*Sightings* 5/26/2011

— Ken Chitwood

* *

The release of a new application for Apple Products such as the iPhone,
 ¢â‚¬Å“Confession: A Roman Catholic App, ¢â‚¬  made bemused headlines across the United
States, including Maureen Dowd ¢â‚¬â„¢s  ¢â‚¬Å“Give us This Day our Daily App, ¢â‚¬  and
Nicole Brewer ¢â‚¬â„¢s  ¢â‚¬Å“Forgive Me iPhone, For I Have Sinned. ¢â‚¬  With their clever
titles and commentary, however, the media exacerbated the public ¢â‚¬â„¢s initial
confusion over the Confession App. Dowd wrote,  ¢â‚¬Å“Nothing is sacred anymore,
even the sacred. And even that most secret ritual of the Roman Catholic
faith, the veiled black confessional box. ¢â‚¬ 

The designers at Little iApps, who dub themselves a technology company with
a Roman Catholic flair, hoped that the app would serve as a preparatory
program and penitential aid for faithful Catholics to use in the
confessional with their local priest. They intended for the traditional
elements of the sacrament of confession to remain intact as they introduced
a tool to facilitate the faithful in their introspection and regular
practice of confession. They did not mean for it to replace confession with
a priest. Yet many users interpreted the app to do just that.

Downloaded for a modest fee, the app allows users to create their own
confession profile (married, single, priest, etc.). The app also features an
examination of conscience according to the Ten Commandments, using questions
customized for each user. For example, a married man might be asked whether
he neglected his duties to his wife and children. Following this
examination, one may click on the  ¢â‚¬Å“Confession ¢â‚¬  tab and follow the
instructions to confess one ¢â‚¬â„¢s sins to a priest, perform acts of contrition
and receive absolution.

The app rose in popularity, reaching number one on the iTunes Lifestyle app
list and number forty two overall within the first week of its release. In
the meantime, it seemed to the media that the Roman Catholic Church
responded with mixed messages. Because the app had been released with an
imprimatur (an official declaration for release) from Bishop Kevin Rhoades
of Ft. Wayne, IN, the app appeared to be authorized by the church. However
the Vatican stated that the Confession App cannot substitute for a sacrament
offered by a Catholic priest, which some media outlets errantly interpreted
as the Vatican restricting, or even banning, use of the top-selling app.

Compounding this confusion is the Roman Catholic Church ¢â‚¬â„¢s callowness
regarding mobile applications and social media. Despite having an up-to-date
and interactive website, the Vatican is not well known for its endorsement
and utilization of cutting-edge technology. Indeed, it was quite the
surprise when, in 2009, Pope Benedict XVI called on young Catholics around
the world to use new technology to bring the Gospel to the people of a
digital age. The first pope with a YouTube channel and a presence on
Facebook, Pope Benedict XVI encourages his flock to adopt new internet
technologies for the sake of the church. Nonetheless, the church ¢â‚¬â„¢s forays
into the brave world of new technologies have met with mixed success.

For example, many Catholic communities in Florida made the move to establish
parish Facebook accounts in 2010. Then the Orlando diocese instructed those
same communities to disable comments on their wall, thus severing any
 ¢â‚¬Å“social ¢â‚¬  aspect of a social media tool such as Facebook. Such perplexity
only continues with the Confession App.

The app includes a disclaimer:  ¢â‚¬Å“This app is intended to be used during the
Sacrament of Penance with a Catholic priest only. This is not a substitute
for valid confession, ¢â‚¬  but the designers and the Roman Catholic Church are
naive to believe that such an announcement will prevent incertitude. In an
age when mobile app users are accustomed to having the world at their
fingertips, having an app that allows the user to confess their sins
anywhere at anytime is to be expected; never mind the theological conundrum
such a reality produces for church authorities.

With that said, while this event illuminated the Roman Catholic Church ¢â‚¬â„¢s
naivete in the world of mobile apps, it also highlighted a fair degree of
religious illiteracy on behalf of the general public and the mass media.
Both of these factors were central to the ensuing confusion surrounding the
release of the Confession app and will remain issues to contend with as the
interface between technology and theology continues in the years to come.

* *

*References*

Dowd, Maureen.  ¢â‚¬Å“Forgive Me Father, For I Have
Linked<http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/09/opinion/09dowd.html>. ¢â‚¬ 
*The New York Times. *February 8, 2011.

Drescher, Elizabeth.  ¢â‚¬Å“Confession Fail: iPhone App Controversy Muddles the
Sacramental Waters. <http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/09/opinion/09dowd.html> ¢â‚¬ 
*Religious Dispatches. *February 11, 2011.

Hagerty, Barbara Bradley.  ¢â‚¬Å“Confessing Sin In the Age of The
iPhone<http://www.npr.org/2011/02/09/133629830/iPhone-App->. ¢â‚¬ 
*National Public Radio. *February 9, 2011.

Kunnerth, Jeff.  ¢â‚¬Å“Catholic Church Embraces Social Media – With
Limits<http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2010-03-11/news/>. ¢â‚¬ 
*Orlando** Sentinel.* March 23, 2011.

Mann, Benjamin.  ¢â‚¬Å“Chart-topping Confession App Draws Catholic and
Non-Catholic Interest.<http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/chart-topping-confession-app-draws-> ¢â‚¬ 
Catholic News Agency. February 15, 2011.

Sweas, Megan.  ¢â‚¬Å“Vatican first approves, then bans iPhone
confessions?<http://uscatholic.org/blog/2011/02/vatican-first-approves-then-> ¢â‚¬ 
*US Catholic*. February 9, 2011.

*Ken Chitwood* is a graduate student in Theology and Culture at Concordia
University Irvine, CA and serves as an intern with LINC Houston, a
charitable organization in Houston, TX.

———-

Can American Muslims be both loyal to their tradition and full participants
in American civil society? In this month ¢â‚¬â„¢s Religion & Culture Web
Forum<http://divinity.uchicago.edu/martycenter/publications/webforum/>,
Vincent J. Cornell argues that an embrace of the tenets of Shari ¢â‚¬Ëœa
fundamentalism has led even would-be moderate Muslim leaders to reject the
principles of American constitutional democracy. Consequently, they advocate
(often unintentionally) a retreat from full participation in American civil
society into sectarianism and  ¢â‚¬Å“millet multiculturalism. ¢â‚¬  Against this tend,
says Cornell, it is necessary for Muslim thinkers to find an  ¢â‚¬Å“overlapping
consensus ¢â‚¬  between Shari ¢â‚¬Ëœa and constitutionalism ¢â‚¬”one that gives warrant for
the exercise of  ¢â‚¬Å“unsupervised reason. ¢â‚¬ 

———-

*Sightings* comes from the Martin Marty
Center<http://divinity.uchicago.edu/martycenter/>at the University of
Chicago Divinity School.

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