"A word after a word after a word is power" - Margaret Atwood

BRIDGET WHELAN

A blog for readers and writers

A blog about the stories we tell each other and how we tell them...

Wednesday 9 February 2011

Bless me Father --- there's an App for that.

A Good Confession is set in the early 1960s just before The Beatles and Vatican II and everything started to change. But I thought the central theme was pretty timeless...a love affair between young widow and a Catholic priest. It's not a will-they-won't-they kind of book. You know that they do from the first page and that's deliberate...I was interested in how two decent, sincere people cope when they break the rules of the club they belong to, when they go against the religion they believe in and the culture they are part of...
I guess that's pretty universal and I've been invited to speak at a synagogue about the book's themes but - because my characters are Catholics - confession plays a big part in their world, hence the title and a major scene about a third of the way through....
But I was thinking of whispering behind a wooden screen to a face you can't see, and the smell of old incense. Today I hear that the Catholic Church has approved an iPhone app for confession. It's on sale through iTunes for £1.19 ($1.99) and is described as "the perfect aid for every penitent."

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