Pope Francis once described the internet as a “gift from God”. But on Friday he is due to meet with someone who may believe the internet has more to do with his own company than divine intervention: Eric Schmidt, the former CEO of Google.
The pope, who more than a billion Catholics believe is God’s representative on Earth, will meet with the powerful Silicon Valley executive and philanthropist for 15 minutes at the Vatican in Rome.
A source close to the Vatican, who was familiar with the details of the meeting but not authorised to speak on the record, confirmed the brief meeting would take place on Friday. Another source familiar with the meeting said Schmidt was due to meet with the pope privately along with Jared Cohen, a former US state department official who is now head of Google Ideas. Schmidt co-wrote a book with Cohen in 2013 called The New Digital Age: Reshaping the Future of People, Nations and Business.
The internet, he once said, is a “gift from God” because of its ability to offer “immense possibilities for encounter and solidarity”.“This is something truly good,” he said in a seminal speech on technology in 2014, noting the importance of social media in what he has often referred to as the power of the “encounter”. “In a world like this, media can help us to feel closer to one another, creating a sense of the unity of the human family which can in turn inspire solidarity and serious efforts to ensure a more dignified life for all,” he said.
He was the first pope to take his message regularly to Twitter, and the @pontifex account, first opened by Pope Benedict, now has 8.4 million followers. He’s hosted two Google Hangouts live from the Vatican.
