Christian Apps… “There’s an App for That”

The expression, “there’s an app for that” has been tossed around due to the increase in people owning the latest smartphones. In light of Lent, the priest at my church demonstrated the use of a 40 day app during his homily. The app involved planning what one would give up for Lent with some different features. This got me thinking about what other Christian apps existed and so I searched it on my Iphone. In searching Christian/Catholic apps, a number of results came up that included bible apps, catholic meditation and prayer, catholic and lent calendars, confession and penance apps, and so much more that relates to the Christian faith. Further research showed that these apps were made by all sorts of companies both catholic and non-catholic, including Catholic Spiritual Direction Inc., Catholic Communications Network, Surgeworks Inc., Valent Richie and so on. So what are the goals of many of these companies? It’s probably safe to say that for the Catholic organizations, they are moving towards getting the Christian faith out through new mediums that include smartphone apps. For the non-Catholic organizations however, their goals simply focus on creating well working apps as highlighted on their websites (Surgework Inc.). The question is, can the Surgework company/apps really be authentic or are they just another corporation looking to have their product mass consumed? Well let’s look at the pricing of some of these apps:

Catholic Spiritual Direction Inc. – App: The Better Part: A Christ Centered Resource for Personal Prayer= $0.99

Catholic Communications- App: Xt3 Lent Calendar= $1.99

Valent Richie Meditations= Free

Surgeworks Inc. – App: Divine Office Audio= $19.99

So as you can see, Surgeworks Inc., the non-Catholic organization, charges an arm and a leg for their apps. Perhaps more goes into making the app, but it is obvious here that they are strictly a profit based corporation in comparison to the other companies, which sell there apps for a fraction of the price making them free or two dollars at the most. So many companies work on having their product sold with some being more profit based than others and ultimately, it is difficult to base the authenticity of these organizations in a commercial consumer culture structured around capitalism.