There's a Conclave App!

The folks who created Verbum have put together a nifty little app to follow the Conclave. The app is available in iOS (Apple) and Android platforms and it is FREE. You can download the app at the iTunes store or Google play.

The opening screen menu looks like this:

The app has five (5) pages of resources. Here is how the pages are organized:

• Live Video - The first contains live video from the Conclave. Right now the video that appears on the app is one from the last press conference. 
• News - This page includes links to a number of websites and news outlets like National Catholic Register, Jimmy Akin, Catholic Answers and Zenit. I am a little disappointed that they felt the need to include the National Catholic Reporter. I suspect they included this source, which Fr. Z calls FishWrap, because of the great writing from John Allen. I only recommend reading Allen's articles on the NC Reporter.
• Twitter - tweets following #pope and #conclave. Be warned that you will have to sift through all sorts of stuff if you choose to follow the conclave this way.
• Bios - This contains bios on all the cardinals as ranked by NewAdvent. Their ranking is based on Google search activity, not on the likelihood of their election.
• Resources - This includes a number of documents related to papal selection and the conclave.

One final cool feature about the app site is that you can register to have an email sent to you to alert you the moment a new pope has been elected.

Tools for the Toolbox: Conclave Resources

As the Church gears up for the upcoming Conclave to elect a new pope, you might be asking yourself, "How do I find out more about papal conclaves?" I am debating on whether or not to devote a new page on this blog dedicated to all things related to the conclave. For the time being, I have gathered a number of sound resources for you to review and prepare yourself not only for the conclave, but for all the questions you are getting from co-workers, friends and family. These are all great opportunities for evangelization!

Electing the Pope

This new website is a collaboration of several Catholic bloggers, catechists and teachers and it seeks to be a meta site for explaining the conclave and related topics. Its contributors include the likes of Sarah Reinhard who writes the Snoring Scholar blog and is a regular contributor to the Catholic Mom. The  site includes information about the papacy, Catholic symbols and best of all, a Q & A section.

In the Light of the Law

If you are interested in a Canon Law perspective, you need not go any further than Dr. Edward Peters' blog, In the Light of the Law. Dr. Peters is a canon lawyer and has written several books on Canon Law including OSV's 100 Questions About Annulments.

EWTN - The See of Peter

You can never go wrong with EWTN as one of the resources you regularly check for anything Catholic. They have put together a number of resources on a new page entitled The See of Peter. The page includes a number of links including overviews on the papacy and the college of cardinals. The page also includes links to several of the documents governing the election of a new pope.

National Catholic Register

If you are looking for a resource to follow news about the Catholic Church, you needn't go further than the National Catholic Register.  The NCR provides comprehensive and orthodox reporting on the Catholic Church. You will find well written articles, radio broadcasts and blog posts on their site.

Pope Names Book, Jimmy Akin

Jimmy Akin, who is a senior apologist for Catholic Answers, has written an ebook entitled Pope Names. In the book he explores the history of papal names, how name have chosen and he even explores the statistical probability of the name choice for the next pope.

Tuesday Tech Talk:Catholics Come Home

Today's Gospel recounts Christ's parable of the lost sheep. In the reading taken from Matt 18:12-14, Christ says:

If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them goes astray,
will he not leave the ninety-nine in the hills
and go in search of the stray?
And if he finds it, amen, I say to you, he rejoices more over it
than over the ninety-nine that did not stray.
In just the same way, it is not the will of your heavenly Father
that one of these little ones be lost."

I am reminded of a sermon in which the priest explained that all of Heaven rejoices at the return of one soul to the bossom of our Lord. This time of year, many people (for whatever reason) who normally stay away from church, return for Christmas. We may refer to them pejoratively, as chreasters or C & E Catholics, but we should be careful of looking down on them, for something still stirs within their hearts that they come to worship on these holy days.

Michael Hoffman, who emceed our first men's conference, recently gave a presentation explaining the New Evagelization. One key point he expressed in re-evangelizing those who have left the Church is that we have to make sure that what they are coming back to is a welcoming home. One organization that has done a remarkable job of getting the word out that the Church has her arms open to receiving back her children is the Catholic Comes Home network.

Tuesday Tech Talk: God and the Machine

If you like the occasional Tuesday Tech Talk posts I have written reviewing technology from a Catholic perspective you will love Thomas L. McDonald's new blog God and the Machine. McDonald is eminently more qualified to write about technology than I will ever be. He has written numerous articles (mostly) on technology for several different publications.  You can view a more complete list of his work on his Blogger's Bio. Additionally, he is a certified catechist for the Diocese of Trenton. He has also written on religion for the National Catholic Register and he is working on his Masters in Theology.

He writes another blog on gaming entitled State of Play.  Not being much of a gamer, I haven't read that one, but I trust the advice of Happy Catholic, who directed me to God and the Machine with her recent post. I read McDonald's early posts and I like them. His writing is both witty and insightful. I think his Illustrated Introduction does a great job of quickly displaying this wit. His approach reminds me of some of the prose often found in Wired. I am a fan of Wired and I mean this as a compliment.

I have added God and the Machine to Joe Catholic Blog Roll.  I recommend you check it out.

Tuesday Tech Talk: Last Minute, Low Cost Christmas Gift Ideas

For this final Tuesday Tech Talk entry before Christmas, I thought I would share my last minute low cost, gift ideas to give your Catholic techie.  Most of the items I recommend are priced under $20 and can be downloaded instantly or picked up at a local office supply or electronics store.

Amazon Gift Card - We love gift cards in our family because you can buy what you want, when you want. We often wait for after-Christmas sales to use our gift cards. The Amazon gift card provides the techie with a number of flexible options. He can purchase apps, media content or even electronic hardware. By the way, Amazon has a large number of Catholic eBooks, including the Catechism of the Catholic Church. I recommend using this link with a discerning eye as not all the content is guaranteed to be loyal to the Church magisterium.

iTunes Gift Card - OK, I promise this will not turn this into a list of gift cards, but this time of year you can often find deals to purchase iTunes cards at reduced rates. That means FREE money. The iTunes store has the largest app library and lots of media content too, including the iMissal app.

Surge Protector - I think it's crazy that we will invest a large sum on a quality laptop or other electronic device and skimp on a surge protector (if we even get one). I recommend doing some research for the appropriate surge protector for your needs.

Screen Cleaners - I like to use the iKlear products for cleaning my iDevices and laptop screens.  The cloths that come with the kit are good to carry in a laptop bag to clean up before a meeting.  The larger cloths are great to keep in your desk.

Catholic e-Books - I mentioned above that Amazon carries a number of Catholic e-Books.  If you don't want to worry about the fidelity of the content, I recommend purchasing your e-Books at Aquinas and More. Wherever you choose to make your purchase, I recommend  Be a Man! by Father Larry Richards and The Church and New Media by Brandon Vogt.

Tuesday Tech Talk: iMissal Update

iMissal has issued a number of updates just in time for the new translation of the Roman Missal. Most notable of these updates, is the recent inclusion of the Blackberry platform.  The new Blackberry version is $6.99.

iMissal has added some few new features since I last reviewed it. First, the settings tab now also includes the option to switch to the new translation. The app now has a Catholic news feed that links to Catholic News Agency. The designers of the app have added more prayers and an email subscription to get information about new develops in the app. Additionally, they have included the ability to purchase the Saint a Day app within iMissal. Interestingly, the app does not recognize the Saint a Day app within its menu if you have previously purchased it separately.

At $4.99, iMissal remains one of the more expensive Catholic apps, but I still think it is worth it. I actually prefer using the iMissal to iBreviary (still the best value for praying the Liturgy of the Hours) because I do not have to worry about syncing it before mass and the font is easier to read.

Tuesday Tech Talk: Tutorial on RSS Readers

If you have ever wondered how you can get updates on your favorite blogs like Joe Catholic, today's Tuesday Tech Talk will provide you with an easy way to subscribe to your favorite blogs, news sites or even regular websites.

The video below gives a clear (sometimes funny) tutorial for using an RSS reader to save you time from checking sites for updates. Depending on which reader you choose to use, they all come with their own variety of ways to organize your "feeds." For example, I have mine organized by topics: Catholicism, Debate, Tech and Writing.

At the bottom of the video, I have included a few Catholic blogs I follow.  This should give you a head start in collecting other good Catholic information. I find when I am on the go, this is the easiest way for me to incorporate some spiritual reading. I can even read them on my iPhone.

Bishop Kevin Vann's Blog: Shepherd of Fort Worth

Archbishop Timothy Dolan's Blog: The Gospel in the Digital Age

Taylor Marshall (guess blog on this site): Canterbury Tales by Taylor Marshall

Catholicism and Politics: The American Catholic

Need a Missal? There's an App for That!

Pope Benedict XVI & The New Evangelization
If  you have been watching the news recently, you may have heard or seen a story about Pope Benedict XVI sending out a tweet on his iPad. The secular press made a big deal out of this, but if you have been following his papacy, you know that Pope Benedict has been very supportive of using new media as part of the new evangelization. The Holy Father has already published a Vatican YouTube channel and an iPhone app. On the eve of the beatification of John Paul the Great, the Vatican even invited 150 Catholic bloggers to Rome for a special conference.


Tuesday Tech Talks
In that light, today I will begin a series of Tuesday Tech Talks dealing with the world of technology and its implications or application in our Catholic faith. Today I will review a Catholic smart phone application that works on the Android, Blackberry and iPhone/iPod/iPad. It's called the iBreviary and has been sanctioned by the Vatican. Several priests and even bishops use the application. Our own Bishop Kevin Vann of the Fort Worth diocese uses it when he travels.

There's an App for That!
The iBreviary application was developed by an Italian priest, Father Paolo Padrini, who according to USAToday is a consultant to the Vatican's Pontifical Council for Social Communications. The application essentially has three components: Liturgy of the Hours, the Daily Missal and the Catholic Prayers/Rituals. The application is available in five languages (English, Latin, Italian, French and Spanish) which you can change on the application settings.

The Liturgy of the Hours
The Liturgy of the Hours is also known as the Divine Office or Breviary and is the "official prayer of the Church" (EWTN). It appears on the app menu as Breviary and contains a collection of prayers, psalms and readings used for allotted times of the day. As official representatives of the Church, clergy and religious are required to pray the Divine Office throughout each day. Laity, though not required, are encouraged to pray the "prayer of the Church." In fact many parishioners who attend daily mass will join their parish priests in praying the morning prayers. I know of at least one parishioner in our parish who uses iBreviary to join our pastor in morning prayer. You can join in the prayers anywhere you pray.

The Daily Missal
This portion of the application is listed on the menu as Missal and contains The Order of the Mass, Readings and Prayers, Preface and Eucharistic Prayer(s). This acts like the St. Joseph Missal or MTF missal to which you may be accustomed. Instead of using ribbons to mark your places, you simply update the app daily and use the button tabs on the application to advance to the next part of the mass. I personally use this for mass all the time. At first, I was concerned people were going to think I was texting during mass, but I got over that. I've had a few people ask me about using my phone in mass, but they were all curious if I had the readings on it; this gave me an opportunity to share the app with them.

Catholic Prayers/Rituals
This portion of the application contains a number of traditional Catholic prayers. Additionally, it contains supplemental prayers for the Breviary to cover special occasion like the Office for the Dead.

Recommendation
I recommend downloading the iBreviary app. First of all, it's a great value - it's free! Secondly, it's an especially useful tool if you are traveling. I like that you can change the font sizes on the screen to make it easier to read. It does have a few areas where it can improve. Using your network connection, you have to sync the app daily by tapping the Today tab. This can sometimes take a while. I have gotten into the habit of syncing it while I am getting ready for mass. I've also had a few occasions when the mass readings did not match up with those read at mass. Again, overall it's worth having on your smart phone.

Tuesday Tech Talk: Mobile EWTN Streaming

EWTN audio and video programming are now available for live streaming on iPhone and other mobile devices.

EWTN on iPhone Instructions