Social Networking | Awaken Wellness Resources

I don’t know if you heard the news today. The Vatican has released an I-tunes application called Confession, for $1.99; it has been billed as “the perfect aid for every penitent”. It lets you pick a commandment and list all your sins, keeping a running tally to bring into the confession booth with you. Why couldn’t I have thought of that?

If you can’t find your particular transgression on the sin scroll, no worries. You are able to add you own specific misdeed, customize your very own naughty list. In fact, the app walks the user through the sacrament of reconciliation (the more recent title for the sacrament of confession).

You can examine your conscience based on personalized factors such as age, sex, or marital status.

It’s actually quite brilliant. In an age when the number of Catholics that actually go to confession on a regular basis has been steadily declining, this may very well be the fresh air that blows the cob webs out of the confessional.

While the Roman Catholic Church has been unapologetically slow in moving into other areas of mainstream modernity (women as religious leaders, married clergy, birth control, to name a few), it has decidedly embraced the toys of technology and blessed the good works of social networking.

In 2007, the Vatican launched its own YouTube channel. Two years later, it created a Facebook application that lets users send virtual postcards featuring the pontiff.

Pope Benedict XVI, in his World Communications Address on Jan. 24th, said it was not a sin to use social networking sites, “I invite young people above all to make good use of their presence in the digital world.” While the pope sanctioned these new tools for salvation, he added, “It is important to remember that virtual contact cannot and must not take the place of direct human contact with people at every level of our lives.”

Words of wisdom to be sure.

Yet, with information flying at us, all clamoring for our attention, “Confession” is designed to keep the user mindful of one’s individual and personal Catholic faith journey. For instance, for reviewing the 1st Commandment, “I am the Lord thy God, thou shall have no other Gods before me”, you are given a check list that includes these questions, “Do I not give God time every day in prayer?”, “Do I not seek to love Him with my whole heart?”, “Have I been involved with superstitious practices or have I been involved with the occult?”, and “Do I not seek to surrender myself to God’s Word as taught by the Church?”

As a sinner myself, I know my own too human tendency to let myself off the hook, to not only forgive my trespasses, but simply just forget ’em. Perhaps daily prompts on an I-phone could get us one step closer to holiness? Personally, I’m all for ways for us to engage in our faith journeys more fully and daily…and if these ways are fun and include colorful graphics, all the better.

And one more plus, it was made in the US of A (Indiana to be exact…America’s heartland). Gotta love it.

Tonight, sitting snowbound in front of the TV, I watched the persistent and passionate protest of the Egyptian people. One woman held up a sign which read “Yes We Can Too.” It caught me off guard. Not too long ago, the slogan “Yes We Can” helped to elect the first African-American president of the United States. For a short and wonderful time, the world applauded and was reminded of the promise that was once pervasive, that here was a land of opportunity where anything was possible. With a decade of unpopular and devastating choices in the global arena over the last decade and a recently unleashed financial crisis, we had chosen idealism and hope. Yet fear and impatience, and the politics of blame quickly snuffed out the change that many of us had voted for. Or has it?

There is no way to underestimate the bravery, determination, and passion of the Egyptian people over the last week. When I read that protester’s sign, I was reminded of recently read quote of theologian Reinhold Niebuhr, “Nothing that is worth doing can be achieved in a lifetime; therefore we must be saved by hope.” It demonstrated to me that an authentic message of hope that has real substance and that resonates with the deeper part of our universal human nature, may be temporarily extinguished in one area, only to reignite in another. Egyptians too are campaigning for change and while not looking for any help (or interference) by us, can be encouraged by the power of these words.

It is my prayer that the citizens of Egypt will realize a free and democratic system for themselves and their children. They have suffered too long under an ineffective and unjust regime that favors the few and provides little or no opportunities for the majority.

Ironically too, the social networking mechanism that has helped win elections, is also fueling the movements in Egypt and Tunisia. I hope not only their ongoing commitments reminds us of how blessed we are to have the freedom and liberty of free speech and assembly. Equally important, it shows the Western world that Muslims too are seeking a better life for themselves and their families, to put bread on the table, and have a voice in their government. It is a much-needed counterpoint to the daily sound bytes of Islamic terrorists and radicals.

May it be a peaceful transformation and be a shining example to other nations still ignoring the will of the people.

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