With the Pope’s thumb’s up – confess to a phone, and save greenhouse gas emissions?
The Catholic Church is embracing the burgeoning digital world and encouraging its followers to do the same. With its own You Tube channel and Facebook page (hopefully this won’t encourage a host of Catholics with eating disorders), the Holy See believes that technology and Catholicism can be mutually beneficial. Which is why Bishop Kevin Rhoades of the Fort Wayne Diocese approved the iPhone confession app created by Patrick Leinen of Little iApps in Indiana. Too cold or too lazy to drive to Church? Pick up your iPhone instead, and save some greenhouse gas emissions while you’re at it.
For less than $2, penitent Catholics can purchase the app and confess their sins. The software includes a list of the ten commandments and a menu of possible transgressions. Simply tick off the sin that best applies and the confession is complete.
If a particular sin is not available, users may create their own. For a random selection, sinning Catholics need only shake the phone until one shows up.
Engadget readers responded with more than a touch of sarcasm to this news.
One reader noted, “Besides, everybody knows God uses Android.” Another asked if there is an option for molesting choirboys.
A more discerning reader, Scott Foshizzle Thompson pointed out that “It’s just a guideline to use during confession.”
Indeed, the Catholic Church is not opposed to technology, but it is also careful to point out that it must not take precedence over our humanity.
According to the BBC:
In his World Communications Address on 24 January, Pope Benedict XVI said it was not a sin to use social networking sites but urged users to maintain their perspective.
“It is important always to remember that virtual contact cannot and must not take the place of direct human contact with people at every level of our lives,” he said.
A spokesperson from the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales told BBC News the app was a “useful tool to help people prepare for the Sacrament of Reconciliation.”
One hopes that the list of sins won’t create a new realm of possibility for wayward Catholics, or that recovering Catholics will resist the temptation to clock up as many sins as possible. Stranger things have happened, like confessing to a phone.
More on the intersection of religion and the environment.
How Iran’s Zoroastrian Burials Are Green
From Rockstars To Recycling: Interview With Kristiane Backer
Hezbollah Chief Compares Environment To Freedom Of Speech & Religion
Author: Tafline Laylin
As a tour leader who led “eco-friendly” camping trips throughout North America, Tafline soon realized that she was instead leaving behind a trail of gas fumes, plastic bottles and Pringles. In fact, wherever she traveled – whether it was Viet Nam or South Africa or England – it became clear how inefficiently the mandate to re-think our consumer culture is reaching the general public. Born in Iran, raised in South Africa and the United States, she currently splits her time between Africa and the Middle East. Tafline can be reached at tafline (at) greenprophet (dot) com.
This is one of two things. Irresponsible reporting with a complete lack of understanding of the Sacrament of Confession in the Catholic Church. The laziness of the writer is evident as it is obvious that not one effort was made to learn what the Sacrament is or what it requires. A seven year old who can use Google could have helped the writer immensely. The other possibility is that the writer knows very well that this app was never intended to, nor actually does, relieve the penitent from confessing one’s sins to an ordained priest, but the writer’s agenda against the Catholic Church required him to purposely attack the Church. This tactic is not new, but it surely reflects very poorly on the honesty and integrity of the writer. Apparently fir many such writers, those qualities are no longer important. What a sad commentary on how low we have sunk from a journalistic perspective in our world today.