VATICAN CORNER
In April, 2000, the Pokémon kiddie trading-card and computer game craze was soaring in Italy. Worried parents thought it was the work of the devil, but Pope John Paul II decided the game was good for children. The Vatican gave its blessing to the game and said it did not have “any harmful moral side effects” and was based on “ties of intense friendship.” The Vatican said Pokémon players were pushed to think creatively to conquer challenges without violence. However, some parents complained their children were spending too much money buying cards for the game and there was mild hysteria when the cards went into short supply. Now in the summer of 2016, the new game: Pokémon Go, an augmented-reality smartphone game, based on the original, has become an overnight worldwide phenomenon, and one of the biggest mobile games in history. The game world is mapped on to the real world and Pokémon are cartoon creatures that players aim to catch in real-life locations. Once the game is downloaded for free onto a smartphone, characters will appear overlaid onto what the phone’s camera lens is seeing. The goal of the game is to catch all 151 Pokémon characters and you can acquire virtual equipment at Pokéstops – real-life locations tagged in Google Maps that will appear on your phone. Players can then use their captured characters to gain control of virtual locations and earn points. The points earned can then be used to buy more equipment, which will help capture more elusive Pokémon characters. To boost the free game, the maker Niantic , (largely owned by Nintendo and Google) sell bonus features as aids to the game for real money. The game invades all spheres of life from public toilets to historical places, museums, markets, churches and homes. To employee’s dismay, game players stampede through museums barely casting a glance at the art while fixated on their smartphone’s screen. Like many public places around the world, St. Peter’s square is swarming with players of the game. They say you can dependably find pokémon below the window from which Pope Francis does the Angelus, as well as the fountains in the square. Rumors have spread that, in some secret corner of Vatican City, one of the ultra-rare characters can be found. One health benefit that has been reported is that according to a study some players have doubled the distance they normally walk. Some users have suffered accidents, like not looking before crossing the street, while trying to hunt for pokémons. While this entertainment is not dangerous in and of itself, it’s always beneficial to pay a little more attention to real life than hunting pokémons. The Church has been responding to the game in various ways. One bishop tweeted out photos of him catching pokémon. Another used the opportunity to exhort people to search for Jesus: “You might never find a Pikachu, but I promise you this – Search for Jesus, and you’ll find Him every time.
Sources: nypost.com , telegraph.co.uk, churchpop.com, wnd.com, romereports.com