The Cellphone as Church Chronicle, Creating Digital Relics

The body of Pope John Paul II has lain in state this week in St. Peter's Basilica. But it has hardly been peaceful with 18,000 people shuffling by each hour - especially when the majority were Italians wielding cellphone cameras. The IHT reports.

"The funeral rites for popes stipulated by John Paul in 1996 specifically prohibited photographing the pope on "his sickbed or after death," except for specially accredited photographers. Signs in St. Peter's Basilica also prohibit photography.

But this week, the heavy air around the pope's bier has not been filled with prayer so much as with tiny popping flashes and clicking shutters.

The church and cellular telephone technology are arguably the two most important and contrasting institutions here in Rome: one very old, the other very new. For the church, the bigger means the better to impress; for the other, ever-more-tiny wins the crowd.

So it was fitting and predictable that they would come together in this very special week, and that many Italians would view this momentous religious event - the passing of the pope - though their cellphone's lens."

Photo: Patrick Herzog/European Pressphoto Agency

Related articles:

-- Snapping the dead pope on a camera phone

-- Mourners allowed to take pictures of the Pope's body

emily | 9:51 AM | How people and businesses are using cameraphones |
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