Pope Approves Plan for Study on Internet Ethics

Continued from page 1

Quoting from "Ethics in Communications," John Paul said, "These challenges will be met effectively by those who accept that `serving the human person, building up community grounded in solidarity and justice and love, and speaking the truth about human life and its final fulfillment in God were, are and will remain at the heart of ethics in the media.'"

Pastore, a former Vatican spokesman, said the choices of patron saints for the Internet and for cinema are under discussion at the current plenary meeting of council members. They would serve alongside St. Gabriel, patron of radio; St. Clare, patron of television; and St. Francis of Sales, patron of the press.

The council has asked dioceses and local churches to help it draw up a list of candidates to be submitted to the Vatican Secretariat of State, and many have chosen St. Isidore, Pastore said.

The Spanish saint, archbishop of Seville in the early seventh century, was considered the last of the fathers of the Latin church and was admired for his encyclopedic knowledge. The author of biographies and histories, he was best known for "The Etymologist," a study of grammar and rhetoric.

In Spain, the saint's name is closely associated with bullfighting. He is the patron saint of Madrid, and the celebration of his feast day on April 4 each year marks the start of a week of bullfights named for him.

Isidore was canonized in 1598 and made a doctor of the church in 1722.