From its creation in the late 20th century the internet has become a part of our everyday lives. In Catholicism, Confession is a very important ritual for the forgiveness of sins. Now that society is evolving onto the online world, so are the rituals and practices of the Catholic Church. I believe an online Confession app has the authenticity of an offline one, but lacks the effectiveness of the sacrament as it was intended to be. In order to understand this opinion, you must recognise Smart’s 7 Dimensions, how Catholic Confession is conducted both online and off, the benefits and disadvantages of using either the online or offline version, and the authenticity and effectiveness.
The Catholic Confession in an offline form has a particular way of course. At the beginning of the Confession the participant enters the Confession booth in which the priest is sitting on the other side of a wall ready to listen. The priest then asks the participant to say a prayer and then is asked to reflect over their previous sins. The priest then asks God to forgive the participant of their sins and gives the participant a penance – a form of working to get your sins forgiven. The participant is given several prayers to say, and once the prayers have been said, the participant is forgiven. Rather different to this, the online Confession App is conducted through an application on your iPhone or iPad. Instead of talking to a priest and telling them your sins, you simply sit there and go through a list of the 12 commandments, and tick all the sins that you have committed. This way you are not truly confessing your sins to another party, you are simply ticking a list and withholding the sins to yourself. By means of authenticity, the online complies with the standards of the offline version, although the effectiveness which the offline version contains is lacking.
As an aid to help understand what a religion is comprised of, Ninian Smart, a Scottish