Bible, certificates and offerings from the cell phone

It is called Catholic Hashang after one of the first local martyrs and was activated on Easter Day. Officially promoted by the Episcopal Conference, it allows direct connection with parish records. The collected data will also be used for statistical purposes by the Korean Church.

Seoul () – An official app of the Catholic Church, designed to accompany Korean Catholics in their various needs: from reading a page from the Bible to downloading a baptismal certificate, from making an offering directly from their mobile to the possibility of registering with a QR code in the places of pilgrimage they visit. These are the characteristics of Catholic Hashang, the application created by the National Conference of Catholic Priests for Informatization (NCCPC) that debuted on the occasion of Easter.

It has been activated in all parishes of the Archdiocese of Seoul and will soon be extended to all other dioceses. Thanks to this application, from now on South Korean Catholics who attend mass will be able to make their offering not only in cash, but also through a cell phone payment that will be managed with an ad hoc system, called Catholic Pay. But there are also many other services available: by registering in the application, the faithful will be automatically connected to the registers of all Catholic churches in the country, where data on the sacraments are recorded.

Other data related to the life of the Church can also be recorded through the app. Once accumulated and processed anonymously, they can be useful for statistical purposes for parishes, dioceses, and the entire Korean Catholic Church.

According to Father Dominic Choi Jang Min, president of the NCCPC, the Korean Church is the first in the world to incorporate such an application. His name, Catholic Hasang, comes from Saint Paul Chong Hasang, one of the Korean martyrs who at the beginning of the 19th century was very active in his attempt to organize the life of the Catholic community, even during the time of persecution.