A San Antonio-based man claiming to be a priest is inviting people to confess to him over the social media app Snapchat.
The mysterious man goes by the name of @PriestDavid on the photo messaging app Snapchat claims that he wants to make confession easier, but he is not proven to be a member of any church, Stuff.co.nz reported.
The supposed priest, who claims that he had been a man of the cloth for 23 years and would be hearing confessions through Snapchat until March 16, said that he started the initiative to help a university student with a project.
He added that he wanted to reach out to younger people but wanted to remain anonymous and not identify his congregation.
However, a local San Antonio priest, Reverend Tony Vilano, said that there's no humility or ownership of the sin you have committed when you do it like this, adding that the digital priest is not a Catholic priest. The church teaches when you go to confession, you should go to a priest either behind a divider or face to face.
Archdiocese of San Antonio Deacon Pat Rodgers also disagreed with using Snapchat for confessions, saying if the man was a priest, he had probably gone rogue.
In a statement, the Episcopal Diocese of West Texas said it recognised there were various ways churches could reach out to people through social media, but Episcopalians are not asked to present private confessions to a priest, instead confession is offered in worship, as part of the church's liturgy.
