B&B writes:
LOL. No iPhone app has garnered so much attention in the blogosphere since Angry Birds as has Confession. What we need is a Shroud of Turin app.
Elizabeth Scalia, the Managing Editor of the Catholic Portal at Patheos, and a columnist at First Things has reservations. She writes in The Anchoress:
My fear, though is that rather than encourage people into the confessional, the app will make it seem unnecessary . Regardless of how many times the app-writers insist that the thing is not meant to “replace” confession, our natures tend to choose the path of least resistance. It is not inconceivable (in fact, it is quite conceivable) that for a Catholic who has been away from confession for a while — one who perhaps has forgotten the powerful psychological and spiritual cleansing effect of speaking one’s sins aloud, or has never understood the value of the graces the sacrament imparts — the app may very well end up feeling like the convenient “middle ground” between not going to confession or going with reluctance.
For Catholics who are poorly catechized, poorly trained in the faith, this app seems to me to be one of those irresistible shiny objects that, when grabbed, proves to be a double-edged sword.
The NY Daily News has a front page headline that reads,
Holy App! Catholic Church okays new confession app for iPhone.
CNN’s lede reads:
(CNN) — Bless me father for I have sinned. It has been 300 tweets since my last confession.
Whether you’ve been "borrowing" free Wi-Fi or coveting your neighbor’s avatar — or, heaven forbid, something worse — a new mobile app is designed to help you atone for it.
Shroud of Turin app? I can’t imagine what it would do.
Here is a list of headlines that the Catholic League doesn’t like. I like most of them:
• ”Can’t Make it to Confession? There’s an App for That”
• ”Catholic Church Approves Confession by iPhone”
• ”Bless Me iPhone for I Have Sinned”
• ”Catholic Church Endorses App for Sinning iPhone Users”
• ”US Bishop Sanctions Cell Phone in Confession”
• ”Forgiveness via iPhone: Church Approves Confession App”
• ”New, Church-Approved iPhone Offers Confession On the Go”
• ”Confess Your Sins to a Phone in Catholic Church Endorsed App”
• ”Catholics Can Now Confess Using iPhone App”
• ”Catholic Church Approves Online Confession”