Homosexual Activists: 'Confession: A Roman Catholic App' is 'Cyber Spiritual Abuse'

One of the many questions properly asked in this digital examination of conscience is "Have I been guilty of any homosexual activity?" That does not sit well with homosexual equivalency activists who promote homosexual practice and seek to make homosexual relationships equivalent to authentic marriage as a matter of civil law. So, now, the attacks against "Confession: A Roman Catholic App", have begun again.

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CHESAPEAKE, VA. (Catholic Online) - The month of February began with the news filled with bogus reports claiming that a new Iphone app, "Confession: A Roman Catholic App", which is designed to assist Catholics in making a good examination of conscience before going to confession, was some kind of substitute for the Sacrament of Reconciliation.  First on the scene to expose the inaccurate reports by secular - and even some religious - press sources was the Catholic League. It issued a release on February 8, 2011 release entitled "Bogus Claims about Iphone Confession App."  The company which designed the app is "Little iApps."  Their website has a helpful description of how to use the app as well as information on where to obtain it. The leaders of the company sought and received an imprimatur from one of the finest Bishops in the United States, Bishop Kevin Rhoades of Ft. Wayne-South Bend, Indiana. They received theological input from Fr. Thomas Weinandy, O.F.M., the executive director of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops' Secretariat for Doctrine and Pastoral Practices. They  received pastoral insights on the practice of the examination of conscience before going to confession from Fr. Dan Scheidt, a parish priest and pastor in Indiana. "Confession: A Roman Catholic App" is an example of using digital technology to serve the growth of the human person and encouraging the use of the Sacraments as the path to true freedom. It enables, in its own words, "a personalized examination of conscience for each user." For centuries the Church has encouraged such an examination of conscience, or examen.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church explains, "The reception of this sacrament [Penance or Reconciliation] ought to be prepared for by an examination of conscience made in the light of the Word of God. The passages best suited to this can be found in the Ten Commandments, the moral catechesis of the Gospels and the apostolic Letters, such as the Sermon on the Mount and the apostolic teachings."(CCC #1454) Not only have Bishops, priests, deacons and lay leaders in the United States encouraged this proper use of digital technology as an aid in living the faith but a spokesperson for the Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales told BBC News the app was a "useful tool to help people prepare for the Sacrament of Reconciliation." One of the many questions properly asked in this digital examination of conscience is "Have I been guilty of any homosexual activity?" That does not sit well with homosexual equivalency activists who promote homosexual practice and seek to make homosexual relationships equivalent to authentic marriage as a matter of civil law. So, now, the attacks against "Confession: A Roman Catholic App", have begun again. This time they come from another front, those who do not like the fact that the Catholic Church has always taught - and will always teach - that homosexual sexual activity is sin and under no circumstances can ever be approved. In a section of the Catechism of the Catholic Church entitled "Chastity and Homosexuality" we read, "Homosexuality refers to relations between men or between women who experience an exclusive or predominant sexual attraction toward persons of the same sex. It has taken a great variety of forms through the centuries and in different cultures. Its psychological genesis remains largely unexplained. "Basing itself on Sacred Scripture, which presents homosexual acts as acts of grave depravity, tradition has always declared that "homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered." They are contrary to the natural law. They close the sexual act to the gift of life. They do not proceed from a genuine affective and sexual complementarity. Under no circumstances can they be approved." (CCC#2357) The clearest exposition on the teaching of the Church on this matter is still the 1986 "Letter to the Bishops of Catholic Church on the Pastoral Care of Homosexual Persons" which can be read in its entirety here.  Paragraph seven of this clear and pastorally concerned letter contains these words: "The Church, obedient to the Lord who founded her and gave to her the sacramental life, celebrates the divine plan of the loving and live-giving union of men and women in the sacrament of marriage. It is only in the marital relationship that the use of the sexual faculty can be morally good. A person engaging in homosexual behavior therefore acts immorally." "To choose someone of the same sex for one's sexual activity is to annul the rich symbolism and meaning, not to mention the goals, of the Creator's sexual design. Homosexual activity is not a complementary union, able to transmit life; and so it thwarts the call to a life of that form of self-giving which the Gospel says is the essence of Christian living." A homosexual activist Group named "Truth Wins Out", which describes itself as "a non-profit organization that fights anti-gay religious extremism," is accusing the makers of the app, and thus indirectly the Catholic Church itself, of "promoting anti-gay spiritual abuse" and engaging in "religious extremism." Wayne Besen is the executive director of this Homosexual activist and equivalency group. In a Press release he accused "Confession: A Roman Catholic App", of "helping to create neurotic individuals who are ashamed of who they are." He continued, "This is cyber spiritual abuse that promotes backward ideas in a modern package." Not satisfied with this kind of slanderous depiction of the consistent and unchangeable teaching of the Catholic Church concerning the immorality of homosexual sexual practices he continued, "Gay Catholics don't need to confess, they need to come out of the closet and challenge anti-gay dogma. The false idea that being gay is something to be ashamed of has destroyed too many lives. This iPhone app is facilitating and furthering the harm." The tactic is clear, accuse all those who adhere to classical Christian teaching, and most especially Catholics,  of being "religious extremists" and then seek to censor their expression from the public square. It has not worked in the past and it will not work this time. Real Truth is always more powerful than its counterfeit.  

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