= Catholic OS is "an initiative that brings together Catholic developers, educators, and advocates to build free and open-source technologies in service to the Church's mission". [1]

Description

"Catholic Open Source (aka Catholic OS) is an initiative that brings together Catholic developers, educators, and advocates to build free and open-source technologies in service to the Church's mission of evangelization.

The Catholic Digital Commons Foundation (CDCF), incorporated on January 21, 2026 in the State of Texas, coordinates community efforts for the common good and contributes to a shared digital patrimony for the Catholic Church, in partnership with other Catholic organizations while also maintaining a close collaboration with the Church hierarchy.

This GitHub organization serves as a collaborative space where contributors can share ideas, develop projects, and explore how technology can best support the Church's evangelizing mission. As part of this effort, Catholic Open Source Hackathons (COSH) — a series of virtual and in-person events — are conducted to activate and unite contributors in hands-on collaboration, serving as a cornerstone format to animate the broader Catholic OS initiative. The GitHub organization is a place where participants can share their work and collaborate with others, and where hackathon projects can be hosted."

(https://github.com/CatholicOS)

Governance

The Catholic Digital Commons Foundation, which maintains Catholic OS has a governance framework and depository of documents at https://github.com/CatholicOS/foundation-docs

CDCF writes:

"Catholic institutions serving tens of millions of people across healthcare, education, social services, and parish life are deploying AI without a shared, canonical standard for what responsible Catholic deployment looks like. This repository addresses that gap.

It holds the policy frameworks, evaluation criteria, and research documentation that inform how the CDCF reviews, incubates, and graduates technology projects submitted for consideration. The documents are initial working drafts: versioned, iterable, and open to contribution from the CDCF community, member dioceses, and Catholic technology practitioners worldwide.

The Two-Gate Framework: Every technology project submitted to the CDCF passes through two evaluation gates before reaching active project status.

Gate 1 (covers) Incubation Acceptance Mission alignment · Human accountability architecture · Transparency of scope · Independent validation · Subgroup performance · Deployment governance specification

Gate 2 (governs) the Graduation to Active Status Documentation for independent deployment · Data stewardship · Governance, maintenance, and subsidiarity compatibility. Graduation (to Gate 2) requires that Gate 1 criteria remain satisfied and that Gate 2 requirements are met. The gate structure applies to AI tools now and is designed for extension to technology projects more broadly."

(https://github.com/CatholicOS/foundation-docs)

The Catholic Church's Magisterial Grounding on AI

List provided via https://github.com/CatholicOS/foundation-docs.

URL's added from public sources.

Antiqua et Nova: Note on the Relationship Between Artificial Intelligence and Human Intelligence (Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith and Dicastery for Culture and Education, January 2025)

URL: https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_ddf_doc_20250128_antiqua-et-nova_en.html

Joint Letter on Artificial Intelligence: Principles and Priorities (United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, June 2025)

URL: https://www.usccb.org/news/2025/us-bishops-release-joint-letter-artificial-intelligence-principles-and-priorities

Address on AI and Care for Our Common Home (Pope Leo XIV, December 2025)

URL: The official text is likely available on the Vatican website. A specific link was not found, but it would be archived at https://www.vatican.va/content/leoxiv/en.html under addresses from December 2025.

Address to the Builders AI Forum (Pope Leo XIV, November 2025)

URL: Similar to the above, the official text should be available on the Vatican website at https://www.vatican.va/content/leoxiv/en.html under addresses from November 2025.