Tablet of faith: Pope launches app for praying together
POPE Francis has launched a new app, allowing the faithful to pray with him on matters of his choosing.
He presented the Vatican’s latest digital platform, the Worldwide Network of Prayer with the Pope, during his traditional Sunday address to tens of thousands of people in St Peter’s Square at the Vatican.
The app, Click to Pray, will tell users what the leader of the world’s 1.3 billion Roman Catholics is praying for, such as world peace or the population of a country hit by a natural disaster, so they can join him.
Francis, who once said he was a “disaster” with technology, turned to a priest holding the tablet and asked: “Did I do it?” The priest nodded and smiled.
A Vatican statement said a website, www.clicktopray. org, would allow the faithful to “accompany the pope in a mission of compassion for the world”.
Click to Pray is available in Spanish, English, Italian, French, Portuguese and German.
The app is compatible with Android and iPhone.
Pope Francis told the crowd: “I am thinking of the 170 victims in the Mediterranean. They were looking for a future for their lives”.
The migrants were believed to have been lost in incidents involving dinghies from Libya and Morocco.
Speaking of Colombia, he called the car bomb at a police academy on Thursday that killed at least 21 and injured dozens “a terrorist attack”.