Hacker group Anonymous has taken down several Vatican websites, including the Catholic Church's main site at vatican.va. The group says the attacks were not against Catholics around the world, but against the "corrupt" Church.

"Anonymous decided today to besiege your site in response to the doctrine, to the liturgies, to the absurd and anachronistic concepts that your for-profit organisation spreads around the world," the hackers said in a statement posted to Pastebin.

Anonymous also accused the Church of executing its detractors throughout history, harboring Nazi war criminals, allowing child molestation, and interfering in the daily lives of Italians.

The hacker group tried and failed to attack the Vatican website last year, according to a new report called "The Anatomy of an Anonymous Attack," published just days ago by computer security company Imperva.

Today's attack comes one day after key members of Anonymous and LulzSec were indicted for conspiracy to commit computer hacking, and just hours after Anonymous hacked several websites belonging to Spanish computer security firm Panda Security.

[afp]