Go to Mass are wherever you are: the application with data from more than 125,000 churches

What if you could know with a click when is the next Mass closest to your position? Technology is to facilitate life, also to Catholics.

That thought the Argentine Pablo Licheri, a graduate in systems, who made it possible for the faithful to participate in the Eucharist even being traveling and far from their homes. Thus he was born Mass schedulesan app that is in nine languages and instantly shows you the closest Catholic churches with mass, confession and worship schedules.

“If we are 1.3 billion Catholics, imagine what we can do if we use our cell phones to get closer to God!” He says in conversation with ACI Press Licheri, who made it possible from his own computer, programming the app during the weekends.

From zero to viral, without marketing and without sponsor

Behind this technology there is no company or large investors. Not even advertising. “For almost ten years, my wife and I finance everything. It was something we did as ants already lung, with time stolen from rest,” he explains.

The app, which is called Catholic Mass Times, It exceeded last week the two million downloads and has become the largest Catholic database in the world, with information on 125,000 temples.

The difficulties in assembling information have not been few. Of the 3,000 dioceses in the world, 70 % have no website. “I tried to get in touch with the dioceses and parishes, but many times they did not answer. Especially in the poorest countries. This reality is very different from what we see in countries like the United States, where the dioceses work almost as large companies,” he explains.

Therefore, he made a key decision to collect the data. He opened the possibility that the users themselves send information directly from the app. “I personally loaded all the churches in Buenos Aires, which were more than two hundred. Then people started traveling and sent data … and thus growing.”

In addition, it has an internal team that updates the information. Through the corrections provided by users, the Diocese or Google Maps websites, the “Mass schedules” team refines the information that may have changed.

In fact, when entering the app and selecting the schedule of a mass you can see the last verification.

Even where there is no religious freedom

The application also includes exotic destinations such as the Maldive Islands, where it is forbidden to publicly practice any religion other than Islam.

“I thought there would be no church there. But I found that in the Italian consulate, if you are a foreigner and ask permission, you can enter Mass. So we have the only mass in that country, and it is in the app,” explains Licheri.

Available in Android y IOSits simple and intuitive interface makes it an indispensable tool, especially for those who travel for work, vacations or move to a new city.

In addition to its main function, the app has a pastoral and formative dimension: for three years, every Saturday a weekly newsletter on issues of faith, devotions and Eucharistic reflections, which already reaches more than 52,000 subscribers is sent.

“It is a concrete tool to approach God,” concludes its founder.