Reading sins off of iPhone during confession?

[CRM_Brother]

Yes, if you read a list of sins off of an iPhone during confession it is allowed.

Some priests, however, have pastoral reasons for discouraging the practice during the rite itself. The confession of sins is not meant to be a list of errors. It is meant to be an outpouring of love. Lists, whether on paper or on a phone, are excellent ways to prepare you for confession and can be extremely helpful for the examination of conscience. During the spiritual reflection before and during Confession, God calls us subconsciously to emphasize some sins over others, simply how we present them in our speech. If we are reading a list, “I did x four times, y twice, and z three times,” we can tend to remove that spiritual component from the actual confession. Sometimes, God will stress a sin so strongly during your examine that it may cause you to forget to confess other sins, even mortal ones. This is alright, put a little star next to it for your next examine and confess it next time, but it could have been that if you had included that sin in the previous confession, then you would not have received the advice God wanted you to receive for the sin which dominated the original confession.

Basically, to confess without a physical list present tends to allow more subconscious context and emphasis for the priest to work off of.

If you need a list, go for it, but I always try to advise people to leave the list outside of the confessional if possible.

God Bless,
Br. Ben, CRM

 

[giuseppe96]

My short term memory is terrible for a 22 year old, so I write them down in my notes. But the trick is to keep a single file of your sins. For instance: on mine I include prayers to say before in and after confession. I keep a blank space in between the top of the page and the prayers. So each time you confess a sin, just hit backspace on it and the device won’t remember it!

 

[ascetic]

I keep a running list as the days go on. It’s satisfying to hit delete after. I keep it as laconic as possible, which is easy since they flow from examining the conscience and just serve as notes, like from a class. Plus, all the priest needs to hear is sin x, y, and z. The Holy Spirit will help you remember any extra info he needs.

If you’re worried about distractions, you can always go into airplane mode when you get to church. I’ve seen others walk in with their phones in their hands, indicating that I’m not the only one.

As others have pointed out, there is the danger of losing your phone, but even if you have something embarrassing in there, the laconic language guards against blackmail AND someone who steals or uses one they find nefariously will probably pay more attention to your bank’s or credit card’s app or your login credentials, but from what I hear, i-phones have lock/encryption features that even the government couldn’t break with the San Bernadino jihadis.