On first viewing, Vaticano.org was essentially utopian, subversively foisting a new-and-improved vision of Catholicism on believers, so that the true encyclicals would seem untenably old-fashioned.

FORBES: J.S.G. Boggs' Counterfeit Money Is Worth More Than The Real Thing. Are You Buying It? [Book Excerpt #2]

One of the first such hacks was perpetrated on December 10, 1998, when the net artists Franco and Eva Mattes launched www.vaticano.org, a near-perfect double of the official Vatican website.

FORBES: J.S.G. Boggs' Counterfeit Money Is Worth More Than The Real Thing. Are You Buying It? [Book Excerpt #2]

Then the fraud was revealed, challenging authority from the opposite direction by eroding the credibility of all papal dogma, including proclamations on the official website. (Might vatican.va also be a spoof?) Vaticano.org is a hack on faith.

FORBES: J.S.G. Boggs' Counterfeit Money Is Worth More Than The Real Thing. Are You Buying It? [Book Excerpt #2]