Scottish archbishop unveils 'Sindr' to help you confess

If you're a Catholic with a confession you desperately need to get off your chest, you'll soon have an app to help.

Catholic App, which the Church hopes will increase engagement with young parishioners, will use GPS to guide worshippers in Scotland to their nearest confessional or mass.

"As well as providing information of nearby services, the app sends out regular 'spiritual inspirations' to users," The Scotsman reports.

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It was unveiled by Leo Cushley, the archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh, at St Peter's Basilica in Rome and will be available for download early next year.

"The idea was really inspired by the Holy Father [Pope Francis] himself," Archbishop Cushley told Vatican Radio. "He said to be imaginative about what to do for the Holy Year of Mercy."

The Church has just ended the year-long Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy, a time for remission of sins and universal pardon.

Father Jamie Boyle of Falkirk, who was also in Rome, told The Guardian that during the year had seen "a discernible upturn in the number of people keen to return to confession but not sure where or when to find it".

He added: "This app will really help people to answer both those questions."

Catholic App will initially cover the St Andrews and Edinburgh archdiocese, but developer Musematik hopes to sell the technology to parishes around the world.

There are already several apps on the market to help Catholics organise their sins in advance to make the most of their time in the confessional, but Catholic App is the first to offer GPS guidance to nearby confessionals.

Despite not even being on the market yet, the software has already received a nickname – "Sindr", a play on the popular dating apps Tinder and Grindr.