Pope Francis Makes History by Becoming the First Pontiff to Write Code
As well as writing code, the pope held video conferences with young
people from around the world at the ‘Programme for Peace’ project launch
last week.
by Ross Kelly, Junior Staff Writer @rossk_1992
https://digit.fyi/pope-francis-writes-code/
Computer history was made last week when Pope Francis helped write a
line of code for a United Nations development app.
At an event organised by the Scholas Occurrentes foundation in Vatican
City, the pontiff joined three young women to write the code. As well as
becoming the first pope to code, he called on students around the world
to learn computer science for world peace.
The event marked the launched of the ‘Programming for Peace’ project,
which aims to introduce students from disadvantaged communities to
computer science and to help use their tech talent for “ethical” purposes.
The three young women, Matilde Fabrega Vivanco from Chile; Nicole
Rodriguez from New York; and Liuren Yin from China, are learning
computer science in school. Vivanco helped the pontiff in adding the
last line of code to the app.
The app the trio wrote aims to show how technology can be used to
advance the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.
The goals are the UN’s blueprint to “achieve a better and more
sustainable future for all” – which address global challenges such as
poverty, inequality, climate and justice. A key focus of the scheme is
to improve education and innovation around the world.
A commemorative plaque shown on the app screen was blessed by Pope
Francis, which read: “Computer science empowers young people to create
peace in their communities. Everyone should learn how to harness
technology, to use their creative power for peace.”
As well as writing code, the pontiff held video conferences with young
people from around the world and spoke to children who had participated
in a number of technology programmes promoted by Scholas.
Hadi Partovi, co-founder of Code.org, was present at the launch of the
Programming for Peace project, live-tweeting the events as they unfolded.
During the event, Partovi commented: “In the 21st century, computer
science is a fundamental subject that all students should learn. Schools
should teach computer science to prepare students for the future,
empower children with creativity and teach how to harness technology and
creativity.”
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Original article includes photo
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Albert Peres
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