The ‘iBreviary - Pro Terra Sancta’, the most popular app (short for application) in the Catholic world has “landed” on Windows Phone 7 smartphone and is therefore now available on mobiles with Microsoft operating systems.
These can now be added to the list of devices that can already run the app such as iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Blackberry and Android phones. “We have expanded the ‘machine-fairground’” stated happily the creator of iBreviary, Fr. Paolo Padrini
iBreviary is a unique software. It is the first official Catholic prayer app for smartphone and tablet. Thanks to the collaboration of the Custody of the Holy Land (a group of Franciscan missionaries at the service of the Holy Land), Paolo Padrini’s app can deliver the breviary prayer and all liturgical texts on smartphones.
iBreviary offers all Catholics the opportunity to pray by reading the ‘official breviary’ (the Liturgy of the Hours in Roman and Ambrosian rite). All useful passages are made available day by day. The app can also be used to attend mass since it includes all Liturgical Celebrations writings (Lectionary).
The graphical user interface is available in Italian and English and gives the possibility to pray in six different languages, English, Italian, French, Spanish, Rumanian and Latin (for example the Vetus Ordo texts).
The app includes also some of the most important writings in Franciscan tradition, not to mention liturgical prayers and specific blessings used in different holy places.
iBreviary is used by dozens of cardinals and Bishops, hundreds to priests, friars and seminarists. The Holy See has often commented positively on this state-of-the-art initiative.
Its creator Fr. Paolo Padrini, a real techophile or ‘priest 2.0’was born in Novi Ligure on the 24th of May 1973. After his technical studies he entered the interdiocesan seminary of Alessandria in Piedmont where he followed a path which would eventually lead to him becoming a priest in 1998.
After being ordained, he began working for the parish of Tortona Cathedral and later of other churches across the diocese, finally he became priest of San Giorgio in Stazzano, role he still holds today.
After a few years he was sent by the diocese to Rome to continue his theological education. He graduated in Pastoral theology from the Pontifical Lateran University, specializing in Social Communications. His degree dissertation was entitled Chat line: luogo e tempo della comunicazione e dell’incontro. (“Chat line, a space and time to meet and communicate”).
Recently he has furthered his interest in ecclesiastical communication both with his studies and with active pastoral involvement. He now works together with various religious institutions as a communications consultant. He is also a teacher in several schools, coordinates various Internet projects for the Custody of the Holy Land and helps train parents and teachers.
Fr. Paolo, why the iBreviary? Where did you get the idea from?
“Looking at smartphones and their development, I noticed that these devices could be used for prayer. Prayer is the most ‘portable’ thing there is, it could be described as the Christian action most performed ‘on- the –go’. And the Breviary is the easiest way to “transport” prayer. It was invented for the very purpose of simplifying and condensing the vast ‘horizon’ of prayers into a few books one could carry around. So I said to myself, why not use these new devices to do that? Why should the breviary not be included in the everyday simple activities available to people via mobile-phone and the latest computer devices?”
And you were right...
“Yes, it's true. I had great results for the start. There isn’t an official report yet, but indicatively, iBreviary is used on the iPhone and iPad by more than a thousand users each day, let alone those who access the app through other devices. In total, we estimate that the number of devices using the app ranges between 350 thousand and 450 thousand per year. In two and a half years iBreviary has become the most popular Catholic app in the world.”
Let’s talk about Pope2you.net. How and when was it “conceived”?
“Four years ago, when Facebook reached its peak number of users worldwide, the Church found it needed a revolutionary approach to social networking. The Pope himself supported and promoted the initiative. It was felt that the Pope’s words needed to be communicated also through these virtual channels which had become ever so popular, in other words facebook could be used to spread the Catholic message in a way which was not banal or rhetorical. With Pope2you.net we aimed at expanding the Catholic community thanks to a new way of communicating and building friendships.”
This project is also succeeding, why is this do you think? What was the winning strategy behind it?
“We didn’t try to change the way these social networks operate, especially facebook. We didn’t try to ‘Christianize’ social networking, instead we tried to understand it and ‘penetrate’ it using the appropriate and suitable language. We aimed at inhabiting these virtual realities with our Christian Catholic presence and being able to enjoy them as believers. This is what we do with the Pope’s portal.”
Let’s talk about your blogs starting from Passi nel deserto (steps in the desert) with which you became one of the first bloggers on Blogosfere...
“That's right. It was an honour, it’s important for me to say this. A Blog is a way to describe experiences and describe oneself, in my case by giving a critical analysis of what happens in the world and within the Church from my point of view as a priest.”
And you are about to launch another one called Genitori e internet… (parents and the internet)
“It is going to be a space where the internet can be discussed, especially for parents who are often worried since they lack knowledge on the subject and fear ‘doing harm’. In this new blog I am trying to transcribe what I often say in conferences on the theme, in order to ‘hook’ new users or to carry on via 2.0 - meetings discussions which may have already begun in conventions or during classes.”
Spreading faith and prayer through new media. How did this “vocation within the vocation” develop?
“It developed from my aptitude for technology and communication merged with my urge to spread Christianity. Through new technologies I want to bear witness to the Word and spread it across the world, I express myself as a priest and believer and I try to share what I feel is good, positive messages that I, as a person, with all my limitations, feel able to pass on. To meet, to relate, to be, to live in the world, to announce the Gospel not with words but with an active presence, this is what I try to achieve on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and all the “new media”."