Wednesday, as I attempted to link to several Vatican web pages in my “Contraception Inception Deception” blog post, I repeatedly received error messages that the site was unavailable. Little did I know that the Vatican was under attack. Cyber-attack, that is.
Catholic News Agency/EWTN reports that a loose-knit group of hackers known as “Anonymous” attacked and brought down the Vatican website on March 7.
According to an entry on the “Anonymous” Italy blog site, the attack was in response to the “doctrines, liturgies and the absurd and anachronistic precepts” that the Church spreads worldwide, citing the sexual abuse of children, and various historical and other alleged misdeeds. The hackers also objected to the Catholic stance against abortion and contraceptives.
It wasn’t their first attack.
In August 2011, Anonymous tried, unsuccessfully, to take down the World Youth Day website during the event. The hackers recruited others using YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook. At the time, they similarly cited clergy sexual abuse and the practice of confession as their motives.
This February, the New York Times profiled the tactics of the hacktivist group known as “Anonymous,” and their attack on the Vatican.
According to that article, the group searched for vulnerabilities on a Vatican website and when that failed they enlisted amateur recruits to flood the site with traffic, hoping it would crash.
Imperva, a U.S.-based computer security firm, provided details of the 25-day attack in their report (which does not directly identify the Vatican as the target).
That attack, called “Operation Pharisee” was organized by hackers in South America and Mexico before spreading to other countries. It was timed to coincide with Pope Benedict XVI’s visit to Madrid in August 2011 for World Youth Day. The hackers tried to take down the website created to handle registrations for the event.
Anonymous enlisted as many as a thousand people to download attack software, or directed them to custom-built Web sites that let them participate using their cellphones. Visiting a particular Web address caused the phones to instantly start flooding the target website with hundreds of data requests each second, with no special software required, the report says. The hactivists claimed that their efforts resulted in denial-of-service, slowed the web site’s performance, and made pages unavailable in several countries. Six of the hackers, including their ringleader, were indicted this Tuesday, the Times reported.
Read again the hackers’ motives for their attack: the “doctrines, liturgies, and… precepts” of the Church. The Church’s stance against abortion and contraceptives, and the practice of the Sacrament of Confession.
As I approach the 17th anniversary of my conversion to the Catholic Church, I am reminded of something I told my wife at the time. “If so many individuals, organizations and institutions are that opposed to the Church and her teachings, she must be right. She has existed and withstood them all for the past 2,000 years.”
It’s an idea which G.K. Chesterton illustrates in his book “The Thing.”
Chesterton says that “all roads lead to Rome.” Writes Chesterton, about his wrestling with the Church, “…the thing [thing meaning the Church] is pursued age after age by an unreasonable hatred that is perpetually changing its reason. …it led me at last to the only logical answer, which every fact of life now confirms; that the thing is hated, as nothing else is hated, simply because it is, in the exact sense of the popular phrase, like nothing on earth.”
Later, writes Chesteron, “A study of the true historical cases commonly shows us the spirit of the age going wrong, and the Catholics at least relatively going right. It is a mind surviving a hundred moods.”
“Anonymous” and its minions hate the Church. They think they know why, though most of the amateur hacktivists probably hate what they think the Church represents, rather than what it really represents – love, mercy, and forgiveness.
The forces of doom, of chaos, of destruction, and death are in full array against those of hope, of order, of creation, and life. The hacktivists, whether they recognize it or not, see that the Catholic Church is one of the few, and only, institutions left that opposes every perversion and soul-killing machination which the culture-at-large wants to shove down our throats.
“I set before you life and death blessings and curses,” Moses told the children of Israel. “Now choose life, so that you and your children may live.”
Long has the Church stood against the purveyors of sin, chaos and death; long will she continue to stand. Just as Christ did before his accusers, the Church stands alone.
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We can only be thankful that taking down a few pages temporarily is all they did…to be honest, I’m surprised they didn’t try far worse.
For us Catholics, the onus lies on us to constantly pray for mother Church that worldly pressures, Satan’s ploy may not dissuade us. The Lord will not fail us. Amen
Indeed, the Church is the last stand for fredom and truth in a world that is losing its mind. That her enemies would launch a web-based attack is quite revealing in how effective she is using the web to assist in the work of spreading the Gospel to the ends of the earth. Let us in response, seek new ways to assist in this mission of evangelization by further developing ways to use this new media for the good of souls.
I note that the individual in the photo above has ripped off the motto from the state of Virginia, Sic Semper Tyrannis. But on our State seal, the one handing out justice to tyrants is Virtus, a representation of virtue and peace - not a confused adolescent with rudimentary computer skillz. Hey guys, it isn’t the Church that’s a tyrant!
[Love the Chesterton quotes, too].
“...most of the amateur hacktivists probably hate what they think the Church represents…” So often a bit of Sheen’s quote appears whenever the church is criticized. Sheen was making a point about everyday people whose anti-church prejudices we encounter. But we should not assume everyone is ignorant. A multinational cyber attack as well organized as this one was orchestrated by a Satanic cult. Satanists are very educated about church teachings, which they violently oppose. And it is a deliberate choice.
What’s interesting about these hackers is that the ring leader, “Sabu”, was asked about his motives for creating his other hacking organization, “LulzSec”, and he said that it was because of his “political ideaologies” citing Wall Street “greed” and “capitalism” as the purveyors of evil. Yet what I find interesting - and hypocritical - was that he BECAME what he was trying to take down: greedy and evil. He is the new face of evil! And the reason he got caught? Laziness. Here he was stealing from other organizations that he hacked and selling information (i.e. credit card numbers, etc…) to others. If I read the article right, the guy who started Wikileaks was also associated with “Sabu’s” group. What I find appaling, too, was that he was living off of welfare and had 2 children that he cared for. Was he thinking about his kids when he decided to engage in this criminal behavior? I guess he thought he was behaving like Robin Hood by stealing from the rich to give to “the poor” (himself and his cronies). But, as the old addage goes, you don’t do evil to bring justice. You don’t commit sin to bring about good. The means do not justify the ends. Imagine if he would have used his talents to get a REAL job. I read he was also “unemployed”. Imagine, too, if these guys were to use their talents for good. I guess greed has a new face, too. As does laziness…
It’s ironic that the masks worn by the “Anonymous” individuals in the image above are of Guy Fawkes - a Catholic who tried to blow up the UK Houses of Parliament in an attempt to replace the Protestant monarch and put a Catholic on the throne. Laughable, actually!
Tim,
This development reminds me of what happened in the Weimar Republic between WWI and WWII. In that battle of ideologies, the Church found itself pulled from its true center, reacting in fear and not both faith and reason. There was posited a false either/or choice: either the Communists or the Fascists. Since Hitler was the “better” propagandist the majority of the Church Militant was taken in by the relentless rhetoric. We cannot afford to be compromised again. This is no time to seek comfort in the ”lesser of two evils.”
We must hold and bear witness to the TRUE CENTER at all costs. The Holy Eucharist is this source, summit and center. It is our “battle flag.” Is it just me or does Anonymous—-the missing/masked head—-seems to be on President Obama’s business suited body. This logo is supposed to generate fear, fear of the unknown. But who am I to judge…it’s just an observation.
Don’t these people know any history? Greater men than these spoiled children have tried to take down the Church and failed miserably. If the Caesars couldn’t bring down the Church by feeding Christians to the lions, if the barbarian hordes behind Atilla The Hun couldn’t take down the Church after chatting with Pope Leo the Great (For facing down Attila the Hun, if you ask me, that should put him in the top-five tough-guys of all time) if the princes and kings of Europe couldn’t take down the Church, if Martin Luther and the rest of the 16th century “reformers” couldn’t bring down the Church, if the Nazis, and Communists couldn’t take down the Church, what on Earth makes these petulant, overgrown infants think they’ll succeed? The Church has stood for 2000 years, and unless Judgement Day comes before then, the Church will still be standing 2000 years from now.
To Rob:
All of what you say is quite true. However, we ought not to become complacent just because our adversaries are computer nerds who have nothing constructive to do…
They crucufied our Christ because he was “Truth.” Evil does not adhere to “Truth.”
We certainly will experience many, many trials and persecution before the rein of Christ. American Catholics/christians, it has begun!
Let us pray for our Holy father and also that all the priests, bishops, cardinals and all religious back our holy father and especially us, the flock.
The Church must continue to trod the path of New Evangelization.
Not to stir things up overmuch, but I feel obliged to point out that there have been some serious crimes carried out by members of the institution, as well as the further crime of ‘cover-up’ work. I speak of course of the abuse scandals, well within living memory, which the author of the article happily sidesteps. The church in idea may be immortal and immutable. Many of its human components…can fall quite far.
Christopher - when you criticize the Church for the abuse scandal, never forget the statistics. According to the John Jay report, 82% of the victims were post pubescent boys. In other words, the priests were homosexuals who should have never been ordained. It’s truly amazing how progressives love to bash the Church about the scandal, but always fail to acknowledge the real source of the scandal - homosexuality.
Better be careful, Tim or you’ll upset these 16 year olds who are the voice of the new reason.
Anonymous wants to point out our mistakes. Why don’t they offer solutions instead of attacking? They seem like they are smart enough to take down a website… Why not put their grey matter to the task of offering solutions rather than casting stones.
Probably above their pay grade I guess.
Oh, please! It is just a bunch of homo boys who are upset that the new genreation of priests won’t play thier game. It is an insult to the victims in the 70s and 80s who actauly were abused.
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