The Vatican Will Have Its First Hackathon In History

In seriously offbeat news, the Vatican just announced it will host Vhacks, the first hackathon in the Holy City.

If you thought coding and the Vatican are two incompatible things, we don’t blame you. However, it’s a great initiative that shows how the latest Vatican administration is open to new ideas.

Though the Pope had no input in the Vhacks event, according to Jakub Florkiewicz, co-initiator of the event, Vatican insiders have been very open to the concept. At least, once he explained to everyone what a hackathon actually is: “The Vatican operates different dicasteries and congregations, and each has different speeds of how they go into digital innovation.”

“Hackathon is a broad concept – we had to spend some time presenting our idea to various people in Rome, to ensure everyone understands that this had nothing to do with actually hacking. We wanted to ensure everyone understood that we are trying to address non-religious, global socio-economic problems”, he added.

Students from all religious backgrounds are going to join Vhacks. The event already has 120 participants who will code for great causes between March 8th and 11th. “A hackathon might seem unexpected to be organized by a religious organization. But not until one learns about the problems ‘to be hacked.’ It focuses on three themes: Social Inclusion, Interfaith Dialogue, and Migrants and Refugees,” said the organizers.

Indeed, it’s a great initiative, especially since Catholics have expressed the wish of having a Church more in touch with current developments.

So far, they’ve been doing great on social media! We’ll be sure to check out the Vatican Hackathon Twitter account, that’s for sure.

Vatican News community exceeds 4 million users on social media! If you were in charge of the Vatican’s media strategy what issues would you highlight? How would you use your influence?#VHacks2018 #socialmedia https://t.co/Q9j11sBdy6

— VHacks (@VHacks2018) February 2, 2018