Fr. Paolo Padrini has developed an application that will let Roman Catholic priests preside at the Eucharist using an iPad instead of a missal book on the altar .
The application will be launched in July in English, French, Spanish, Italian and Latin, and will be free.
Two years ago, Fr Padrini produced the iBreviary, an application for iPods and iPhones. That initial version had some bugs. The current version is iBreviaryPro. The bugs are ironed out, but it only works when connected to the internet. It is a free application.
The iPad application will be similar but also contains the complete missal – all that is required for presiding at the Eucharist. There are plans for audio, commentaries, sermon suggestions and music ideas.
Fr Padrini was asked by the Vatican to oversee its youth outreach program in the new media, www.pope2you.net.
iPhone iPodTouch for Christians
Image taken from the Economist cover.
Published on
January 26, 2010 in
liturgy.
Tags: Anglican, blogging, facebook, iphone, new zealand, roman catholic, twitter, vatican, websites, wordpress.
The pope has issued a proclamation challenging priests “to proclaim the Gospel by employing the latest generation of audiovisual resources (images, videos, animated features, blogs, websites) which, alongside traditional means, can open up broad new vistas for dialogue, evangelization and catechesis.”
Internationally there are some Anglican blogging bishops (I try to keep up with these in the links section). Of the 31 bishops in our province, not one blogs as far as I know (the bishop-elect of Dunedin blogs – we shall see if that continues). Of the more than one and a half thousand Anglican priests in this province I’m aware of a couple that blog, and a few more on twitter. The official website of the province has not been updated in more than a year. Maybe there are Roman Catholic blogging bishops and priests in New Zealand. I am not aware of them. There are still parishes and ministry units without even a website – in spite of web-hosting and production being free and easy now, with advice and help provided on this site. Every parish can have a facebook page (and a twitter). Blogging has never been easier using wordpress or blogger. Such things are not, as those in the church often make them appear to be, things that require great planning and debate. These things take less than 10 minutes to set up. Nothing manifests the yawning gap between average young people and average churchgoers more than the unwillingness of most churchgoers to embrace late 20th century communication technology. The church can be so last millennium!
The pope is on youtube (his videos do not appear to be able to be embedded), and has an iPhone and facebook app, pope2you. Let’s urge him to take his own advice and start blogging. If he is reading this: “I’m very happy to swap links with you”. Some suggestions for the name of the papal blog? “Mass communication”? Maybe not “Papal Bull”. (Definitely not “Red Shoe Diaries”!)
There is a wonderful new Daily Prayer resource, the St Bede’s Breviary online.
I will be adding this as a link to increase the usefulness of this site’s online chapel.
I do not know anything about who is putting this online – if anyone knows please add that in the comment – it would be great to contact them directly. I hope they will consider producing an iPhone/iPod Touch app.
Any other such useful resources not already in the online chapel, please add that in the comments below also.
This site regularly collects contributions from readers in such areas as best online bible study resources, best online hymn study resources, best online lectionary resources in order to be a central place where people can turn for good quality information.
More and more people have an iPhone or an IPod Touch. A pastor, priest, or active Christian may be looking for
- a To Do List system,
- Notes system,
- Bible study resources,
- liturgical resources.
Do you have any suggestions for apps that fit into one of the above four categories?
Please in the comments section can you put
- the name of the app
- whether the app is free or not - if it costs money – how much in what currency?
- If it is a Bible study resource – what version – does it contain Greek and Hebrew?
- Do you have to be online to use the app – or does it function offline?
- If you are the developer or connected with the app – please acknowledge that
- Some brief summary reviewing its value to you
In discussions people are looking for NRSV, Greek and Hebrew study tools, the daily office.
Some recommendations that regular users may like to comment on below are iBCP, Divine Office, CCEL(NRSVA), Stanza, Kindle, tweetdeck, echophon, feeds, instapaper, meditator, nimbuzz, awesome notes, logos, olive tree.
iBreviary appears not to work
Image taken from here.
Fr. Paolo Padrini, mentioned in the following announcement, sent me the following notice. My only addition would be that the breviary is not merely “the book of daily prayers used by priests” – it is the prayer of the whole church. The Liturgy of the Hours was celebrated by all in the early church, and that insight is being renewed currently. This site is committed to encouraging the Daily Office amongst all, ecumenically.
VATICAN CITY (AP) — The Vatican is endorsing new technology that brings the book of daily prayers used by priests straight onto iPhones.
The Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Social Communications is embracing the iBreviary, an iTunes application created by a technologically savvy Italian priest, the Rev. Paolo Padrini, and an Italian Web designer.
The application includes the Breviary prayer book — in Italian, English, Spanish, French and Latin and, in the near future, Portuguese and German. Another section includes the prayers of the daily Mass, and a third contains various other prayers.
After a free trial period in which the iBreviary was downloaded approximately 10,000 times in Italy, an official version was released earlier this month, Padrini said.
The application costs euro0.79 ($1.10), while upgrades will be free. Padrini’s proceeds are going to charity.
Monsignor Paul Tighe, secretary of the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Social Communications, praised the new application Monday, saying the Church “is learning to use the new technologies primarily as a tool or as a mean of evangelizing, as a way of being able to share its own message with the world.”
Pope Benedict XVI, a classical music lover who was reportedly given an iPod in 2006, has sought to reach out to young people through new media. During last summer’s World Youth Day in Sydney, Australia, he sent out mobile phone text messages citing scripture to thousands of registered pilgrims — signed with the tagline “BXVI.”
The Liturgy of the Hours is one of the significant areas on this website (Resources for Liturgy of the Hours). This site attempts to encourage the disciplined praying biblically together ecumenically. People of faith have always been in the forefront of using the latest technology (the scroll, the book, the printing press). Now one can purchase the Liturgy of the Hours as a download onto one’s iPhone or iPod Touch. It is not a cheap application (about $US 42) but it is the equivalent of about 5,000 pages. Universalis, the producer of this application, is not everyone’s cup of tea. They do not have the copyright to authorised Roman Catholic psalm translations, so some Roman Catholics do not accept that this can be used to pray with the church. Pious geeks without a vow of poverty will not be deterred.
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