A Bit of Catholic Geekiness

Fair warning. Those of you who are not Catholic may skip this post. I'll give you a minute. :-)

Okay, here we go. There's a new iPhone app that's been in the news lately, Confession: A Roman Catholic App. This $2 application gives the user a guide to the Sacrament of Reconciliation. It provides a basic guide to an Examination of Conscience, along with a step-by-step guide on what to do in the confessional. This is probably the first app to receive approval from a Church authority in the U.S. As is typical when it's about the Catholic Church, the true purpose of the application is being misrepresented by some in the press. We've seen this distorting agenda promoted regarding other matters. The application IS NOT a substitute for proper Confession; that still needs to be done between a Priest and the penitent FACE TO FACE. There's a full review on using the Confession app on Fr. Z's blog.

When I saw this app I got to thinking how wonderful it would be if some young person who's been away from the Sacrament got up the courage to return just by the "geekiness" of this iPhone application. About the same time I was contemplating this I saw a news report about "gifting" iPhone applications. That's why I decided to post. Perhaps there is someone out there who might be inspired to return to the Sacrament of Reconciliation if they knew about this application. My impression of the Confession app after playing with it a bit is that it's geared towards folks who don't go to Confession on a regular basis. If it helps that person get closer to their faith, then it certainly is a good thing.