gTLD	Full Legal Name	E-mail suffix	Detail
.天主教	Pontificium Consilium de Comunicationibus Socialibus (PCCS) (Pontifical Council for Social Communication)	pccs.va	View

BENEFITS OF THE .天主教 TLD

There are four main beneficiaries of the .天主教 TLD:

1. PCCS: The .天主教 TLD will bring benefits to the PCCS by supporting its efforts to promote social communications supportive of the teachings of the Catholic Church — by establishing a communication channel and a contemporary method of sharing social media content. Existing communication channels include print and radio, television and digital media. A dedicated TLD will enable communications via the Internet to be conducted in a forum of trust and legitimacy amongst users, as existing TLDs do not offer users certainty. The .天主教 TLD provides certainty as existence of the domain name indicates legitimate affiliation with the Catholic Church, and that content has been approved by said entities. The .天主教 TLD would therefore immediately provide trust in the sole registrant (PCCS).

2. Dioceses, religious orders, educational institutions, and other appropriate Church-sanctioned entities: These entities will be granted use of a .天主教 domain name in order to carry out activities supportive of the Church. These entities will be granted the use of domain names that highlight the legitimacy of their position. Ease of communication between these organisations would be increased through the addition of a cohesive and authoritative channel for digital communication. For example, different dioceses could get in contact with one another to share their experiences and passing on best-practices to each other. Also, they could collaborate on common issues if they border the same geographical areas. Access to the new TLD platform would enable less advantaged dioceses to achieve higher visibility. This would enable them to maintain a profile equal with dioceses in more developed economies.

3. Members of congregations, members of religious orders, and those involved in any other organisation affiliated with the Church: these individuals will benefit through being able to easily access information pertinent to the Church and its activities with confidence.

4. Internet users: The .天主教 TLD will benefit Internet users seeking philosophical direction by granting them access to appropriate content providers. Benefits are expected for the broader Internet community. By providing a space in which Internet users can feel confident about the authenticity of the Church-related institutions they access, the .天主教 TLD will help promote the philosophical ideals and aims of the Church.


GOALS OF THE .天主教 TLD

The primary service offered by the .天主教 TLD is the immediate distinction of legitimacy, authoritativeness and relevance that the string provides to Internet users given the authenticated nature of the institutions to which the string will be consigned.
A high level of trust in the TLD is paramount to its success and high levels of service will be provided to ensure that the TLD space is maintained as intended and not diluted by unqualified registrations.

A high level of service will help maintain the integrity of the TLD. Granting of use of a domain name will only occur following an established method of verification. For example, use of a .天主教 domain name will be granted if the Diocese is recognised by the Holy See and there is no formal request from the applicable Bishop to withhold release of the domain for that Diocese.

This focus of service will maintain the attractiveness of the TLD to all of the above-identified beneficiaries.

The goals of the .天主教 TLD are described below along with a discussion of the benefits associated with each goal:


RECOGNITION OF THE .天主教 TLD AS THE AUTHORITATIVE SPACE FOR LEGITIMATE CHURCH INSTUTUTIONS:

The PCCS intends that the .天主教 TLD will achieve the reputation of being an authoritative space for legitimate Church-related information provided by dioceses, religious orders, and other Church-affiliated institutions — as a result of eligibility for use of a domain name being limited to entities recognised by the Church.

The PCCS intends that among those to whom the use of a domain name may be granted the .天主教 TLD will have the reputation of being the official, authoritative online space for religious entities within the Catholic Church. Among Internet users the PCCS intends that the .天主教 TLD will have the reputation of being an authoritative and verified space for accessing online Church-related material.

.天主教 domain names will be registered in the name of the PCCS and granted for use to an authorised entity — a diocese, religious order or Church affiliated institution. The reputation amongst these authorised entities will be measured by actual use of the domain name by the entities. Periodic audits will be conducted to assess whether the domain name is being used and complies with the acceptable use policy. These audits of domains will ensure that content posted on .天主教 domains is congruent with the TLD mission and purposes and adheres to the standards expected of official Church communications. The PCCS’ goal is to see more than 75% of domain names appropriately used within three years of launching the TLD.

The attainment of this reputation amongst Internet users will be measured by reference to visit metrics for .天主教 domain names. This will be cross-referenced with demographic data, such as diocese size, to enable a more sound measure of the level of use for a particular .天主教 domain.


FUNCTION AS A COMMUNICATION CHANNEL:

The goal is that the .天主教 TLD will serve as a privileged method of communication for the Church, by establishing an authoritative and official channel for online communications with the Church’s constituent institutions and its adherents globally.

The .天主教 TLD intends to promote the usage of information and communications technologies among the global network of dioceses, religious institutions and entities belonging to the Catholic Church. The purpose is to support the wider Catholic Community and to serve its global outreach. The TLD would also provide a digital platform that connects different cultural and geographically distant communities and enables them to interact and cooperate. This would add new possibilities of access to a diversity of assets and resources, thus expanding the dioceses’ scope of action and hence improving the social conditions of the respective local areas. Also, the TLD would provide for better communication not only among dioceses or religious institutions, but between these and civil entities— attracting the attention of the general public onto the needs of the local communities that are served by the dioceses and religious⁄charitable⁄educational institutions.

The establishment of this communication channel would benefit Internet end-users from the dioceses’ communities by creating a virtual space that promotes the sharing of information, both within the same diocese and between dioceses, religious institutions and entities belonging to the Catholic Church. By building dedicated websites, it would be possible to create a virtual community where members could upload videos, publish communications, write blogs, etc.


PROMOTE THE DEVELOPMENT OF LEGITIMATE CHURCH-RELATED CONTENT ONLINE:

The goal is that the creation of an authorised space for Church-related information online, will encourage constituent institutions of the Church to publish material online by allaying their concerns regarding illegitimate communication channels, thereby facilitating the sharing of the Church’s teachings. The creation of an authorised space will be supported by restricting domain name registrations to the PCCS; which provides an increased level of security to end-users by providing assurance that those granted use of a domain name are officially recognised, and thus sanctioned to publish the content on the domain name.

The achievement of this goal will be measured by audits to assess whether domain names are used to publish Church-related content, and are compliant with the acceptable use policy.

In summary, the short-term vision of the .天主教 TLD is to offer a trusted, verified online space for Church-related communications; this is something that does not exist in the current offering of TLDs. The medium-term vision is to achieve acceptance of the .天主教 TLD through significant usage of websites. The PCCS considers that these aspects would be useful measures of the success of the .天主教 TLD, and its achievement of the mission⁄purpose described above. The long-term vision for the .天主教 TLD is to achieve high acceptance of the TLD through usage by the majority of suitable Church-recognised entities, and by the wide-spread dissemination of information consistent with the Church’s teachings via hosted pages containing appropriate content.

By achieving the above-identified goals, the .天主教 TLD will establish itself as a unique, authoritative, dedicated space for organisations within the Church. Internet users would thus be able to safely and confidently access Church-related information provided by official sources, which is consistent with the overall goals and values of the Catholic Church.


ANTICIPATED CONTRIBUTION TO THE CURRENT SPACE

The .天主教 TLD will make a significant contribution to the current space in the following ways:


DIFFERENTIATION AND INNOVATION

The .天主教 TLD will provide a high level of differentiation from existing TLDs. From a technical viewpoint, whereas existing TLDs often apply to diverse and broad markets, the .天主教 TLD will be differentiated by offering only a relatively restricted number of available registrations. Users searching for information pertaining to the Catholic Church will be easily directed to that material via specific applicable sites. Any registration will be sanctioned by the PCCS and hence by the governing structure of the Catholic Church itself, so validity of registrants will be incontrovertible.

By providing a new alternative TLD, present crowding and forecast crowding in existing TLDs will be negated. Non-sanctioned domain name users will not be able to secure similar strings to confuse end-users or to supply controversial content. Non-sanctioned domain names will be identifiable by the absence of a .天主教 registration, and the subsequent clear recognition that said content has not been specifically approved for hosting on a .天主教 domain.

This TLD is targeted at Chinese language speakers. These speakers would be found in communities across the global Church. This string will be developed to complement other language strings which would ensure a global reach within the Catholic Community.

The restrictions placed on registrations ensure that the information provided by the qualified institutions is reliable and accurate.

The .天主教 TLD will specifically address the need for an authoritative and dedicated online space for Church-affiliated entities to identify themselves as such and to express their beliefs and general information pertaining to the Church and its activities.
The .天主教 TLD will directly address internet users’ concerns about the legitimacy of the sources of information available online by restricting registration of domain names to the PCCS. This will enable Internet users in general to make informed choices relating to those issues that are presented on such sites.


COMPETITION

These clear points of differentiation of the .天主教 TLD will promote competition amongst existing TLDs by offering domain name users products and services which are currently unavailable in existing TLDs. Because the registration of domain names is restricted to the PCCS, the .天主教 TLD will not compete with other TLDs in terms of acquiring registrations, but has a significant competitive advantage in terms of the value received by Internet users. The .天主教 TLD promotes competition by making available a unique TLD with uniquely identified registrations and consequent content for Internet users, hence promoting consumer choice. The restriction on the ability to register domain names, is the key to favourably positioning the .天主教 TLD in the market.


REGISTRATION POLICIES IN SUPPORT OF THE GOALS OF THE .天主教 TLD

All domain name registrations in the .天主教 TLD will be registered to, and maintained by, the PCCS for the exclusive use of the PCCS and the constituent institutions of the Church. The PCCS will not sell, distribute or transfer control or use of any registration in the TLD to any third party that is not identified within the TLD Catholic Community. As such, individual adherents will not be eligible to register or be granted use of .天主教 domain names.

Each recognised diocese (as evidenced by inclusion in the list of affiliates), official religious order of the Catholic Church and Church-affiliated institutions may be granted use of an associated .天主教 domain name to establish formal and official channels of online communication for the Catholic Church, and to promote the overall mission⁄purpose of the .天主教 TLD. The domain names granted for use by each entity will be the linguistic term most closely related to the official name of each entity, as determined by the PCCS and within the boundaries of protected name limitations. Additionally, the PCCS may in its sole discretion register generic terms for its own use or the use of recognised institutions. The use of the domain names by the PCCS and the recognised institutions is subject to internal acceptable use policies.

This restriction on eligibility ensures the identification of the .天主教 TLD with the Catholic Church. It ensures that the information provided is consistent with the official views and teachings of the Catholic Church and thereby enjoys an appropriate authoritativeness. This restriction consequently strengthens the function of the .天主教 TLD as a communication channel for the Church, whose authenticity is a result of the verified nature of the recognised institutions. Furthermore, this ensures the consistency and coherence of the information supplied by the different institutions.

In addition the following restrictions apply to all .天主教 domain names:

- the Registry Operator will reserve names in accordance with Specification 5 of the Registry Agreement. The protection of geographic names in the .天主教 TLD will be described further in the response to Question 22 — Protection of Geographic Names.

- Domain names will be registered to the PCCS for a one year term.

- .天主教 domain names must be used to promote the mission⁄purpose of the TLD and must therefore only host material relating to the Catholic Church in accordance with the acceptable use policy.

Restrictions on who may be granted use of domain names and the acceptable use policy ensure the reliability, the authenticity and trustworthiness of information published. Self-regulation is the initial mechanism in place for this, with existing Church protocols regarding internal disputes to be utilised for any issues relating to registrations or information.

Periodic audits will ensure that these restrictions are adhered to. These restrictions ensure that all domain names will be used to promote the mission⁄purpose of the TLD.

The combination of restrictions on eligibility and use of domain names, and the established methods of internal dispute settlement to govern content matters, will ensure that the advancement of the TLD’s goals relating to establishing an authoritative and legitimate TLD for Church-related communications may be achieved.


PROTECTION OF PRIVACY AND CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION

All domain name registrations in the .天主教 TLD will be registered to, and maintained by, the PCCS for the exclusive use of the PCCS and the verified institutions. No information in addition to that which is published on WhoIs will be collected from the sole registrant — the PCCS. Therefore, specific measures to protect publically available information are unnecessary.

No obligations will be imposed by the registry operator on registrars in relation to the handling of confidential information. Note the obligations imposed on registrars through the RAA in relation to handling registrant and confidential information.

In order to be granted use of a .天主教 domain name, the name of the authorised entities must be verified by the PCCS against a list of formally recognised Church-affiliated institutions. Because only formally recognised entities will be granted use of domain names, and the information that supports this claim (the name of the entity) is not sensitive information, the PCCS does not consider necessary to keep this information confidential. In all cases the PCCS’ Security Policy protects against the misuse of this information.

The PCCS’ Privacy Policy will require that measures are in place to prevent disclosure of confidential information including registrant contact information — other than available through WhoIs, or intentional disclosures to ICANN or law enforcement agencies.


OUTREACH AND COMMINICATION ACTIVITIES

Outreach and communications activities to promote the .天主教 TLD will be undertaken through the Church’s channels of communication. Conferences of Bishops will be informed of the benefits of using a .天主教 domain. The highly authoritative position that the PCCS holds within the Church will likely result in a high level of uptake following outreach efforts.

The PCCS enjoys a high degree of support in its work to promote the Catholic faith globally, as all dioceses benefit from this work. Diocese-level support for the TLD is therefore assumed to be in place and easily leveraged into use of domain names in the TLD.

The PCCS has existing staff that are employed to promote social media outreach, and the TLD is a natural extension of existing initiatives. Staffing requirements and promotional networks which are in place will be utilised to promote the TLD. The PCCS will directly manage these high-level efforts.

Subsequent to this, local promotion will become the responsibility of the dioceses. The promotion of the TLD by dioceses will serve to increase the value in their own domain names and, by extension, in the TLD itself. Appropriate use of registrations will help strengthen the dioceses’ positions in the local communities, a goal that is embraced both by the global Church structure and by local establishments.

The awareness generated through outreach and communications activities described above are critical to the achievement of the goals of the .天主教 TLD. With a broad uptake, the Church would enjoy a new communication channel which would enable it to reach of its own members and the general public.

This is in accordance with the overall aims of the PCCS, having over 40 years’ experience in utilising media to promote the Catholic faith, and this places PCCS in a strong position to successfully add communications via the .天主教 TLD to its existing range of communication methods.

gTLD	Full Legal Name	E-mail suffix	Detail
.католик	Pontificium Consilium de Comunicationibus Socialibus (PCCS) (Pontifical Council for Social Communication)	pccs.va	View

BENEFITS OF THE .католик TLD

There are four main beneficiaries of the .католик TLD:

1. PCCS: The .католик TLD will bring benefits to the PCCS by supporting its efforts to promote social communications supportive of the teachings of the Catholic Church — by establishing a communication channel and a contemporary method of sharing social media content. Existing communication channels include print and radio, television and digital media. A dedicated TLD will enable communications via the Internet to be conducted in a forum of trust and legitimacy amongst users, as existing TLDs do not offer users certainty. The .католик TLD provides certainty as existence of the domain name indicates legitimate affiliation with the Catholic Church, and that content has been approved by said entities. The .католик TLD would therefore immediately provide trust in the sole registrant (PCCS).

2. Dioceses, religious orders, educational institutions, and other appropriate Church-sanctioned entities: These entities will be granted use of a .католик domain name in order to carry out activities supportive of the Church. These entities will be granted the use of domain names that highlight the legitimacy of their position. Ease of communication between these organisations would be increased through the addition of a cohesive and authoritative channel for digital communication. For example, different dioceses could get in contact with one another to share their experiences and passing on best-practices to each other. Also, they could collaborate on common issues if they border the same geographical areas. Access to the new TLD platform would enable less advantaged dioceses to achieve higher visibility. This would enable them to maintain a profile equal with dioceses in more developed economies.

3. Members of congregations, members of religious orders, and those involved in any other organisation affiliated with the Church: these individuals will benefit through being able to easily access information pertinent to the Church and its activities with confidence.

4. Internet users: The .католик TLD will benefit Internet users seeking philosophical direction by granting them access to appropriate content providers. Benefits are expected for the broader Internet community. By providing a space in which Internet users can feel confident about the authenticity of the Church-related institutions they access, the .католик TLD will help promote the philosophical ideals and aims of the Church.


GOALS OF THE .католик TLD

The primary service offered by the .католик TLD is the immediate distinction of legitimacy, authoritativeness and relevance that the string provides to Internet users given the authenticated nature of the institutions to which the string will be consigned.
A high level of trust in the TLD is paramount to its success and high levels of service will be provided to ensure that the TLD space is maintained as intended and not diluted by unqualified registrations.

A high level of service will help maintain the integrity of the TLD. Granting of use of a domain name will only occur following an established method of verification. For example, use of a .католик domain name will be granted if the Diocese is recognised by the Holy See and there is no formal request from the applicable Bishop to withhold release of the domain for that Diocese.

This focus of service will maintain the attractiveness of the TLD to all of the above-identified beneficiaries.

The goals of the .католик TLD are described below along with a discussion of the benefits associated with each goal:


RECOGNITION OF THE .католик TLD AS THE AUTHORITATIVE SPACE FOR LEGITIMATE CHURCH INSTUTUTIONS:

The PCCS intends that the .католик TLD will achieve the reputation of being an authoritative space for legitimate Church-related information provided by dioceses, religious orders, and other Church-affiliated institutions — as a result of eligibility for use of a domain name being limited to entities recognised by the Church.

The PCCS intends that among those to whom the use of a domain name may be granted the .католик TLD will have the reputation of being the official, authoritative online space for religious entities within the Catholic Church. Among Internet users the PCCS intends that the .католик TLD will have the reputation of being an authoritative and verified space for accessing online Church-related material.

.католик domain names will be registered in the name of the PCCS and granted for use to an authorised entity — a diocese, religious order or Church affiliated institution. The reputation amongst these authorised entities will be measured by actual use of the domain name by the entities. Periodic audits will be conducted to assess whether the domain name is being used and complies with the acceptable use policy. These audits of domains will ensure that content posted on .католик domains is congruent with the TLD mission and purposes and adheres to the standards expected of official Church communications. The PCCS’ goal is to see more than 75% of domain names appropriately used within three years of launching the TLD.

The attainment of this reputation amongst Internet users will be measured by reference to visit metrics for .католик domain names. This will be cross-referenced with demographic data, such as diocese size, to enable a more sound measure of the level of use for a particular .католик domain.


FUNCTION AS A COMMUNICATION CHANNEL:

The goal is that the .католик TLD will serve as a privileged method of communication for the Church, by establishing an authoritative and official channel for online communications with the Church’s constituent institutions and its adherents globally.

The .католик TLD intends to promote the usage of information and communications technologies among the global network of dioceses, religious institutions and entities belonging to the Catholic Church. The purpose is to support the wider Catholic Community and to serve its global outreach. The TLD would also provide a digital platform that connects different cultural and geographically distant communities and enables them to interact and cooperate. This would add new possibilities of access to a diversity of assets and resources, thus expanding the dioceses’ scope of action and hence improving the social conditions of the respective local areas. Also, the TLD would provide for better communication not only among dioceses or religious institutions, but between these and civil entities— attracting the attention of the general public onto the needs of the local communities that are served by the dioceses and religious⁄charitable⁄educational institutions.

The establishment of this communication channel would benefit Internet end-users from the dioceses’ communities by creating a virtual space that promotes the sharing of information, both within the same diocese and between dioceses, religious institutions and entities belonging to the Catholic Church. By building dedicated websites, it would be possible to create a virtual community where members could upload videos, publish communications, write blogs, etc.


PROMOTE THE DEVELOPMENT OF LEGITIMATE CHURCH-RELATED CONTENT ONLINE:

The goal is that the creation of an authorised space for Church-related information online, will encourage constituent institutions of the Church to publish material online by allaying their concerns regarding illegitimate communication channels, thereby facilitating the sharing of the Church’s teachings. The creation of an authorised space will be supported by restricting domain name registrations to the PCCS; which provides an increased level of security to end-users by providing assurance that those granted use of a domain name are officially recognised, and thus sanctioned to publish the content on the domain name.

The achievement of this goal will be measured by audits to assess whether domain names are used to publish Church-related content, and are compliant with the acceptable use policy.

In summary, the short-term vision of the .католик TLD is to offer a trusted, verified online space for Church-related communications; this is something that does not exist in the current offering of TLDs. The medium-term vision is to achieve acceptance of the .католик TLD through significant usage of websites. The PCCS considers that these aspects would be useful measures of the success of the .католик TLD, and its achievement of the mission⁄purpose described above. The long-term vision for the .католик TLD is to achieve high acceptance of the TLD through usage by the majority of suitable Church-recognised entities, and by the wide-spread dissemination of information consistent with the Church’s teachings via hosted pages containing appropriate content.

By achieving the above-identified goals, the .католик TLD will establish itself as a unique, authoritative, dedicated space for organisations within the Church. Internet users would thus be able to safely and confidently access Church-related information provided by official sources, which is consistent with the overall goals and values of the Catholic Church.


ANTICIPATED CONTRIBUTION TO THE CURRENT SPACE

The .католик TLD will make a significant contribution to the current space in the following ways:


DIFFERENTIATION AND INNOVATION

The .католик TLD will provide a high level of differentiation from existing TLDs. From a technical viewpoint, whereas existing TLDs often apply to diverse and broad markets, the .католик TLD will be differentiated by offering only a relatively restricted number of available registrations. Users searching for information pertaining to the Catholic Church will be easily directed to that material via specific applicable sites. Any registration will be sanctioned by the PCCS and hence by the governing structure of the Catholic Church itself, so validity of registrants will be incontrovertible.

By providing a new alternative TLD, present crowding and forecast crowding in existing TLDs will be negated. Non-sanctioned domain name users will not be able to secure similar strings to confuse end-users or to supply controversial content. Non-sanctioned domain names will be identifiable by the absence of a .католик registration, and the subsequent clear recognition that said content has not been specifically approved for hosting on a .католик domain.

This TLD is targeted at Cyrillic-based language speakers. These speakers would be found in communities across the global Church. This string will be developed to complement other language strings which would ensure a global reach within the Catholic Community.

The restrictions placed on registrations ensure that the information provided by the qualified institutions is reliable and accurate.

The .католик TLD will specifically address the need for an authoritative and dedicated online space for Church-affiliated entities to identify themselves as such and to express their beliefs and general information pertaining to the Church and its activities.
The .католик TLD will directly address internet users’ concerns about the legitimacy of the sources of information available online by restricting registration of domain names to the PCCS. This will enable Internet users in general to make informed choices relating to those issues that are presented on such sites.


COMPETITION

These clear points of differentiation of the .католик TLD will promote competition amongst existing TLDs by offering domain name users products and services which are currently unavailable in existing TLDs. Because the registration of domain names is restricted to the PCCS, the .католик TLD will not compete with other TLDs in terms of acquiring registrations, but has a significant competitive advantage in terms of the value received by Internet users. The .католик TLD promotes competition by making available a unique TLD with uniquely identified registrations and consequent content for Internet users, hence promoting consumer choice. The restriction on the ability to register domain names, is the key to favourably positioning the .католик TLD in the market.


REGISTRATION POLICIES IN SUPPORT OF THE GOALS OF THE .католик TLD

All domain name registrations in the .католик TLD will be registered to, and maintained by, the PCCS for the exclusive use of the PCCS and the constituent institutions of the Church. The PCCS will not sell, distribute or transfer control or use of any registration in the TLD to any third party that is not identified within the TLD Catholic Community. As such, individual adherents will not be eligible to register or be granted use of .католик domain names.

Each recognised diocese (as evidenced by inclusion in the list of affiliates), official religious order of the Catholic Church and Church-affiliated institutions may be granted use of an associated .католик domain name to establish formal and official channels of online communication for the Catholic Church, and to promote the overall mission⁄purpose of the .католик TLD. The domain names granted for use by each entity will be the linguistic term most closely related to the official name of each entity, as determined by the PCCS and within the boundaries of protected name limitations. Additionally, the PCCS may in its sole discretion register generic terms for its own use or the use of recognised institutions. The use of the domain names by the PCCS and the recognised institutions is subject to internal acceptable use policies.

This restriction on eligibility ensures the identification of the .католик TLD with the Catholic Church. It ensures that the information provided is consistent with the official views and teachings of the Catholic Church and thereby enjoys an appropriate authoritativeness. This restriction consequently strengthens the function of the .католик TLD as a communication channel for the Church, whose authenticity is a result of the verified nature of the recognised institutions. Furthermore, this ensures the consistency and coherence of the information supplied by the different institutions.

In addition the following restrictions apply to all .католик domain names:

- the Registry Operator will reserve names in accordance with Specification 5 of the Registry Agreement. The protection of geographic names in the .католик TLD will be described further in the response to Question 22 — Protection of Geographic Names.

- Domain names will be registered to the PCCS for a one year term.

- .католик domain names must be used to promote the mission⁄purpose of the TLD and must therefore only host material relating to the Catholic Church in accordance with the acceptable use policy.

Restrictions on who may be granted use of domain names and the acceptable use policy ensure the reliability, the authenticity and trustworthiness of information published. Self-regulation is the initial mechanism in place for this, with existing Church protocols regarding internal disputes to be utilised for any issues relating to registrations or information.

Periodic audits will ensure that these restrictions are adhered to. These restrictions ensure that all domain names will be used to promote the mission⁄purpose of the TLD.

The combination of restrictions on eligibility and use of domain names, and the established methods of internal dispute settlement to govern content matters, will ensure that the advancement of the TLD’s goals relating to establishing an authoritative and legitimate TLD for Church-related communications may be achieved.


PROTECTION OF PRIVACY AND CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION

All domain name registrations in the .католик TLD will be registered to, and maintained by, the PCCS for the exclusive use of the PCCS and the verified institutions. No information in addition to that which is published on WhoIs will be collected from the sole registrant — the PCCS. Therefore, specific measures to protect publically available information are unnecessary.

No obligations will be imposed by the registry operator on registrars in relation to the handling of confidential information. Note the obligations imposed on registrars through the RAA in relation to handling registrant and confidential information.

In order to be granted use of a .католик domain name, the name of the authorised entities must be verified by the PCCS against a list of formally recognised Church-affiliated institutions. Because only formally recognised entities will be granted use of domain names, and the information that supports this claim (the name of the entity) is not sensitive information, the PCCS does not consider necessary to keep this information confidential. In all cases the PCCS’ Security Policy protects against the misuse of this information.

The PCCS’ Privacy Policy will require that measures are in place to prevent disclosure of confidential information including registrant contact information — other than available through WhoIs, or intentional disclosures to ICANN or law enforcement agencies.


OUTREACH AND COMMINICATION ACTIVITIES

Outreach and communications activities to promote the .католик TLD will be undertaken through the Church’s channels of communication. Conferences of Bishops will be informed of the benefits of using a .католик domain. The highly authoritative position that the PCCS holds within the Church will likely result in a high level of uptake following outreach efforts.

The PCCS enjoys a high degree of support in its work to promote the Catholic faith globally, as all dioceses benefit from this work. Diocese-level support for the TLD is therefore assumed to be in place and easily leveraged into use of domain names in the TLD.

The PCCS has existing staff that are employed to promote social media outreach, and the TLD is a natural extension of existing initiatives. Staffing requirements and promotional networks which are in place will be utilised to promote the TLD. The PCCS will directly manage these high-level efforts.

Subsequent to this, local promotion will become the responsibility of the dioceses. The promotion of the TLD by dioceses will serve to increase the value in their own domain names and, by extension, in the TLD itself. Appropriate use of registrations will help strengthen the dioceses’ positions in the local communities, a goal that is embraced both by the global Church structure and by local establishments.

The awareness generated through outreach and communications activities described above are critical to the achievement of the goals of the .католик TLD. With a broad uptake, the Church would enjoy a new communication channel which would enable it to reach of its own members and the general public.

This is in accordance with the overall aims of the PCCS, having over 40 years’ experience in utilising media to promote the Catholic faith, and this places PCCS in a strong position to successfully add communications via the .католик TLD to its existing range of communication methods.