If you haven't been to confession for a while, now there's an app for that. Three South Bend Catholics developed a confession application for the iPhone and iPad and it's taking off.
At one point on Wednesday the app was Apple’s 18th most popular paid application, beating The Sims and Monopoly.
"Our thought process was, let's build something for everybody, that everyone can use, and let's build it so that the church doesn't get upset at it," said co-creator Patrick Leinen.
Leinen never though the app he, his brother and his friend developed would become this big. In only two weeks the app — named “Confessions: A Roman Catholic App” — moved into Apple's top 20 popular apps.
"We beat Martha Stewart. She was the featured app of the week and we're way over Martha Stewart right now, which is something I would not have imagined about a week and a half ago," Leinen said.
By putting in your personal information — like age, sex and marital status — the program generates an examination of conscience, or questions to think about before a confession, specific to the user.
But the app isn't trying to keep people out of the confessional; it's actually trying to draw them in.
"After you go through that examination, you sort of check off things you may have done and you actually take the iPad or iPhone into the confessional and it will literally step-by-step walk you through the entire process," Leinen said.
"I have already seen it work," said Fr. Daniel Scheidt.
Scheidt was one of the priests who helped with the content of the app by developing the examinations.
"I found that confessions [with the app] tend to be very focused, very recollected, and it really does help some people who are nervous," Scheidt said.
Scheidt said the app also helps with special needs children, keeping them focused during confession.
Bishop Kevin Rhoades, head of the Fort Wayne-South Bend Diocese, looked over the app and gave it an imprimatur, declaring the app to be in harmony with the Catholic doctrine.
The app costs $1.99. Leinen said a lot of the money generated is being donated to the church, various charities and being used to keep the developers' new app company running.
