WHO would have expected the Pope to express simply and clearly a sensible summary of the Internet's place in society?

But that's exactly what has happened.

In a Papal document released last week, His Holiness compared the Internet to a Roman forum, a new concept but a particularly apt one.

The Pope's message says: "The Internet is certainly a new forum understood in the ancient Roman sense of that public space, where politics and business were transacted, where religious duties were fulfilled, where much of the social life of the city took place, and where the best and the worst of human nature was on display."

That's not too bad a description of the Internet.

How refreshing to see a religious body celebrating and embracing the Internet so positively.

The Pope's article is one of the most thoughtful and well-reasoned critiques of the modern Internet that I have seen for some time.

It acknowledges that younger people, the future of any religion, not just Catholicism, put great emphasis on the Internet - so to survive in the long term, the church must do the same.

If you want to read the whole thing, go to http://makeashorterlink.com/?M3DE212E