It’s hardly what God or Steve Jobs intended it for, and heaven knows what Fr Ted would have made of it, but Apple’s iconic iPad has produced it first iPriest.While Moses had the early form of tablet communication in the form of the 10 Commandments, Fr Paddy Rushe from the Redeemer parish in the Co Louth town thinks his iPad tablet is, well, God’s gift.
"It’s brilliant, it has apps on it where you can download the full version of the four gospels, you can download the leading prayers, you can get a 700 word missal, and you can even write your sermon on it. It is so flexible, and really it has everything a priest needs.
"I tend to move around the congregation when giving a sermon so it much easier to have it all on the iPad rather than on sheets of paper, and to be honest, it has got a great reaction from the mass goers.
"I do get funny looks from my parishioners, some of them think I know the whole Mass off by heart and that I learn my sermons the same way, because the iPad is so small they can’t see it and don’t realise I am reading from it.
"Just recently somebody asked me to say the prayer for good weather, and I was able to download it instantly, in other times I might have struggled to find it.
"Mind you it appears to have fallen on deaf ears this time around."
And Fr Rushe’s tech wizardry doesn’t stop there.
Last year he invented a new app in a bid to boost vocations to the priesthood, and is delighted with how that has worked out.
"We have had more than 4,000 downloads so far which is good for an app new to the market, it has a quiz on it which asks relevant questions of men who may be considering joining the priesthood.
"Look, there are a lot of concerns about the internet and social media but, as a priest, I feel we can use this for the good.
"I use the iPad a lot at wedding ceremonies and everybody seems to get a good laugh at it and it certainly projects a modern feel to the Mass."
And that’s the God’s truth.