Holy Year: Vatican launches AI service for St. Peter’s Basilica

As the Catholic Church’s Jubilee celebrations in 2025 draw nearer, the new experiences were unveiled as part of the Holy Year’s preparation. The event comes around every 25 years in a century.  

For the AI model, the church collaborated with big tech company Microsoft, and Iconem, a company that specializes in heritage site digitalization. The Vatican launched a new interactive website, a digital replica of the basilica, and two AI-enabled exhibitions. On record, about 40,000-50,000 people visit the Basilica daily.

A 3D model of St. Peter’s was built scanning the basilica using drones, cameras, and lasers. AI algorithms pieced together, elaborated, and completed the data. Drones flew at night for 4 weeks, taking over 400,000 photographs and collecting the equivalent of a 6 km-high column of DVDs in data. Data from the digital twin will also be instrumental in the preservation and restoration of the project.

When the project was presented to him on Monday, Pope Francis acknowledged that AI can broaden access to knowledge. Meanwhile, he warned that it must only be used in an ethical way that benefits humanity.

What you should know about The Vatican’s Holy Year

A Holy Year usually happens once every 25 years. It can only be especially celebrated outside this period when a pope calls an extraordinary one to call attention to a particular issue or celebrate a momentous event. The first Roman Catholic Holy Year is believed to have been instigated by Pope Boniface seven centuries ago.

The last ordinary Holy Year was held in 2000 under Pope John Paul II. The next extraordinary Holy Year was called by Francis in 2016 to emphasize his desire to present the Church as merciful and welcoming rather than moralizing and remote.

During a Jubilee, Catholics can obtain special indulgences, or remission of their sins, if they fulfil certain conditions and do good works or make pilgrimages. The Vatican website says a Holy Year should also be a time of reconciliation with adversaries and an occasion to promote solidarity, hope, and justice in the world.

The Holy Doors, which symbolize the doorway of salvation for Catholics, are only opened during Jubilee years. There are four such doors in Rome — St. Peter’s Basilica, St. John Lateran, St. Mary Major, and St. Paul Outside the Walls.

St. Peter’s will be the focal point, with its door opening on Dec. 24 and closing on Jan. 6, 2026. Traditionally, pilgrims passing through these doors secure the remission of their sins. Other Holy Doors will be designated around the world, with Francis saying he wanted to open one in a prison.

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