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Catholic World Youth Day 2002 Internet Address Now Links to Abortionists' Websites

Canadian Bishops Conference Ignored Warnings says Former World Youth Day Director

TORONTO, December 7, 2004 (LifeSiteNews.com) - LifeSiteNews.com has learned that, wyd2002.org, the domain name or Internet address of the World Youth Day 2002 website, set up to provide a lead-up to and follow-up coverage of the Toronto World Youth Day 2002, has been taken over by a company or individual linking to abortion services and other objectionable sites. Over 1,300 websites, which refer to Pope John Paul II's historic visit to Canada, still link to wyd2002.org.

Father Thomas Rosica, the National Director and Chief Executive Officer of the World Youth Day 2002 told LifeSiteNews.com in an interview that the website, designed by youth involved with World Youth Day (WYD) was proclaimed the fourth most frequented website by Reader's Digest in 2002. The website offered beautifully crafted pages in multiple languages about the Catholic faith and the WYD events and their significance.

Anton Casta, a prominent Canadian website designer, who has designed websites for Catholic artists, singers, dioceses, and companies all over the world, says the development is very serious. "Modern day robbers, cybersitters, have stolen an icon of youth -- the domain wyd2002.org and have converted it into a launch pad to such things as abortion," he said. Casta added, "The U.S. considers cybersquatting or the deliberate securing of a domain identity, even a near approximation such as cocacoola.com and its redirection, a serious offense with heavy penalties."

However, beyond the responsibility of the cyber thief is the fact that the website domain name appears to have been intentionally discarded by the Canadian bishops' organization. Rev. Rosica, currently the CEO of Salt and Light Television, told LifeSiteNews.com that he was "appalled" at the development, but noted that he "did everything that was humanly possible to prevent what has happened." Rosica explained that his term as WYD director ended in 2003 and he was directed by the Canadian Conference Catholic Bishops (CCCB) to close the website and ship the website server to them in Ottawa.

"I asked them to seriously consider not doing that because the website also carries on the memory, it is the legacy, of the World Youth Day 2002," said Rosica. The CCCB assured Rosica that they would reactivate the website, and Rosica even offered to procure financing to support the effort. However, those assurances never materialized. Moreover, when the notice to renew the ownership of the wyd2002.org domain name came, the CCCB did not renew its ownership.

Rosica told LifeSiteNews.com that he has been in communication with the CCCB for over a year attempting to have the website resuscitated. "I impressed upon them the fact that the young generation who was part of World Youth Day is a generation that visits websites and we owe it to them and the people around the world to keep the World Youth Day legacy alive."

On December 14, 2003 the six month warning period before a lapsed Internet domain name can be transferred to new ownership expired and the prominent Catholic domain name was acquired by a Burlington, Massachusetts company calling itself The Tidewinds Group. Calls to the company were not answered by press time.

Bede Hubbard, assistant general secretary of the CCCB, responded to questions from LifeSiteNews.com about the incident saying, "I have heard that's happened, yes. Unfortunately someone seems to have managed to get hold of the domain, unfortunately." Asked why the domain name was allowed to lapse despite the customary frequent warnings, Hubbard responded, "I have no idea at how it, I think a number of us were surprised to find out that it had not been renewed." He added, "We are trying to re-purchase it."

Fr. Rosica notes that the damage of the lost website domain is ongoing. "In fact we are receiving calls every day from people who log on to wyd2002.org, and discover it has nothing to do with World Youth Day," he said.

Casta, who has taken to heart the call of Pope John Paul II to use the Internet as a tool for evangelization, said he was surprised by the failure to keep the website alive. "To think that so many years into the new evangelization, the cyber highway that gives us new Roman roads to carry the voice and image of Christ, those called to build outposts of faith and culture would fail to understand fundamentally the nature of the Internet and the hostile territory through which it winds is truly surprising."

Casta concluded, "While we discuss the implications of such a weighty oversight or poor judgment, residual traffic continues to flow allowing a faceless entity to profit by the redirection of our youth into compromising sites. Our icon has been pimped."

To express concerns to the CCCB email

Or write
Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops
2500 Don Reid Drive,
Ottawa (Ontario) Canada, K1H 2J2.

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