What do you think about confession apps?

[Sancho12Panza]

There are some apps like ‘Confession - A Roman Catholic App’ or ‘Confessio’ that allow users to confess. What’s your opinion about them? Is it the future of confession? Should the Church release an official app? Should they be removed from the AppStore?

Confessio

*Enjoy fast and easy mobile confession! Cross to unlock, select your sin(s) and receive penance and absolution. We believe your privacy is sacred so we don’t keep any record of sins committed.

You can also purchase an indulgence with one tap and avoid penance, but don’t abuse of it!

Get rid of guilt anywhere, anytime!*

Confession - A Roman Catholic App

Designed to be used in the confessional, this app is the perfect aid for every penitent. With a personalized examination of conscience for each user, password protected profiles, and a step-by-step guide to the sacrament, this app invites Catholics to prayerfully prepare for and participate in the Rite of Penance. Individuals who have been away from the sacrament for some time will find Confession: A Roman Catholic App to be a useful and inviting tool.

 

[FaithfulKnight]

No No No The Sacrament of Reconciliation is and should always be a one on one, that would be you and Christ’s emissary on earth. The only way to attain forgiveness is in the confessional.

 

[SuscipeMeDomine]

The hard part for me is actually confessing my sins and an app does nothing for that. The examination of conscience – which an app can help with – is the easier part. I suppose they can be useful if you have trouble with that aspect of the process.

 

[KCT]

I think a conscience exam in that format is fine. Whatever helps people make good use of the sacrament.

 

[PrayPsalm51]

Confession: A Roman Catholic App says very clearly it is not a substitute for confession. It helps to examine your conscience, keeps track of the date of your last confession and when you are ready lists those sins you marked off in the examen. You can also add your own. It is password protected. I really like it. I think it helps me to dig deeper and not just confess the same thing over and over.

 

[kyrieliberame7]

Confession apps only confirm people’s own views. If you are a conservative, you can find an app that will be very strict about what sins are and give exhaustive and sometimes incorrect sins (i.e., reading Harry Potter is a sin). If you are liberal, you can find apps that simply don’t list things that should be regarded as sins.

Both sides say these apps are NOT a substitute for confession.

The best method? Find a regular spiritual advisor/confessor to help organize your conscious. They talk back, and have the faculties to forgive. This doesn’t have to necessarily be your parish priest.

 

[powerofk]

There are some apps like ‘Confession - A Roman Catholic App’ or ‘Confessio’ that allow users to confess. What’s your opinion about them? Is it the future of confession? Should the Church release an official app? Should they be removed from the AppStore?

Confessio

*Enjoy fast and easy mobile confession! Cross to unlock, select your sin(s) and receive penance and absolution. We believe your privacy is sacred so we don’t keep any record of sins committed.

You can also purchase an indulgence with one tap and avoid penance, but don’t abuse of it!

Get rid of guilt anywhere, anytime!*

Confession - A Roman Catholic App

Designed to be used in the confessional, this app is the perfect aid for every penitent. With a personalized examination of conscience for each user, password protected profiles, and a step-by-step guide to the sacrament, this app invites Catholics to prayerfully prepare for and participate in the Rite of Penance. Individuals who have been away from the sacrament for some time will find Confession: A Roman Catholic App to be a useful and inviting tool.

Based on the descriptions, “Confessio” would not be good for a Catholic to use, for at least two reasons - confessions must be done in the presence of a priest to be valid (either face-to-face or behind a screen - priests cannot even perform confession via Skype) and indulgences cannot be purchased. In fact, I would consider it morally harmful for the penitent, deceiving him/her that he/she has properly confessed his/her sins, when he/she has not.

On the other hand, “Confession: A Roman Catholic App” seems to be good to use as a proper Examination of Conscience and can help the penitent remember kind and number of sins that he/she needs to confess. It’s about the technological equivalent of writing one’s sins on a sheet of paper so you don’t forget them when confessing.

 

[Tablefor9]

I use Confession: A Roman Catholic App on my iPhone; love it. It’s no different from pencil and paper except it’s a lot more secure (password protected and I won’t drop it on the way out of the chapel). Very user friendly and intuitive, faithful, 10 commandments approach.

 

[rotlex]

I use Confession: A Roman Catholic App on my iPhone; love it. It’s no different from pencil and paper except it’s a lot more secure (password protected and I won’t drop it on the way out of the chapel). Very user friendly and intuitive, faithful, 10 commandments approach.

This is the app I use as well. It’s easier for me to keep track of the last time I went to confession, if it has been a while, using such an app. The examination and the “check list” for sins etc. is the same as a pen and paper. Just a lot more convenient and harder to lose.