Hail Mary! Catholic Church Blesses iPhone App
By William Fenton
On the first day he created a YouTube channel. On the second day he embraced social networking. On the third day, the Pope went mobile.
The Catholic Church has blessed "Confession," a new iPhone app, according to a report from Reuters. Billed as the "perfect aid for every penitent," the $2 app from Little iApps helps worshippers track sins and pay penance.
In addition to a step-by-step guide to the sacrament, Confession explores your conscience through a personalized examination of your sex, age, and marital status. Password-protected profiles mean than more than one sinner can confess with privacy.
Despite looking almost as much fun as the real thing, the app doesn't aim to replace traditional confession—instead, it's a tool to help users understand their actions before visiting their priest. To this, the church approves: in what appears to be a first, senior officials in America bestowed their seal of approval to a mobile phone application.
Granted, this isn't the first time the church has embraced technology. In early 2009, the church launched a Vatican YouTube channel. At last month's 45th World Communications Day, Pope Benedict also urged Catholics to expand their relationships by embracing social-networking sites like Facebook. In this context, the church's e-embrace of Confession computes.
"Our desire is to invite Catholics to engage in their faith through digital technology," explained Patrick Leinen, developer at Little iApps. "Taking to heart Pope Benedict XVI's message from last years' World Communications Address, our goal with this project is to offer a digital application that is truly 'new media' at the service of the word."
Confession is available now through the iTunes App Store for $1.99. I for one plan to indulge, if only to see if the app scales to the demands of a devout sinner.
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