This past week, a Catholic bishop in South Bend, Indiana officially approved an iPhone application that facilitates the process of confession. The “app” is not a replacement for the sacrament, but it does allow iPhone users to examine their consciences via their mobile device.

Surprisingly, there seemed to be rampant criticism of the Church’s decision. Many critics came out of the woodwork to claim that the Church had marginalized the sanctity of the sacrament, reducing it to a mere technological exchange.

While it is important to maintain the sacredness of any sacrament or religious exchange, I found many of the criticisms to be untenable at best.

After the Second Vatican Council, the Catholic Church has made significant efforts to reconcile its institution with the modern world. Pope John Paul II spoke extensively on the church needing to keep up with technology and to use its prevalence to further the kingdom of God.

There is no doubt that as we continue in a modern society that computers, smart phones and other technological resources are becoming more prevalent and powerful.

Amidst criticisms that the Church is becoming irrelevant, it would seem that the Church adopting a technological tool ­— such as an iPhone app — would be welcomed. Technology indeed has been significantly utilized to exploit and injure others. Why would it be abhorrent for technology to be used for good?

This app, while certainly not essential to the sacrament of confession, seems like a positive effort for the Church to be more accessible and relevant to its people.

Indeed, church is not a one-sided experience. Church is a function of relationship. Thus, the Church must listen to its people and properly respond. This app is an exemplary effort to this end. There is nothing mutually exclusive about an iPhone and an examination of conscience.

Indeed, the sacredness of the sacrament is not sacrificed. The app personalizes the process making it more personal. Something being sacred is not the same as it being un-human. We are human beings, and if we live our lives on an iPhone, then the Church must follow us there. The Church must consider and embody our human experience.

Moreover, consider the individuals that would use the iPhone app. They are likely the demographic most infected by spiritual poverty and apathy. In other words, they are people who might have drifted from the Church or who feel like the Church is not serving their needs.

This app, simple as it is, provides an accessible, easy, personal way to interface with a sacrament feared by many Catholics.

However, this app does not only serve the needs of the upper and middle class. This app, personalized as it is, can be a tool for addressing social sin and asking questions that may not be considered in a regular examination of conscience. Whereas the regular examination of conscience may not include questions like, “Have I cared for the poor among me?”, “Have I tithed to charitable organizations?”, or “Have I lived in solidarity with those marginalized locally and globally?”; this e-examination of conscience may. It could serve as a tool to create social justice and structural change that is otherwise ignored.

Finally, one ought consider what an examination of conscience is. Its goal is eliminating sin and living justly in relationship with God, self and other. How can we protest making this more accessible or prevalent in society? Why would we contend that this is detrimental to the sacredness of a sacrament?

Living in right relationship and reflecting on our sin is a welcome practice. I applaud the Church for this technological endeavor.

Drew Konow is a senior religious studies, foreign languages and literatures major. He can be reached for comments or questions at [email protected].