening address at the symposium. The Church must engage with new media, he said, or it risks cutting itself off from a major part of many people's lives.

The Catholic Church has experienced first-hand the downside of the globalized, instantaneous sharing that can take place on the Internet when it faced a wave of criticism for the Vatican's lifting of the excommunication of Holocaust-denier Richard Williamson.

According to di Falco, the Church can better communicate its mission if it takes a more active role in its portrayal through new media. "Media often reduce the Church to the pope and a few cardinals. Even more reason to give bishops, priests and lay people a space on the Internet," he said.

hf/AP/KNA
Editor: Susan Houlton