ROME (CNS) — A new iPad application developed by two priests will send users news, videos and photos from the Holy Land and let people send prayers via “virtual candles.”
The new app, called “Terra Sancta,” was to be launched in English, Spanish, French and Italian at the Apple Store in mid-May, according to a May 18 press release by the Franciscan Custody of the Holy Land. Hebrew and Arabic were to be made available at a later date.
App users receive news from the custodia.org website as well as videos and high definition photographs produced by the Franciscan Media Center. The application lets users have “information on what is happening in the holy places, news and videos on the life of the custody, and photos of celebrations, events and people,” the press release said.
The content can be shared on Facebook and Twitter, it said.
Users can also “light a candle for the Holy Land” by sending prayers and messages to the custody, it said.
The idea for the new application was conceived by Father Paolo Padrini, a diocesan priest from Italy who also helped develop the iBreviary application for the iPhone, and Franciscan Father Silvio de la Fuente, secretary of the Franciscan Custody of the Holy Land.