Bless me iPhone for I have sinned
Yes, I confess, I’m putting this on because I liked the headline, and the article attached to it is so much more upbeat than the depressing crap I nearly subjected you to:
An iPhone app aimed at helping Catholics through confession and encouraging lapsed followers back to the faith has been sanctioned by the Catholic Church in the United States.
Confession: A Roman Catholic app, thought to be the first to be approved by a church authority, walks Catholics through the sacrament and contains what the company behind the program describes as a “personalized examination of conscience for each user”.
Tags: Church Life, Internet & Technology
February 7th, 2011 at 11:18 pm
Important note: This app doesn’t replace going to a priest for confession. It’s only to prepare one for that engagement.
February 7th, 2011 at 11:21 pm
Thank you and of course you’re quite right.
February 7th, 2011 at 11:46 pm
I guess that for a Catholic it could be a really helpful tool for helping people to gather their thoughts prior to confession.
Actually your post has prompted me to find out more about Confession webmaster. Having been raised as a Protestant, it’s one of those things I’ve never really thought about. I’m not sure I’d want to recount my sins to another human actually. To me it would just feel so wrong. I’m not sure why it’s considered necessary to have an intercessor.
February 8th, 2011 at 8:25 am
Hi Simian as a protestant, (I’m assuming Anglican) the confession and prayer of penitence takes place during the service, it is part of the divine liturgy .
In the CofE the official line about private confession is:-
All may,
None have to,
Some should!
It is also very scriptural, to confess our sin to one and another. Because your wrong doing doesn’t just hurt you, but it hurts those around you. As we say in the Lord’s Prayer
“Forgive us our trepasses, as we forgive those who trespasses against us.”
Perhaps this link about the Sacrament of Reconciliation, may help you to understand it a little more.
http://www.rcdom.org.uk/documents/reconciliation.pdf
February 8th, 2011 at 1:51 pm
Thanks Phoebs. Appreciate that. Yes, I was brought up CofE but I’m very much lapsed (I consider myself an Atheist) but I see the good that religion can do, and rather late in the day, I’m interested in finding out more about Christianity in its braodest sense. I know next to nothing about Catholicism.