About a million people have written to me about the new “confession” app for the iPhone. Well… not a million, but a lot.
I am all for anything that gets people to go to confession. But let’s be clear about something:
The iPhone app is for preparing to go to confession. It is not a substitute for going to confession.
The app costs $1.99 in the iTunes app store. It has an imprimatur from Bishop Kevin Rhoades of Fort Wayne – South Bend.
The app store says that it was developed by Fr. Thomas Weinandy, OFM, the Exec. Dirpaector of the Secretariate for Doctrine and Pastoral Practices for the USCCB and Fr. Dan Scheidt, pastor of Queen of Peace Catholic Church in Mishawaka, Indiana.
WDTPRS applauds their effort.
We have to face facts. As a Church we have collectively dropped the ball when it comes to the Sacrament of Penance or Reconciliation. Call it what you want, people aren’t going.
If you, dear reader, have not been to confession for a while – for whatever reason, including laziness, fear, confusion about what to do, maybe a priest was mean, you don’t think you’ve sinned (which I seriously doubt in most cases) – get off your backside an GO! For the love of God, GO TO CONFESSION!
Now that I’ve had my little rant, let’s look at this app for the iPhone.
There are two major flaws in this app, which I will indicate down the line.
You have to create a user and password. I wonder how secure that is were someone to get your phone and hack it.
In your profile you include your state in life and date of last confession. I suppose that if you don’t know it, you guess and put in a date.
Then you move to your examination of conscience.
There are broad categories.
Perhaps they needed a category for Responsibilities to Self.
Under each broad category you are given questions about sins.
You check the boxes of the relevant sins. As you look at these shots of the screen, do you notice anything missing?
You can create your own categories.
I see they did not shy away from including sexual sins.
It seems not to be overly politically correct.
When you are doing with your examination of conscience, you are directed to make your confession.
THIS IS NOT A SUBSTITUTION FOR CONFESSION.
It leads you step by step through what you ought to say.
This could be useful for those who haven’t been to confession… and there are quite a few who, as children, were not required to make their confession before 1st Communion and, to this day, have never gone. Or they haven’t gone since. But there is a real problem in the app.
After using this a couple times, you should be able to skip this. Right?
Also, the app does not indicate that you really should tell the priest your state in life as you are beginning. That should be added to the next version.
In trying out the app, I just checked the top sin in each category to see what would turn up.
So, you are ready to make your confession. You are given your consolidated list of things you checked. But something is still missing.
There is NO INDICATION TO CONFESS THE NUMBER OF TIMES you committed the sin. You are never informed that you must confess the number and not just the kind.
This is a serious flaw in this app that must be corrected.
It gives you an Act of Contrition.
I like the older Act better.
But wait! You can set your own default version of an Act of Contrition under the Prayers tab.
Notice that they included Latin!
I can set this other Act as the default. Very nice.
And also under that tab there are some handy prayer texts. This could be useful if the priest tells you to say a Memorare, for example. But Catholics ought to have these memorized too.
Concluding. There is something missing here.
There is no mention of the penance you will receive and the obligation of the penance as a necessary part of the sacrament. You should be instructed to listen carefully for the penance and to be able to understand and remember it (so that you can perform it).
Then a quote from Scripture popped up. Nice.
To see what would happen, I changed myself into a single twenty-something male.
I got a different structure for an examination of conscience based on the 10 Commandments. I don’t know if this is connected to the profile of the user or if it is random.
I am glad they did not avoid the sin of homosexual activity.
They still include a couple of the categories I saw under the other examination.
If you leave blank the last time since you were at confession, you are prompted. This is good. Many people just launch in without saying when the last time was. Apparently the app remembers the date for next time.
A different quote popped up this time. I don’t know if they are tailored to the user profile or random.
All in all, it is useful.
But there are flaws.
In a next version, I think the very first thing that the user should see is a message that this is NOT a substitute for confession. This is only a tool to help make a good confession.
They must must must adjust this so that people are informed that they must must must confess sins in kind (the sort of sin) and number (how many times). This is a deep flaw in this app.
There is no indication in the app about a distinction of venial and mortal sins. I guess you can’t include everything. But maybe in a future version they can add a section, along with the Prayers section, which discusses more in depth what this sacrament is. Perhaps they could include, for example, the section from the Catechism of the Catholic Church about the sacrament.
The app is good, but it needs some additions in order to be very good.
UPDATE 2057 GMT:
One of the developers chimed in in the combox, below. He is a stand up guy for doing so.
Fr. Z,
As one of the developers, thank you so much for your review. We want this app to be not just good, but very good. We have made notes of all of your suggestions and we will be including them in our next version. If you have any other suggestions or questions, please let me know. We really appreciate the review.
I hope participants here will give thoughtful comments. You might make a difference.
UPDATE 2143 GMT:
An alert commentator, below, reported that you cannot set up a profile as a female and chose “Priest” as your vocation.
Take that wymynpryst wannabes out there!
UPDATE 9 Feb 2053:
The aforementioned developer contributed this comment, below.
Fr. Z,
I just want to give you an update. I have submitted an update to the app (apple still has not reviewed it yet, so you won’t see it yet). I couldn’t implement all of the changes you suggested yet because some of them will require changes to the database structure and logic, but we will get them implemented. In response to Fr. Lombardi’s comments, I added a bit of text to the first page of the confession page on the bottom:
“This app is intended to be used during the Sacrament of Penance with a Catholic priest only. This is not a substitute for a valid confession.”
I reviewed the text with our parish priest before submitting the update. I’ve seen a few of the other comments on here and I’ll reply when I get a chance. Thanks for helping us to make this app better.
WDTPRS KUDOS.
And who needs Fr. Lombardi when you can get it from WDTPRS (and common sense)?
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I also wrote up a brief review, not of the app, but the way in which people are finding out about it: http://www.opensourcecatholic.com/blog/jeff-geerling/communications-snafu-
I wish we (as a Church) could do a better job of spreading the word clearly, and, most importantly, in a way that strongly reinforces our faith’s foundation in the Sacraments. The BBC article should mention that the app is an aid for confession, to help people go to confession more often and more penitentially… but it comes off as something of a substitute (from them, and many other media outlets).
Ah well, at least the app is coming together nicely, and isn’t a slipshod effort, like many other Catholic apps.
How about a prompt that asks if you are truly sorry for your sins? Isn’t that a condition of absolution? [A good idea, but I think the Act of Contrition helps with that.]
You said that on the second use it gave a different examination of conscience, based on the 10 Commandments. I wonder if this was because you changed the Act of Contrition to a more traditional one?
But I don’t like the “Have I not…” (or similar) used for most of the sins. It seems confusing English. If it is a negative sin, I would find “Have I failed to…” easier to follow.
I guess my question would be: why couldn’t it distinguish between venial and mortal sins? I have seen examinations of conscience that do that.
It would also be greatly helpful if they had a way to store and monitor daily examinations, so that a person could track his sinful tendencies and his progress in overcoming them, as well as not forget certain sins before the examination preceding his latest Confession.
What is “your state in life?” [Are you married? Single? Professed religious? Seminarian? Priest? Though why a priest or seminarian or professed religious would need this is beyond me.]
I don’t think the privacy issue can be lightly dismissed or brushed aside. The seal of confession is absolute, binding anyone who hears the confession (priest, translator) and anyone who either deliberately or inadvertently overhears the confession. Inviting people to create their confessions (which are to be the confessions they will present to the priest) in an interactive format, even an encrypted one, opens the confession to the possibility of becoming public. Most are going to assume that the sacramental seal either does apply or should and will be scandalized (maybe spiritually traumatized) if security fails and their confession becomes public.
I’m stunned a bishop would approve this and will not be surprised if the CDW or CDF demands that local approval of the app be withdrawn. [So long as the security is good for the app, I disagree.]
Shellynna: I think that the actual confession is a bit different from your examination of conscience. This is primarily that–the examination part. It is not the part that actually happens inside the confessional, which is protected as you say. People write about their various sins all of the time–read Rolling Stone magazine or something as awful. But were they to confess those sins to the priest in the confessional, that is indeed protected. I guess this is what Fr. Z is saying when he says we have to be clear that this app is NOT a substitute for confession.
Hey, I’ve been to that church. If I remember correctly, it was rather ugly but the homily was alright.
As for the app, here’s the real question: does it store the sins you check, or just your profile information? If it doesn’t keep a record of your sins, the privacy issue is much less of a concern. If you could go back in and make it give you all the past examination results, it’s concerning.
ten: The app prompts you to check off which sins have been committed. At the very least, you are creating a record of what you will be confessing, and who knows at this point if that record can be entirely eliminated. That information is entered into a format that can either be hacked or otherwise become public. It may not be intended to be a substitute for confession, but it is encouraging people to create their confessions for reading off to a priest. At the very least, it is highly imprudent, and again, I won’t be surprised if the Vatican gets involved. The seal of confession is just too absolute to be exposed to the dangers inherent in modern technology.
Having returned from a few days away I used the BBC Teletext on the tv to catch up with the news. To my astonishment one of the items headlined was ‘Church blesses iphone confessions.’ A misleading headline if ever there was one – I’m glad to see the clarification here of what it really is although I have no idea what an app is!
Fr. Z,
As one of the developers, thank you so much for your review. We want this app to be not just good, but very good. We have made notes of all of your suggestions and we will be including them in our next version. If you have any other suggestions or questions, please let me know. We really appreciate the review. [Thanks for contributing the comment and for your hard work on that app!]
I like the way you can’t be “female” and a “priest”. Nice touch. [Good catch!]
I wish there was a way to include my own without having to use my thumbs and type them in.
I too liked the different quotes at the end and they seem to be different every time.
Looking forward to the updates.
A feature they might want to consider adding to the app occurred to me upon seeing the screen that reads
If the time between confessions is more than a specified period, user-selectable or otherwise, the app could replace the “Next time we will …” message with text that informs the user “You are overdue for the sacrament of penance.” ;-)
Pax et bonum,
Keith Töpfer
Titus is right, Queen of Peace is a very ugly church, it’s asymmetrical and badly laid out but Fr. Scheidt is a good and holy priest.
Great, if it gets people to go to confession and make good confessions. One thing I think people should be aware of is that so long as a cellphone has its battery in – even if it is switched off – it can be used to eavesdrop. That – plus the risk of the thing ringing – is why some priests forbid them from their confessionals.
Are we supposed to give our “state in life”?
I for one have been using ‘confession’ app on my iPhone for several months and I love it. I use Mea Culpa, a free app that has served me well so far. I am considering purchasing this new app but as it is $2 I am holding off until I see more feedback/reviews. Thanks Fr. Z, your review is very complete and if your suggestions are implemented in the next release, I’ll probably purchase it for me and for my son (the ladies of the family do not have iphone or itouch).
As to Ezra’s comment regarding the phone as an eavesdropping device, I have listened to the audio linked to. It is dated September of 2007. Is is still relevant? I have not heard or seen anything about this issue before or after Sept. 2007. Seems if it was an issue, a priest, bishop or the Church would have made some kind of public comment on this. I have seen nothing.
I have spoken to my pastor about using the app and he approves. I always ask before beginning my confession if I am at another parish or with a different confessor. I have never been refused and have been told I give a very complete confession (I have not asked what that means but my sense has been the priest is satisfied I have given a good confession). I only say that to point out that not only has it not been a negative issue in the confessional for me, it has been a positive experience for both me and the confessor.
Technology is not the answer for everyone but it is definitely working for me. I actually prayed to God that I be able to get an iPhone back when they came out and I promised Him I would use it to improve my spiritual life to the best of my ability. He came through in an obvious way to show me it we He that made it possible for me to get the iPhone (it certainly was not my finances). The Mea Culpa app has helped me and it seems to me the Confession app would as well.
In humility,
Greg Keuter
A sacramental confession, to be a “good confession,” must be made from the heart, after prayerful examination of conscience that seeks the guidance of the Holy Spirit — and not merely mechanistic reading of boxes that were checked off under the guidance of Steve Jobs.
What next? We have an app where couples can text-message their wedding vows?
While I understand the concern over someone knowing of your sins, the truth is making a good confession is more important.
If you were dying on the street in the middle of a crowd, and there was a chance to make a final confession to a priest, but no chance of privacy, would you do it?
I know that humility can be a great challenge, as can fear or what others will think of us, etc. It is hard to do the right thing when that will cause others to think ill of you or worse yet question you.
I do not mean to be flip about this, but if someone overhears your confession by using your cell phone as an eavesdropping device or hacks your iPhone, you probably have bigger problems in your life right then.
I created a similar free application for Android devices called PenanceProject. It helps users do an examination of conscience before the Sacrament and to pray afterwards. The application is not meant to be used during Confession. It also doesn’t save information about the user.
People can get the application here: https://market.android.com/details?id=appinventor.ai_jamorrow.PenanceProject
To learn more about The Penance Project please visit: http://www.thepenanceproject.org
ChipL,
If you are still looking at comments, the Android OS had 28.7% of the market in the 4th Quarter 2010. The Apple OS only had 25%.
Hint. Hint. Hint.
Thanks for developing the app. I look forward to hearing about it being ported to Android in the near future.
Bender,
Steve Jobs did not make this app: good Catholics (at least one of whom reads this blog) did. Moreover, it was approved by a bishop appointed by B16.
Many good Catholics – guided by the Holy Spirit – use lists from the Internet or books to assist their examination of conscience. They do this not because they’re lazy, but because they want to be through. Such books have been around for centuries, making the app. a modern version of a longstanding Catholic practice.
As for reading a list of one’s sins in the confessional, a lot of people do that – me included. I love the sacrament of penance, but it always makes me nervous. If I don’t write my sins down and read them off my list, I invariably forget one in the confessional (even though I normally confess the same few sins). As long as the list was made with prayerful deliberation, there’s nothing wrong with reading off a list in confession.
I don’t even own an iPhone, but I love the concept for this app.
Perhaps the developers might make available a version of this as a text document online (with the questions et cetera.) for those of us without iWhatevers? The easily-obtained examinations of conscience online are typically not very detailed.
How about version of this app for the Extraordinay Form as well as some Eastern rite forms?!
It sounds like an excellent tool and a good examination of conscious is so critical. I have to note misgivings (at least based on incomplete information) on the whole issue of the permanence of the electronic record that is created. That notion runs counter to the purpose of Confession – to wash away sins, but then, they may exist indefinitely in an electronic form?
This is awesome and something I really would like to use. Anything that makes going to confession easier is a great boon. Thanks for this post, Father Z!
Running a quick test on things, it looks like it doesn’t store a history of what sins were marked. The only sort-of exception to that is the custom category. While the check mark is removed, the customized question remains listed. The custom category is user-specific (meaning user 1 can’t see user 2’s custom list of questions.)
It automatically locks an unlocked account if the app is backgrounded (but not closed), or the screen is locked. So if you receive a call in the middle of your examination, and hand the phone to someone else, they won’t be able to access your data after the call is done.
It also looks to have different examinations for children and teens, with questions in terms they can understand. Very nice.
My main concern: Does the examination of conscience get synced with my computer, and if so how is that data protected? I’m guessing it is synced.
My recommendations (beyond what Fr. Z pointed out):
1. Put in a verification for deleting an account, either requiring the account password or just a simple “Are you sure?” prompt.
2. Give an option to not sync account data with a computer. I’d rather have to redo the examination of conscience, and even retype the custom questions.
3. Have a way to assign the Custom Questions to either the Commandment lists or to custom lists.
4. Allow Custom Questions order to be changed.
5. Maybe an option for a custom Act of Contrition. Although I guess most people would want to choose one of those provided while getting used to returning to Confession, and after a while won’t need to look at the text.
My quick comment: I don’t know if versions of this can be made easily for PC. If they can, it would be a blessing – my fingers appear to be too fat to type on a touchscreen.
I think the concern about the secrecy of the confession is misplaced. In the first place, it is the priest who is forbidden to disclose what was said. The penitent is free to disclose anything. Second, the entries on the app aren’t even the confession. They are notes that the penitent has prepared. Whether the penitent ever actually confesses these things is unknowable from the mere fact that they are shown on an electronic device. So even if it is possible for another person to gain access to this record, it would in no way violate the seal of the confessional.
Users might be concerned about how well their privacy is protected, but there is no violation of canon law here, I’m confident.
I’m not sure I agree with having to mark each sin as “mortal” or “venial”. It doesn’t seem important to make those distinctions in order to make a good Confession. Maybe the Confessor needs to worry about such things in forming a judgement of the penitent and in giving a penance – I’m not a priest so I’m not sure about that.
Anyways, which sins a person holds as mortal or venial usually depends more on their biases and personality than any reliable criteria. I think a person’s mental energies are better spent on accusing oneself in a plain and simple manner than in making sophisticated distinctions about knowledge, consent, gravity, culpability, etc…
It would be nice to have, instead of a checkbox, a [+] and [-] button and a count, so you could keep track of “number”. Maybe make it an option. It would make it more cluttered and longer to enter, and some might not need it. I think I could add in a rough number or frequency indicator as I went through the list in the actual Confession. That is what I usually do now, but using paper. I need to make sure I don’t miss anything – I can usually handle the frequency part myself.
“How about version of this app for the Extraordinay Form as well as some Eastern rite forms?!’
The “Extraordinary Form”…of Confession???
???
I’m not sure I agree with having to mark each sin as “mortal” or “venial”.
From the Baltimore Catechism —
Q. 291. Can we always distinguish venial from mortal sin?
A. We cannot always distinguish venial from mortal sin, and in such cases we must leave the decision to our confessor.
Even outside the Confession context, in general, given the conflicts of interest, a person does not make a very good judge when putting his own conduct on trial. Add to this the impairment of judgment that is associated with sin, and it is very easy for one to be fallible and mistaken in judging for himself whether what he has done is mortal or venial sin. Moreover, it will be no defense to say “well, I determined it to be only venial” when the One who is the Judge (Jesus) says, “no, it is mortal.”
The mortal/venial distinctions are all well and good in the abstract when discussing moral theology, but in everyday practice, given our fallen, fallible state, as the Baltimore Catechism says, “We cannot always distinguish venial from mortal sin, and in such cases we must leave the decision to our confessor.”
Father, thank you for this review.
I noticed that you took the pictures for this post using a camera — I wondered if you knew about the iPhone’s screen shot functionality?
If you press and hold the “Home” button at center bottom of the iPhone, then press and release the “Sleep” button on top right of the iPhone, you’ll get a screen shot of whatever is displaying on your screen at that moment. The screen shot will be added to your camera roll on the phone.
Not sure if that would be easier on you but I figured I’d mention it! :)
[Thank you very much for that! I wondered about screenshots even as I worked on this.]
Fr. Z,
I just want to give you an update. I have submitted an update to the app (apple still has not reviewed it yet, so you won’t see it yet). I couldn’t implement all of the changes you suggested yet because some of them will require changes to the database structure and logic, but we will get them implemented. In response to Fr. Lombardi’s comments, I added a bit of text to the first page of the confession page on the bottom:
“This app is intended to be used during the Sacrament of Penance with a Catholic priest only. This is not a substitute for a valid confession.”
I reviewed the text with our parish priest before submitting the update. I’ve seen a few of the other comments on here and I’ll reply when I get a chance. Thanks for helping us to make this app better.
Bender says:
I’m not sure I agree with having to mark each sin as “mortal” or “venial”.
From the Baltimore Catechism –
Q. 291. Can we always distinguish venial from mortal sin?
A. We cannot always distinguish venial from mortal sin, and in such cases we must leave the decision to our confessor.
I seem to interpret this differently from you. To me that says, “It is not always possible to distinguish venial from mortal sin. If you’re unsure , or there is any doubt if it’s mortal or venial, confess it and leave the decision to our confessor.” If it was meant the way you interpret it, wouldn’t it be worded more like, “We cannot always distinguish venial from mortal sin, so we must confess all sins and leave the decision to our confessor”?
I have a concern: while I, like Fr. Z, am glad that they did not deny that homosexual activity is a sin… how long before someone (esp. in the media who might look through it) report it as “hateful?” Recall the “Manhattan Declaration,” and with the downright mind-boggling approval process, I fear it may be targetted. I would consider it a matter of “when” not “if.” Such is the sad state of the world we live in.
Which is a shame, because from what I see, the developers have put a lot of thought into it and welcome helpful feedback. We need to support faithful developers and their apps, and make our voices known to Apple.
This seems like a very nice app — and the responsiveness by the developers is fantastic. I can think of another possible enhancement: a feature that allows for periodic (e.g., daily) examination of conscience. The data for each examination would be stored until the confession time — then the prep for confession is basically a summary report of the examinations since the last confession. Maybe a graph or trendline to show progress against dominant faults, etc. Just a thought….
kgurries: the responsiveness by the developers is fantastic
YES! You hit it on the head. This must be an important consideration when evaluating the usefulness of the app.
One other thing that might be useful is notes on the individual questions. I could, for example, have given scandal to multiple people in multiple ways, and during Confession forget exactly how I caused scandal, or to whom. I suppose it could be put in the Custom lists, but then it’s disconnected from the original question that helped me remember/recognize the sins.
Or is it sufficient to just say “I led 4 people into sin”?
Sorry if this was already proposed, but how about at the point of the penance a text box appears for the penitent to type in the penance. I’ve always worried about the penitent forgetting the penance. I have a friend who is a priest and always has a notepad on him at all times for just that reason–write down the person’s penance so he/she won’t forget. Perhaps the App could include that?
I’m curious to know if married people are prompted about contraceptive use…
@Lily Yes, they are prompted about that and sterilization
Apple just approved our update, so you should see it soon… I can take a while to show up, but if you check for updates or check the actual app in the app store you will see 1.0.2 soon.
Quote: “This app is intended to be used during the Sacrament of Penance with a Catholic priest only.”
Exactly yes. You are not supposed to bring a cell phone into the Confessional.
I’d think a priest would want to know if it was being recorded in any case, which any modern cell phone can do, and broadcast too. Maybe you wouldn’t mind if it was public, but what about the priest?
As the person above noted: a nice little sermon all about that, entitled: No Cellphones in the Confessional
Use a notebook, a devotional book with an examination. People do not need little gadgets everywhere.
I have been using the iConfess app for several months and find it a very helpful tool for making a good onfession. I have also downliaded and tried the new app which has gotten a lot more attention, which is a good thing. Both apps are missing some prayers that I like to use which I learned in the 1962 Roman Missal (Baronius) section entitled Devotions for Confession. It includes a prayer to be prayed before making an examination of conscience to enlist God’s grace in recollecting one’s sins honestly and completely. Then, there is a prayer for before going into confession, and a prayer of thanksgiving for the grace of the sacrament for afterwards. It also includes the Litany of the Saints, which I suppose is helpful in enlisting an all-star team of intercessors to pray for you in making good on your serious amendment of life. I have found these prayers to very helpful in dealing with some of those nagging pattern sins which many find themselves having to confess, and confess again.
I also think that it is useful to be able to add a note regarding the specifics of the son committed. Additionally there are small numbers of those whose state is both married and a priest or seminarian such as some of the ordinariate priests. The app currently does not support you having mote than one state of life – you could equally be both a priest and a religious.