Vatican accidentally lets anyone whatsoever send emails to millions of people via their official press release list.

For a brief moment the Vatican opened its doors to give voice to anyone who wanted to speak. Advertisements and annoying emails were sent out to the unwashed masses via their mailing list to thousands of journalists including myself, and no doubt many others who resquest their press-releases to be sent to them.

From strange comments about what an email author thought was a deluded Vatican, to away-from-work-notices and awkward questions... the Vatican allowed subscribers and journalists to be bombarded in a hellish technological failure.

For about an hour Today, my inbox became cluttered with mass mailed messages sent to me from the Vatican's Vatican Information Service mailing list. I was not the only one, as seemingly Vatican staff allowed anyone who emailed their mailing list reply-to-address: access millions of people. Some of the emails sent included advertising, and others' emails to the Vatican reply-to-address revealed to many people that a person might not be home. This sort of error should be easily avoided, given the zero day possibilities to heavily embarrass the world's oldest existing organization.

Here is a screenshot of my phone's inbox at the time, with one of the many emails partially open, which were sent to many from the Vatican's address.

Vatican major tech error. Every reply to their mailing list going to all subscribers of press releases. pic.twitter.com/18zYqfYu0A

— Marc Evan Aupiais (@SACNSNew) April 26, 2014