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CatholicTV Introduces 3-D Televised Religious Experience

by Amar Toor on April 21, 2010 at 06:30 AM

The Catholic Church may be embroiled in a grotesque child abuse scandal, but the controversy certainly hasn't prevented one ecclesiastical TV station from taking its digital dogma to the third dimension.

As NPR reports, Boston's CatholicTV has become the first religious media outlet to openly embrace 3-D technology by directly incorporating it into its pious programming. Upon opening the 3-D section of CatholicTV's Web site, thrill-seeking Catholics are immediately greeted by network director Rev. Robert Reed, who introduces the high-tech sightseeing tour that follows. Viewers can see works of art like St. Peter's Square and the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, but won't get much in the way of actual storytelling. Reed, for his part, does fully acknowledge that CatholicTV's venture is only in its nativity phase, telling NPR that it simply "made sense to look at 3-D right now and see how we can use it in the future."

Professor Angela Zito, who co-directs the Center for Religion and Media at NYU, says she would like to see more scriptural substance on the network, but still thinks the medium can help make the ethereal seem more tangible. "Our imaginations don't work in a vacuum," she told NPR. "They actually require a kind of vehicle or something to inspire them; and I don't think this is going to limit our imaginations. I think it's going to concretize more seductively the things that we can imagine."

If you're a non-Catholic 'Avatar' enthusiast, though, it looks like you're out of luck. No other religious networks have decided to follow CatholicTV onto the 3-D Sea of Galilee -- although we certainly hope it's just a matter of time. Clicking through virtual tours of cathedrals may be stimulating, but personally we'd love nothing more than to turn on HinduTV and spend a few quality late-night hours staring at a three-dimensional Lord Ganesh. [From: NPR]

Tags: 3-D, 3D, 3dTv, Catholic, catholic church, CatholicChurch, catholictv, religion, television, top, tv

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