Vatican loses out on .xxx domain

SOMEONE FROM OUTSIDE the Vatican has bought the Vatican.xxx domain name in an act that could end up embarrassing the Roman Catholic Church.

The domains went on sale earlier this month and it was expected that most big name firms and organisations would have bought their version of it in order to avoid having their name sullied with an adult entertainment web site.

Although this is the case for many, it is not the case at the Vatican, where a spokesperson said that it was someone outside its walls that made the purchase.

"This domain is not available because it has been acquired by someone else, but not the Vatican," Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi said on Vatican radio, according to Reuters.

There was no suggestion that the Vatican had tried to buy the domain name itself, nor any indication of who might have bought it. Or indeed why.

It is possible that the page could be used to host top shelf material, of course, or perhaps someone has bought it to save the Pope the trouble. It might even remain unused. For now it is just showing a message that the domain name has been bought. µ