DataThe catholic app: confession is just a click away

It’s called Catholic App, and it guides lost sheep to the nearest confessional. How? With GPS that helps the interested party locate the nearest church that can perform confessions. The geolocation function finds a match between user and parish. That’s why the app has been baptized as Sindr: like Tinder, the famous dating app, but for sins. The project, was introduced in the Vatican by the Scottish Archbishop Leo Cushley, who announced  it with a tweet. And now it’s available in the App Store.  

Francis: a social media-obsessed Pope

From his first “hello” from the pontifical doorway on the day of his election, Pope Francis’s distinctive style was evident– and so was his goal to renew the means of communication with believers and nonbelievers alike. It’s not surprising that Pope Francis decided to use sharing as a lifestyle. And now he’s even using the logic of social media as a tool for the apostolate and for bringing people closer.

It all started with a tweet from his account @Pontifex. “never suppress positive curiosity; get involved, because life is meant to be lived.” It was a message of hope, which immediately drew millions of followers. Of course “music stars like Katy Perry, Justin Bieber and Lady Gaga have over 40 million more followers than the Pope, but a study that calculated the ratio of followers to tweet frequencies, found that the pope’s popularity is above that of the White House,” says La Repubblica.

That’s not all: Pope Francis opened a Facebook page (with an up-to-date calendar of all the events he’ll be attending) and an Instagram account to “tell the story of the papacy through images”, explains Monsignor Dario Edoardo Viaganò, prefect of the Cardinal Secretary of State and head of Vatican Media Reform, another initiative  launched by the pontiff. The goal? To up the presence of the Church in the digital world, and reach the hearts of everyone by adapting to today’s forms of communication.

The Divine, no further than your smartphone 

This is the landscape in which we find The Catholic App. The mission of the software is clear, and is spelled out right on the page: “Delivering the mercy of God in a contemporary way”. Both a diocese and a user can create an account. The business model promises numerous advantages, such as revitalizing ecclesiastic life through better access to sacraments, and a progressive increase in the number of parishioners. And consequently, “improv[ing] financial vitality” and “sav[ing] money … on printing costs”.

Catholics also have several benefits in their shift from ‘believer’ to ‘user’: they can access brochures with hours and addresses of religious functions, get real time news shared by the community, and book a confession. 

And so, to spread its message better, the Church needs more than just a good shepherd. It also needs to be able to sell a dream as if it were more true than reality. It needs good marketing.