• by Masha Geller , May 23, 2002

I could send you off in to the long holiday weekend with a rundown of the IAB’s latest report of web ad spending in 2001, but I’ve got something much more interesting.

According to a report I recently came across, during a special Mass held on his 82nd birthday, Pope John Paul II said he was about to officially name a patron saint for Web surfers.

Considering the pontiff has not yet taken the plunge of setting up an email address, his declaration of the Internet being a “valuable tool to preach the gospel" is somewhat of a departure from the church's long-standing view that the Internet should be regulated in order to prevent or slow the distribution of immoral information.

According to the article, the pontiff also said that what the Vatican has called the "patron saint of Internet users and computer programmers" would likely be made official soon, unlike last year, when John Paul said he had selected Saint Isidore of Seville as cyberspace's own saint, but never made an official declaration.

Saint Isidore of Seville is a seventh-century author credited with creating the world's first encyclopedia.

On that note, here’s wishing you a good long weekend!