A Sicilian bishop has consulted with two lawyers about the possibility of suing Niantic, creators of the wildly popular Pokemon Go game, in an effort to have the app banned.
Breitbart is reporting on the efforts of Antonio Stagliano, bishop of the southern town of Noto in Sicily, who says the “diabolical” Pokemon Go game is attacking the very fabric of society by creating “dependence on a totalitarian system similar to Nazism.”
The game, which has 20 million active users in the U.S., comes in the phone of a smartphone app which is used to find Pokemon creatures who are hidden in the real world.
Bishop Stagliano claims the game is turning young people into the “walking dead” and has already “alienated thousands and thousands of young people” by getting them addicted to monster-hunting.
Even more infuriating is the fact that his own cathedral in Noto has been designated as an official Pokestop, meaning that players routinely stop at the church to collect Poke Balls.
The bishop isn’t the only one upset about the game. As Breitbart reports, the mayor of a town in central France banned the app because young people are becoming dangerously addicted to the game.
Elsewhere in France, Fabrice Beauvois, the mayor of the village of Bressolles, has sent a letter to Niantic demanding that the game be removed from his territory which he believes is necessary in order to ensure public order in his town.
Just for the record, the Virgin Mary statue in my own parish has become a designated Pokestop and has resulted in cars entering and exiting our church parking lot at odd hours of the day and night. It was the local police who alerted us to the situation. Thankfully, they’re keeping an eye on our premises to be sure law and order is maintained.