An American who registered the Internet name BenedictXVI.com before the new Pope was chosen said on Wednesday he had not worked out what to do with it but was pretty sure it would be a sin to sell it to a pornographer.
Florida resident Rogers Cadenhead, who describes himself on his Web site as the author of several technology books, said on his site that he registered six domain names earlier this month based on names he thought the new pope might pick.
As well as Benedict XVI — the name chosen by German Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger on his election on Tuesday — Cadenhead registered for a nominal fee ClementXV.com, InnocentXIV.com, LeoXIV.com, PaulVII.com and PiusXIII.com.
An attempt to visit BenedictXVI.com redirects the reader to Cadenhead's own Web site, on which he rejects the suggestion that he might be planning to cash in by selling the site to pornographers since they would be willing to pay most for it.
"For the love of God, people, that's not going to happen," Cadenhead said. "I will be running any plans I have for this domain by my own Catholic doctrinal enforcer, my never-miss-a-Sunday grandmother Rita."
Cadenhead said he was considering his options for the site but if the Pope's people were to approach him to discuss taking over the site he might make a few requests of the Vatican including "one of those hats" and "world peace".
"I've received an offer from a gambling site. I'm pretty sure that's a bad idea, ecclesiastically speaking," he added.
The Vatican has its own Web site at www.vatican.va and the address BenedictXVI.va does not exist, but a number of other variations of the new Pope's name have been snapped up.
Benedict16.com and benedictXVI.de are for sale — the latter with a list price of 1,000 euros ($1,300) from a seller who is also offering pope-benedictxvi.com and similar German language names.
An ostensibly more altruistic group has registered benedictxvi.org and is promising to build a fan site with news, pictures and information about Benedict XVI.
"Would you like to help build a great dedication site to our new Pope? Please contact us," it says.
