By Tom Tracy - Florida Catholic
Photographer: Tom Tracy
Scott Coloney, right, president and founder of ConstantLife – an artificial intelligence company based in Fort Lauderdale – demonstrates an AI-generated avatar of the late Father John O’Looney, who was first appointed pastor of St. Anthony Parish in 1929. The AI avatar was created for the centennial festivities at St. Anthony Catholic School in Fort Lauderdale Sept. 13, 2026.
FORT LAUDERDALE | When asked how long it took to scan historical documents, newspaper articles, pictures and audio recordings concerning a 1920s-era priest for Fort Lauderdale’s oldest Catholic parochial school, an answer of several years might have been expected.
However, the truth is a fraction of the time.
“About three weeks ago, we started curating and preparing,” said Scott Coloney, president and founder of ConstantLife – an artificial intelligence company based in Fort Lauderdale that created an AI-generated avatar based on a long-since-deceased, beloved pastor of St. Anthony Parish.
Coloney was on hand Sept. 13 for the 100th anniversary Mass and celebration of St. Anthony School, Broward County’s first Catholic school. The event featured an open house and historical fair for students, alumni, faculty and members of the community.
Coloney explained to the Florida Catholic how ConstantLife’s technology allowed St. Anthony’s community to engage in direct “dialogue” with an AI avatar based on the late Father John O’Looney, who was first appointed pastor of St. Anthony Parish in 1929 and who was a fixture in the school and parish community for many decades.
At the Sept. 13 event, attendees sampled the AI interactive creation during the open house reception in the school’s gymnasium. Users were able to see an avatar version of the priest, ask questions, challenge the responses of “Father O’Looney,” and explore the past through simulated conversation conducted through a large screen.
The AI project is similar to others Coloney’s company has created about historical figures such as George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin and John Hancock.
“We saw it was a great tool for museums and the classrooms to bring those historical figures into the classroom,” said Coloney, who also serves as a trustee of History Fort Lauderdale, a nonprofit museum and library.
Photographer: Tom Tracy
During the centennial festivities at St. Anthony Catholic School in Fort Lauderdale Sept. 13, 2026, guests encounter an AI-generated avatar likeness of the late Father John O’Looney, who was first appointed pastor of the parish in 1929.
“When we were approaching the 100th anniversary at St. Anthony, we showed the school what we were working on and they said it would be great if we could do this with Father O’Looney,” he said. “So we immediately jumped into action and walked over to the parish research center across the street.”
The real Monsignor O’Looney supervised the building of the church that still stands today, which was dedicated in 1949. The first, smaller St. Anthony Church was built on East Las Olas Boulevard, dedicated in 1922 as Broward’s first Catholic church. A convent was constructed in 1939, followed by the completion of a gymnasium one year after. Later on, a high school division of St. Anthony School became St. Thomas Aquinas High School, also in Broward County.
After collecting research materials – none of which had been digitized – Coloney and his team of volunteers at History Fort Lauderdale started scanning the material, including some newspaper clippings from the old Archdiocese of Miami newspaper. The team also used audio-based oral histories given by some of Father O’Looney’s priest contemporaries in the later part of his life.
“Then, we started curating all of the material on Father O’Looney and even went back to a time before the school was established: to 1900, when the priest was born in Ireland, through 1920, when he left County Clare, Ireland, for the U.S.”
The future priest took a steamship to New York and was ordained there at St. Patrick’s Cathedral before coming to Miami and being assigned to St. Anthony in 1928.
“He was there for fifty years,” Coloney said, adding that the result of the AI project is a photoreal, speaking figure — not a chatbot on a kiosk. Visitors describe the product as they would describe meeting someone.
“We fall under museum standards, and the technology is a supportive tool to connect past generations with current and future generations. We intend to add more to it. This is a work in progress, but for what we have, it is a very good start.”
Coloney said new historical information will continue to be added to the AI avatar.
“The beauty of it is that we are not finished and will continue on,” he added.
Join the celebration!
- St. Anthony School’s ongoing Centennial Celebration is open to alumni, current and former families, parishioners, friends of the school, and members of the community. Additional centennial events will be announced throughout the 2026-2027 school year. For more information, visit their website at https://www.saintanthonyschoolfl.org/alumni/reunions.
