A recent national story of particular interest at Southwestern Michigan College is the iPhones Confession app because one of its Michiana creators taught there as an adjunct instructor.

The iPhone app aims at helping Catholics through confession and encouraging lapsed followers back to the faith and has been sanctioned by the Catholic Church in the United States.

Confession: A Roman Catholic app, thought to be the first approved by a church authority, walks Catholics through the sacrament and contains what the company behind the program describes as a “personalized examination of conscience for each user.”

Not only did Arthur “Chip” Leinen teach technology one semester at SMC, but he works at South Bend Memorial Hospital with the husband of Stacy Horner, chair of SMC’s School of Business.

“Not all adjuncts make national news,” Horner, who is in her sixth year at SMC, said Friday, “but I feel really blessed to get that quality in an adjunct. We have people doing fantastic things and our students benefit from that. Adjuncts work fulltime and are the best of the best in their fields.”

“Our desire is to invite Catholics to engage in their faith through digital technology,” Patrick Leinen of the three-man company Little iApps, based in South Bend, Ind., told the New York Daily News.

Pope Benedict XVI’s World Communications Address Jan. 24 emphasized the importance of a Christian presence in the digital world.

The firm said content of the app was developed with the help of the Rev. Thomas Weinandy of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and the Rev. Dan Scheidt, pastor of Queen of Peace Catholic Church in Mishawaka, Ind.

The app is not designed to replace going to confession, but to help Catholics through the act, which generally involves admitting sins to a priest in a confessional booth.

Catholics still must visit a priest for absolution.

Little iApps said Bishop Kevin Rhoades of the Diocese of Fort Wayne, Ind., officially authorized the app for Catholics to use.

Patrick Leinen told the New York Daily News that the app, which retails for $1.99, already aided one man in returning to the sacrament after 20 years.