The Internet and the church. "In the new world of the Internet, the church will be more necessary than ever," said retired Archbishop John Quinn of San Francisco. His topic was "The Coming of the Fourth Church." Quinn said the first church was the early church, from the apostles to the conversion of Constantine in 313. The second church was the European-centered church from Constantine until the Second Vatican Council. Vatican II ushered in the third church, the church of the modern world, he said. The fourth church, within this global church, is the world of global communications and the Internet. "We have not yet begun to imagine what all this will mean for the church. But without doubt its impact will be immense," said Quinn. Catholic web sites must use current language and appeal to the needs and psychology of people today, he said. For, if some Internet offering is found unattractive, people simply will click onto the next site.

The number of people in the world more than 60 years old in 1999 was 600 million or about 10 percent of the population overall, according to a report issued in conjunction with the September 16-17 Vatican celebration of the Jubilee for Older Persons by the Pontifical Council Cor Unum, the Vatican office that promotes charitable giving. In Europe those over 60 represented 20 percent of the population, and in North America they represented 16 percent. The council said that 66 million of the world’s people were over 80.

Use of the common phrase social Gospel to indicate the social dimension of Christianity is a bad idea because it suggests that social responsibility is something that might or might not be added on as an accessory to the Gospel, Father J. Bryan Hehir said in a an address in Brooklyn’s St. James Cathedral in September. Christians should talk about the Gospel that is "thoroughly social," he said. Hehir, formerly an aide to the U.S. bishops on public-policy matters, now teaches at Harvard Divinity School and is chairman of its executive committee, a position equivalent to dean. Hehir said that Vatican Council II taught in the Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World that such tasks as upholding the human person’s dignity and promoting human rights were not optional but essential.

Australia's bishops will establish a commission to promote women's participation in the church, the bishops said in a statement. "From the research, we have learned that there are many women who feel frustrated because of their experience and hope for greater opportunities for participation," the bishops' statement said. Research also has shown that some women fear additional changes in the church and some women "are largely content" with their participation in the church, the statement said.

Bishop J. Terry Steib of Memphis, TN, has urged the black Catholic community to pray for an end to capital punishment. In a statement for the third annual Black Catholic Vigil for Life, Steib, episcopal moderator of the apostolate, said there are 3,500 inmates on death row and that more than 80 percent of them are African American. Steib said, "Capital punishment has taken lives and it has also affected the lives of our families, our churches, and our community."