Is the user name a clue to the target audience?
By now Google’s bots have crawled, indexed and cached all over this story – allow me to join in the echo-chamber that is the intertubes: the Catholic Church has for the first time approved an iPhone/iPad app called ‘Confession‘ that helps guide worshippers through, well, confession. This comes in the wake of Pope Benedict XVI urging Christians last January to embrace digital communication and make their presence felt online.
The app takes users through the sacrament – in which Catholics admit their wrongdoings – and allows them to keep track of their sins and to examine their conscience based on personalised factors such as age, sex and marital status.
iPurgatory ...?
“Our desire is to invite Catholics to engage in their faith through digital technology,” Patrick Leinen of developer Little iApps told Reuters.
The firm said the app was developed with assistance from several priests and had been given the church’s imprimatur by Bishop Kevin Rhoades of the Diocese of Fort Wayne in Indiana.
In the few days since the announcement most of the 24/7ths of second news-cycle has centred on the never-going-to-get-old ‘X? There’s an app for that’ gag. In response, the Church has been been doing some serious back-pedalling (which admittedly is hard to do in a cassock) in an effort to correct the perception that Confession replaces, um, confession as a sacrament – however did people get so confused about this distinction? - and the need to be receive absolution from a priest.
So far, all controversy, no analysis. The lone exception I’ve come across was in a post from Father John Zuhlsdorf’s trail-blazing (for a Catholic priest) blog, whose review takes the reader step-by-step through what the app can do, providing copious screenshots along the way. I recommend you check it out for a detailed run-down.
He has also provided some pastoral criticism to which the developers have responded . They have now added a bit of text to the first page of the confession page on the bottom, “This app is intended to be used during the Sacrament of Penance with a Catholic priest only. This is not a substitute for a valid confession.” Because official sanction always clears up unwanted interpretations …
But while critical, it’s still coming from the home crowd. So, to some preliminary observations. First, some screenshots:
Despite the facade of embracing modernity, it didn’t take long for the Catholic Church to once again belie its name by singling out the occult as a sin. And I think some will think it a bit rich that it also considers ‘involvement in superstitious practices’ to be on the naughty list.
Then there’s the money-screenshot:
There it is – both masturbation and homosexuality! I wonder what Apple’s famously coherent App Store guidelines might have to say about that? Oh, that’s right:
19. Religion, culture, and ethnicity
19.1
Apps containing references or commentary about a religious, cultural or ethnic group that are defamatory, offensive, mean-spirited or likely to expose the targeted group to harm or violence will be rejected
The app also now prevents you from selecting priest as your vocation if you have also selected female as your sex in the user profile. Hmm …
Speaking of money, I think even the person in the street (actually, especially street people) will also think it a bit rich that the Church charges anything at all for the US$1.99 app. Surely the vast wealth of the Vatican and the massive tax-breaks that the Church enjoys are able to offset all its costs?
And so to the faint scent of simony that the app suggests: the crime of paying for sacraments. Now officially this is avoided by the insistence that it doesn’t replace the sacrament. As any Marshall McLuhan fan could tell you, however, the medium ends up being the main message – despite dogmatic correction, the app will inevitably be seen as a de facto sacrament.
In fact, as a devout Catholic, McLuhan would have been very disturbed by the Church’s ‘capitulation’ to technology. According to the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University, an information clearinghouse for all things Catholic, three-quarters of Catholics report that they never participate in confession, known as the sacrament of reconciliation, or that they do so less than once a year. The app can only accelerate the trend by acting as a substitute. Skype and chat priests and other ordained can only be a matter of time.
Then there would be the critics from within the Church who would agree that while it is right that the app not replace the sacrament of confession it doesn’t go far enough as a spiritual tool for the examination of conscience. As a former Catholic myself, I can attest that the app is a far cry from the Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Jesuits.
The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola, (composed from 1522-1524) are a brief set of Christian meditations, prayers and mental exercises, divided in four thematic ‘weeks’ of variable length, designed to be carried out over a period of 28 to 30 days. The main aim of the Exercises is the development within the human psyche of “discernment” (discretio), the ability to discern between good and evil spirits. Discernment is achieved in order to act “with the Grace of God”. Not only would an app adapted from the Exercises be truly Catholic and appeal more universally, attracting Protestant interest, but it would be a far cry from the infantile and mechanical authoritarian paint-by-numbers moral hazard that the Confession app reveals is now firmly a part of the institution of confession.
Of course, we finally come to the heart of the matter: will this be released for Android users? And if not, are we to surmise that its because they are more likely to be Protestant or – gasp – non-believers! Max Weber would be proud …
‘Catholic church gives blessing to iPhone app‘, BBC News (08/02/2011)
‘Bless me iPhone for I have sinned‘, Reuters (07/02/2010)
Manya Brachear, ‘iPhone, iPad offers confession, not absolution‘ Chicago Tribune (09/02/2011)
‘Sorry, Catholics can’t confess via the new iPhone app – Vatican‘ Faithworld BLOG Reuters (09/02/2011)
Terry Mattingly, ‘Time for confession at Times of London‘ GetReligion.org (09/02/2011)
Fr. John Zuhlsdorf, ’REVIEW: The new iPhone app for confession – useful but flawed‘ Father Z’s Blog (08/02/2011)
‘Bogus Claims About iPhone Confession App‘ Catholic League (08/02/2011)
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Father John Zuhlsdorf,
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Marshall McLuhan,
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Patrick Leinen,
Pope Benedict XVI,
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