Confession: ‘There’s an app for that’
The iTunes Store has released an application designed by Little iApps, LLC to aid Catholics or religious buyers in the confessional process.
Confession: A Roman Catholic App can be used on an iPod Touch, iPhone or iPad in the confessional of the buyer’s preferred church.
The iTunes description said the confession application is supposed to be used by individuals who have been away from confessional. Little iApps collaborated with two Catholic priests to recreate it.
“The app we created is supposed to be used in the actual confessional,” Patrick Leinen, co-founder of the Little iApps, said to CNN. “This is an aid to confession and in no way, shape or form a replacement.”
The creation of the religious application was met with immediate controversy.
Roy Lanham, a campus minister at the Newman Catholic Center, said while technology has its place, it should not be in the Catholic churches.
Lanham said he hopes the phone application fails.
“Save your money and bring it to church,” he said.
There are three steps in the application to guide Catholics through the sacrament: confession preparation, confession instructions and finally a blank space to record the absolution from the priest.
During a Feb. 10 press conference, Vatican spokesperson Federico Lombardi also cautioned against using the application instead of going to a church.
“It is essential to understand well the sacrament of penitence requires the personal dialogue between the penitent and the confessor and the absolution by the confessor,” Lombardi said, according to CNN.
The Catholic sacrament of penitence, or confession, is one of the seven sacraments, which are signs instituted by Jesus Christ to give grace, Lanham said.
Doris Nordin, a campus minister for the Newman Catholic Center, said the confession process is too personal to bring your electronic device into the confessional.
“The idea is to come with an open heart and start all over,” Nordin said.
But would busy college students be able to use the application in a more productive way?
Steve Karlson, a senior biological sciences major, said he did not see anything wrong with the application.
Vinny Drake, a sophomore business major, said he would try out the iTunes application. He attended Catholic schools up until his enrollment at Eastern last school year.
Kelsey Myers said the application was silly and she would not use it.
“It’s almost like people are too lazy to remember their own sins,” the sophomore education major said. “If you need help remembering your sins then you must not be that sorry.”
Nike Ogunbodede can be reached at 581-2812 or ovogunbodede@eiu.edu.
