Vatican 2.0: Jesuits in Second Life

Having braved the deserts of Africa, spread the gospel in the jungles of South America and sent missionaries to the far east and wild west for over five centuries, Jesuits realised there was still one unexplored land left to evangelize.

So it was perhaps unsurprising that earlier this year the official Italian Jesuit review Civilta’ Cattolica published an article presenting Second Life as fertile ground for missionaries and urged readers to weigh the pros and cons of cyberspace’s virtual world. “We came to the conclusion that it would not be a mistake for Jesuits to be present as well, to help people not to fall into pseudo-religious traps,” Father Michel Simone, deputy editor of La Civilta’ Cattolica, told journalists.

Second Life is neither a website, nor a game; it is a virtual world where one can buy territory with linden dollars - Second Life’s currency - build a house, museum, brothel or any other edifice, shop until you drop, make money trading goods or build a reputation as a poet, philosopher, drunk or businessman. Second Life is a place where residents, known as avatars, can meet each other and discuss everything under the sun - politics, philosophy, gardening or illicit sex.

Some have quickly understood how to take advantage of Second Life for their own ends: several candidates in the French presidential election built their campaign headquarters there. Toyota has offered residents the chance to test its new car. L’Oreal has organised the election of ‘Miss l’Oréal Glamour’ among its virtual voters. And Jean-Paul Gaultier recently launched his new fragrance ‘Les Fleurs du Male’ in Second Life.

Surfing the web, some more tech-savvy Jesuits soon came to the realisation that not all Second Life’s residents were treading the Lord’s path. They understood that “Second Life is not simply a closed phenomenon. It is a real living environment that every day extends its frontiers and increases the number of residents”. The article continues: “We cannot close our eyes to it. It must be understood, and this is especially true for people with educational responsibilities. There are young people, fragile people, facing the seduction of simulated life, the best way to understand it is to enter into it. Therefore any initiative which can help the souls of residents should be considered positive”.

Jesuits also observed that “Second Life is becoming populated with churches, mosques, temples, cathedrals, synagogues places of prayer of all kind. And behind an avatar, there is a man or a woman, perhaps searching God and faith, perhaps with very strong spiritual needs.” Tom Boellstorff, a professor at the State University of California, spent three years studying religions on Second Life. He says he indeed observed a boom of religious communities and discovered “the Jewish island where one can convert oneself in one click”.

Religious presence on Second Life is not new. Nicolas Barrial, aka Nick Rhodes (his avatar’s name) entered Second Life in 2003. At that time he was one of the first French to enter this virtual world. The very first day he entered Second Life, he says he met someone who told him about God. “Maybe he had the feeling it could be a good place to meet people and talk about one’s faith or open up to other people’s beliefs. So we had a chat… you know Second Life is above all a place of communication,” he says.

Some sussed it years ago, but it was only this summer that the Jesuit order – which was founded in 1534 and has been at the forefront of Catholic thinking ever since, officially declared that “the digital land can also be considered a new land of mission”. The day the article was published, the Vatican said it would back the project “with enthusiasm”. Archbishop Claudio Maria Celli, president of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications at the Vatican said he considered the idea “positive” and “interesting.” “The Church considers the internet a vast world where we want to be present and where we are already present”. Mgr Celli said he would think about creating a Vatican island on Second Life in the future.

Nicolas Barrial seems to share his enthusiasm: “Absolutely, it would be possible to create the Vatican on Second Life, and it would be a very interesting project to build. There are many talented artists in Second Life who would be more than happy to work on it. Many kinds of structures and architectures have already been reproduced.” Indeed, Swedish psychiatrist Mohammed Youssif Widhe has created a virtual mosque – a replica of Cordoba’s Great Mosque in Spain. Today, more than 150 believers frequent it and, like in a real mosque, visitors are asked to take their shoes off at the entrance, wash their hands once inside and women are asked to wear the veil.

Barrial also recounts how he has been invited to many weddings on Second Life. “Once I was invited to a Jewish wedding. My friend had built the synagogue, and the ceremony and the rituals where exactly the same as in the real life. But of course these unions are not officially recognised. But I’ve also been to other weddings of different confessions, and I discovered things I would never have seen in the real life.”

Nowadays, for some, religion goes with fundamentalism. No wonder then that the Jesuits declarations have provoked a storm of controversy. In the United States, some even fear that Second Life could be used as a training place for terrorists groups like Al Qaeda. But in the end, Second Life still remains a quite quiet place, which makes a change from the real world. Barrial explains: “You know on the internet, there is always someone who behaves in the wrong way. But as soon as you are the owner of an island, you can impose your rules. So if we imagine the Vatican, moderators would be like Swiss guards - if one comes into the Vatican with bad spirits, Swiss guards can kick him out.”

In the peaceful and paradisiacal Second Life, one can choose who one wants to be: the person one is in real life, or someone else. But surprisingly, no one has chosen to be the Pope. Barrial says everyone is free to dress his avatar as he likes but that it wouldn’t be so convenient to travel across virtual territories in a mitre, crimson waistcoat and white papal robes.