Travis Boudreaux has developed a new app for both the iPhone/iPod Touch and the iPad. The app that I think to be quite worthwhile is called Mea Culpa.
Mea Culpa is used to examine your conscience to help you make a better and more complete confession.
The sections Venial and Mortal display a comprehensive list of sins to select from. You click on the specific sin to have it added to the committed list. Click again to remove it or click on it in the Committed list to remove it.
In the settings section you can add a 4 digit numeric passcode to keep your list private.
I can certainly see myself using this app for confession, though I would be more likely to bring my iPod Touch into the confessional over my iPad. It is always useful to make a full examination of conscience and this app is a very useful way to to this and at the price of $1.99 easily affordable.
There are though things I would like to see in future versions. Checkboxes next to each item would be nice to show that the item has been selected and I would really like to see an option to increase font size or to be able to use the pinch-to-zoom gesture to enlarge the text.
You can find this app on iTunes here.
Disclosure: Travis sent me a promo code to be able to review this app.
10 comments
Mea Culpa? I wonder how appropriate are the two Latin words, for -perhaps in tha future, have appliances that record attempts to cover up TRUTH = Jesus, by several blogers.
This morning in the blog Catholic Vote org, post: Student arrested for praying rosary outside Planned Parenthood (+Video) I stated -politely- two FACTS.
1) Chicago is the base for both Obama (ever increasing tax payer funds for abortions), AND cardinal George head of USCCB which refuses the OBLIGATORY Cannon 915, to excommunicate pseudocatholic genocidal lawmakers that make that genocide possible.
2) I was “moderated” (aka, covered up, censored). This horrendous SCANDAL, allowed by USCCB and their confused blogs, not obeying Cannon 915, leads millions to think that chambers of abortion are a venial sin.
I just wanted to say that I tried to download the app and it said it is not available due to being modified. I’m sure this is a temporary situation but I wanted to pass that along.
By the way, I don’t have the greek alphabet on my keyboard. Oh, wait. It’s a joke, right?
Can we expect an Android or Blackberry version too? Android needs some good Catholic apps.
While they’re at it, they can issue a special 4-digit code that priests can type in when they absolve you that will erase all the sins. maybe you can add a sound effect like the “ding!” they play on commercials when they show clean dishes or a clean mouth (no matter what!) or a squeegie sound.
For $2 it’s probably OK, but I think it’s more cleansing to meditate and think about your sins than just read them off a screen like you’d read the box scores.
this is the second such app I’ve come across the other is iConfess, its quite good as well
The app is now advertised as $.99
It’s always a wake-up call that Our Lady of Fatima told the three children that the sins which both bar people from Heaven/prolong their time in Purgatory….are….sins of the flesh.
Hmm. I have some difficulty with the extensive list of venial sins listed in the screenshot. Where did the developer get this list? As a person who has suffered from depression for years, I wonder how one defines “giving in to depression?” Depression is a medical condition that can be treated with medication and counseling; while it does have a moral or spiritual dimension, it is not exclusively a moral or spiritual failing. I am no expert, but I do not believe depression in and of itself is a sin. If, however, while feeling depressed I did something spiritually or physically harmful to myself or to others, THAT would be a sin for which I would be responsible. Perhaps this is what the developer means by “giving in to depression,” but as it is stated, it is ambiguous. If I were going to make an examination of conscience, I would rather rely on a more universally recognized guide–the Catechism of the Catholic Church, for example, or perhaps another form of examination of conscience written by a saint or church father. I am not saying the app might not be useful; I am only saying I am not sure of its provenance and accuracy with regard to church teaching.
Niall Mor, I would assume that ‘giving in to’ depression is not being depressed in and of itself, but wilfully surrendering to spiritually harmful things, like sloth, acting irritably with people, purposely allowing oneself to be self-centred, etc.
Now, there are obviously going to be people whose illness is so severe that there is little or no culpability for things that others with a milder depression or a greater amount of grace are responsible for. But when one has sufficient control of the will in these things and choose to do evil or neglect the good one is supposed to do, then there would surely be some sin in that even if the depression makes the temptation greater and makes it harder to exercise the will than if one was not depressed.
This goes for a lot of other illnesses as well. They impose real restrictions for which one is obviously not culpable, but then they can also pose temptations to give in to the illness in not doing what one is able to and giving in to irritability or even greater evil.
It may not always be easy to know the difference, especially not for outsiders. But it would be a reasonable part of an examination of conscience to attempt to discern the difference. None of that means that one should confess illness itself.
Anyway, that’s what I think it means.
I should add to the above that I think that sometimes, provided one has sufficient control of the will, the allowing the depression to overwhelm the will precedes the other sins (like sloth, irritable responses etc), which it may lead to, or is at least a separate aspect. Therefore, I think confessing ‘giving in to’ the depression in addition to the other sins makes sense in these cases.
This obviously assumes that the person has enough control of the will to be culpable, and it would make sense that that would vary with the extent and degree of the illness.
I also think that ‘depression’ in an examination of conscience may refer to very varying degrees of emotional lows, and not just clinical depression and certainly not only very severe forms of clinical depression. So there is scope for a very great variation in how culpable people may be for the varying degrees of depression overwhelming the will at various occasions.