The Vatican Minecraft server is being targeted by trolls, unfortunately

A Minecraft server set up for the Vatican that would create a safe space for gamers has been subject to trolls’ DDoS attacks (via DualShockers).

Father Robert R Ballecer, also known as the Digital Jesuit, is a Catholic priest and technology podcaster for This Week in Tech and Hands-On Tech on TWiT.tv. In September, Ballecer posed a question to his Twitter followers as to which game should be set up at the Vatican to create a friendly and creative space for players. Minecraft outstripped the competition in Team Fortress 2, ARK, and Rust.

Rome Reports interviewed Ballecer on his newest venture, and he said that people struggled to square away his occupation and his technological know-how. “You see this guy in a collar talking about the latest offerings from Google, or how you run fibre optics across the Atlantic, and they didn’t understand it,” he claimed. “They said, ‘Wait a minute, these two things don’t go together’ but after time people started realising, ‘Okay, he knows what he’s talking about he just happens to be a priest.’ And ultimately, that was the ministry I was trying to do.”

Unfortunately, Ballecer’s Minecraft server has been undermined by trolls, and mods have been banning those users who are believed to be triggering DDoS attacks. The nature of these attacks means that, even with the best laptop for Minecraft you won’t be able to access the server. Ballecer has been trying his best to transition from a test server to a production server while these attacks have been going on. It’s a shame. Hopefully, the priest and the team of mods are able to wrangle control away from the trolls and the server realises its potential as a safe space for all gamers.