There’s an app out that recently got approval from the Catholic Church: it’s called Confession. The Roman Catholic app has been designed for Catholics to take time out of their day and speak to God over the iPhone — except when holding it wrong. This, not free — but $1.99 — app has people in the Vatican speaking out about it, and we aren’t too sure if they like it or hate it.
We heard that it was approved by a Catholic bishop in Indiana, and that inspiration came from the man closest to God. Patrick Leinen, the developer, said he was inspired in developing the app by Pope Benedict XVI’s call to the faithful to use new media to good purposes.
A spokesperson for the Vatican said that confessions cannot be done over iPhone and is no substitute for being present with a priest. “One cannot speak in any way of confessing via iPhone,” Father Federico Lombardi said on Wednesday. “This cannot be substituted by any IT application,” Lombardi added.
The confusion came up when ala carte Catholics decided that since the Catholic church approved the app then it must be okay to confess to it. The Vatican wants to make sure people still come to church and not depend on the iPhone app to bring peace and solitude. I, for one, am glad to see more people taking instruction from iPhones. It will help my grand plan of domination when I release iJump, the app that instructs all users to jump off a bridge.