Hold on to your rosaries, boys and girls. In an unsurprising turnabout from last week’s reports that Catholics might soon be able to begin confessing their sins via iPhone, the Vatican has released an official statement on the matter, saying that no IT application can be an adequate substitute for a penitent person’s confession in the presence of a priest. Father Federico Lombardi, a Vatican spokesperson, said: “One cannot speak in any way of confessing via iPhone.”

The iPhone application in question, Confession: A Roman Catholic App, was thought to be the first of its kind to be approved by a church authority. But rather than providing a shortcut to traditional methods, the application is actually designed to help walk Catholics through a “personalized examination of conscience.” It’s designed to be used in conjunction with traditional confession, rather than as a substitute.

I know this disappoints some of us, who consider ourselves extremely pressed for time, but all is not lost. You may not be able to skip church altogether, but you might be able to save yourself a little time by using the application before you head over to see the Padre and having your thoughts collected and your sins ready behind your lips.

Image: by Adam Smith, via Wikimedia Commons

Tags: Confession: a Roman Catholic App, Little iApps, confession sins via iphone, confession app for iphone, religious apps, unusual apps, cannot confess sins via iphone, Catholic church does not endorse confession app, Father Federico Lombardi, Apple, iPhone, App store

I’ve never had a problem eating food from a gas station.  Just two weeks ago, I ate a couple of hot dogs purchased from a gas station.  They were delicious.  That’s not the first time I’ve eaten gas station food, and I doubt it will be the last.  There’s nothing like a fun food novelty. […]

Commissioner Roger Goodell gathered 32 NFL owners for one big question.  One of the league’s most wanderlust-stricken franchises is looking to move again.  The Oakland-Los Angeles-Oakland Raiders, tired of gutting it out in a run-down stadium, were once again looking for greener pastures.  Only the Miami Dolphins refused to cooperate.  With a vote of 31-1, […]

In 2006, an injury to Dallas Cowboys starting quarterback Drew Bledsoe opened the door for an undrafted free agent by the name of Tony Romo to take the helm of America’s Team and lead the Dallas Cowboys to an early playoff exit.  Bledsoe went from starter to afterthought in a season.  Now, the circle continues […]

For 89 years, Oscars has never had a major mistake.  The last few Oscars might have had a few flubs, but at least they never got the most important category of the night wrong.  Well, that’s now changed, all thanks to OG Bonnie and Clyde legends Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway.  When Faye Dunaway called […]

Tom Brady has been wildly successful, if controversial.  He’s the first quarterback ever to win five Super Bowls and only the second player to do so after Charles Haley.  Unlike Haley, Brady won all his Super Bowls with the same team, the New England Patriots.  The only thing that seems to be able to stop […]

Ben Affleck, no matter what you might think of him, is a talented actor and director.  He’s got the goods, but he’s smart enough to know when he’s in over his head.  All along, since he took on the mantle of Batman, he’s had his eyes on writing, directing, and starring as the Caped Crusader. […]

In May, students for the for-profit American College of Education were running into some problems.  Their access to email accounts and course information was locked down by Google, who had disabled their accounts.  The reason why?  A fired IT worker for the American College of Education locked the school out of their Google cloud account. […]