The Vatican plans to allow "institutions and communities that have canonical recognition" to use the extension, "so people online — Catholics and non-Catholics — will know a site is authentically Catholic".

But there are many bureaucratic details to sort out before sites with the .catholic extension will appear online.

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On Friday, the company tasked with managing domain names, ICANN, put an end to a ten year battle and authorised the creation of the .xxx domain name suffix, a domain category which caters specifically for pornography.

The .xxx domain now ranks along with the likes of .com. .org. .nz and .fj.

Religious groups oppose the move, saying it legitimises pornography, fearing it will further spread pornography on the internet and make it even easier to procure.

"The Internet is a very democratic space, but giving the porn industry its own area almost seems to constitute it." Director of the Marist Internet Ministry, John Murphy said.

"I'm not aware of a top level domain for churches or religious groups."

Given Friday's decision, Murphy is in favour of compelling porn sites to gather around the .xxx domain. "It becomes an area people can choose to visit or not visit."

"Porn sites are well known as places to contract viruses or spyware. My advice is keep away of any site ending in .xxx," he said.

Ironically the pornography industry is also opposed, but for different reasons.

The porn industry fears censorship by governments and the new board overseeing the .xxx domain. Their objection aslo stems from the unfair forcing of pornography sites to have to register the equivalent .xxx domain to prevent competitors from buying the name.

It is expected that most in the pornography industry will continue to use their existing .com domain names.

ICANN originally approved the .xxx domain in 2005. Amid protests in the United States it reversed its decision two years later.

The long-awaited decision comes at the end of vigorous lobby by a company called ICM Registry, which is set to make US$30 million a year from the new domain addresses.

Nine ICANN board members voted to approve the registry, and three voted against it.

Sources:
BBC
NY Times
Image: Canada.com