(these are the Manifesto and Frequently Answered Questions of the Elèutheros Project, first published in April 2006 and restored here in March 2026 by Marco Fioretti)
In the modern world, more and more documents and services are made available in digital format. Even if it can be a source of huge progress for all humankind, this phenomenon often happens through technologies which become obsolete in a few years, are incompatible with each other or cannot be afforded by everybody.
This fact creates serious obstacles to a really free communication among people, to the preservation of the cultural and spiritual heritage of humankind and to the diffusion of the Word of God.
The mission of the Church can be slowed down also when Her documents, from Holy Scriptures to Encyclicals and other official texts, cannot be distributed freely.
In addition to this, often many Catholics commit a crime, even if only for lack of adequate information,by using illegally installed proprietary software.
The Catholic Church and all Catholics cannot afford anymore to ignore these problems, because they interfere with Her/their mission and because practicable alternatives already exist.
On the basis of official Church documents like Encyclicals and CEI directorates, we are convinced that there are strong ideal affinities between Christianity, the philosophy of Free Software and the adoption of Open Formats and Protocols. We believe it is evident that the usage of such instruments is much more in line with Catholic Doctrine than fully closed, non Free solutions.
Elèutheros is an association of Catholics whose mission is to serve the Catholic Church through promotion and development of an always increasing harmony between the doctrinal principles mentioned above and the concrete choices made in the Information Technology field at all levels in the ecclesiastical world: from Parishes to Dioceses, from School to Congregations, up to Bishop Conferences and the Vatican itself.
For the reasons mentioned above, Elèutheros intends to:
Catholic inspiration and action for, and inside, the Catholic Church are at the center of the Elèutheros mission. This said, Elèutheros hopes that there will be cooperation with other Christian groups of any denomination, in order to achieve the goals of Elèutheros. Even cooperation or common activities with non-Christian religious groups is not excluded.
Elèutheros is ancient Greek for Free: in this context, we mean Free to communicate without restrictions. We were inspired by the verb eleutheròo as used in the Holy Scripture, for example in John 8,32 and Galathians 4,31-5,1.
The promotion, inside the Catholic Church, of the software, computer protocols and file formats more compatible with Her own Doctrine: those Free (as in Freedom) in the sense explained by other questions in this page. To know more on why and how we want to reach this goal, please read the Elèutheros Manifesto.
It is software developed with a spirit of Collaboration and Sharing. Therefore, according to Elèutheros, such software is more compatible with Catholic Doctrine than software which is proprietary, that is software which cannot be shared, adapted to the needs of all users and often has license costs or hardware requirements which are not sustainable by the users with less economic possibilities.
The lower cost of Free Software, especially in the medium and long term, has been demonstrated by several studies. Cost is important from the point of view of both the Church and Elèutheros, but it is not the reason why Elèutheros was founded. We believe that, regardless of cost, Free Software and file formats should be preferred for ethical reasons, that is for their greater potential to make Information Technology and computer communications more accessible to the poorest regions and users of the world, and not only to them. The passage to non proprietary protocols and file formats like OpenDocument is also necessary to guarantee that the all documents, not just those of the Church, are and remain universally accessible forever.
File formats and computer protocols can be defined Free and Open if their complete specifications are publicly available, maintained by international, non-profit organizations and useable by everybody without any legal or economic restriction.
No, because we don’t see the need for them: a Catholic Free Software user has nothing different, from a practical or didactic point of view, from any other user, only more reasons to use that kind of software. Consequently, Elèutheros will promote, inside the Catholic community, to already existing collections of Free Software
No, or at least not as an official project goal, for the same reasons explained in the previous questions. There already are many active LUGs in any country, ready to provide technical and teaching support, and being Catholic doesn’t create any special need from this point of view.
Yes, but (almost) only to help them to find the right resources. Within the limits of their possibilities, the members of Elèutheros are available (see the question “How can I contact Elèutheros?”) to help solving the initial problems of first time Free Software users and, if needed, to help them to find expert users in their neighborhood, who will be able to provide support directly, even in person if possible.
Elèutheros is an association of Catholics, and its specific mission is to promote the adoption of open information technologies in the Catholic Church. This, of course, doesn’t exclude participating to discussions, common technical activities and exchange of informations and know-how with members of any other group, be it religious or not, interested in the same issues.
(the original version of this question provided email addresses that are no longer valid, so I replaced them with mine)
To receive technical support (within the limits explained in the question “So, you will not offer technical support”) please write to [our support address]
To know more about Elèutheros, discuss possible partnership, establish a direct contact or any other non technical communication with the project, please write to mfioretti@nexaima.net