Vatican City, 18 May 2013: With the touch of an iPad, Pope Francis became the first
pontiff to unlock a new smartphone application and expanded the Church’s footprint
in the digital world.
“I was quite anxious that we were going to get the
signal and it was all going to work. Because this isn’t made up, these folks are actually
waiting for the Holy Father to hit this button before it works,” said Father Andrew
Small in an interview with Catholic News Agency, CNA.
The launch of the MISSIO
App took place on May 17 in the Vatican’s Clementine Hall during a meeting of the
Pope and the 120 national directors of the Pontifical Mission Societies.
The
mission society’s application for mobile devices and smartphones collects news from
Rome, stories and photos from the missions and other material and makes it available
to the world.
The actual unlocking of the app was simple. Fr. Small, the U.S.
national director, presented his iPad to the Pope, who asked, “I push here?” “As soon
as the Holy Father hit the button, a little notice came across the top – what they
call a ‘push notice’ – and it said, ‘Pope Francis has unlocked the MISSIO App.’
“And
he sort of looked a little bit surprised,” Fr. Small recalled. The button was labeled
“Evangelizantur,” which means, “that they be evangelized” in Latin.
Since the
app is available in English, Spanish, Italian, German, French, Portuguese, Chinese
and Arabic, Fr. Small explained that the developers settled on the Latin phrase for
the launch.
The purpose of the application is to help the Pope and the Church
extend the reach of its message, with a particular emphasis on young people. “Ever
since his election, Pope Francis has reached far beyond the Vatican, touching people's
lives in simple and meaningful ways,” Fr. Small observed.
By making the app
available the Pope is putting “the missionary Gospel in the pockets of millions of
people, young and old, rich and poor, believer and searcher,” he added. The MISSIO
App was developed by the company Little iApps and is available for free in the iTunes
App Store and on Google Play.