The Pope recalled that the year 2025 is a jubilee year dedicated to hope, as well as the 1700th anniversary of the Ecumenical Council of Nicaea (now Iznik, Turkey, which he said is considering visiting).

A document by the Commission "intended to shed light on the timeliness of the faith professed at Nicaea" could "prove invaluable, in the course of the Jubilee Year, to nourish and deepen the faith of believers and, based on the figure of Jesus, to offer insights and reflections useful for a new cultural and social paradigm inspired by the humanity of Christ," the Pope said.

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Using advanced AI and photogrammetry, this project will provide millions of people throughout the world a virtual gateway to one of Catholicism's holiest sites. The launch coincides with preparations for the 2025 Holy Year Jubilee.

The initiative, known as "Petros Eni" (Greek for "Peter is here"), employs Microsoft's cutting-edge AI and Iconem's photogrammetry to produce a hyper-detailed, 3D digital "twin" of St Peter's Basilica.

Visitors to Rome will experience the exhibit in person, while an online version will make the basilica accessible to those who cannot travel. Additionally, schools worldwide will have access via Minecraft Education, the popular video game platform.

400,000 high-resolution images

Microsoft's president Brad Smith described the project as "the oldest organisation in the world collaborating with the newest technology".

At a press event, Smith highlighted the extraordinary scale of the effort. For three weeks, drones coordinated by AI from Iconem, a French startup, captured over 400,000 high-resolution images of the basilica's intricate architecture, art and structure. Laser scanning allowed precise location mapping and AI algorithms processed the data to create the replica, ensuring a model accurate to one millimetre.

Smith emphasised that Microsoft provided its services free-of-charge, underscoring the collaboration's significance.

The Fabric of St Peter, the Vatican institution overseeing the basilica's preservation, plans to use the digital data to aid future restorations, noting its value in preserving the site for generations.

According to Cardinal Mauro Gambetti, archpriest of St Peter's Basilica, the digital twin project will allow visitors "to see this basilica as no generation has seen it before" - from missing mosaic tiles to previously hidden architectural details.

Pope Francis affirmed the project's spiritual significance, seeing St Peter's Basilica as "a place where everyone, whether in search of faith or in admiration of art, feels welcome".

Sources

Religion News Service

Technical Master

Random House Publishing announced the memoir's unprecedented global release on Wednesday. According to the publisher, the original plan was to release it after his death. However, the pope decided to publish it in light of the upcoming 2025 Jubilee Year of Hope.

A jubilee year occurs every 25 years in the Catholic Church - although the Holy Father can declare them more often - and is a year of special grace and pilgrimage for members of the faithful.

The memoir, which the Holy Father began work on in March 2019, will be available in more than 80 countries on Jan 14, 2025.

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