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

The long-term vision is to establish a non-profit organization — the Catholic Open Source Foundation (COSF) — that will help coordinate community efforts for the common good and contribute 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.

In this early phase, the 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 — will be 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.