Essential Catholic apps for your phone or tablet

[Updated for 2022]

We’ve boiled the best Catholic apps down to this essential list.

“Essential” ones are Swiss Army-type apps that come loaded with many useful resources and special features all in one package. Based on your type of device and platform, you have a few to choose from.  After you choose one of those “essential” all-in-one Catholic apps below, then shop for others that fit your particular needs and interests in other areas of Catholic APPtitude. Let’s get started!

Laudate  (Free) Apple | Android |Kindle Fire–Laudate touts itself as the #1 free Catholic app. That’s probably because it is the most fully loaded app at this, um, price point. It is hands-down the best value in a Catholic app and certainly worthy of residing on your mobile device given all its many useful Catholic resources. Indeed, most of the hard-core Catholic app users we’ve interviewed have this app on their mobile devices. Available in English, Español, Português, Italiano, Bahasa and Polski, Slovenian and many texts and resources in Latin. You get:

• Daily Mass Readings and Order of Mass for both Ordinary Form and Extraordinary form of the Mass
• Catechism of the Catholic Church- (as well as the Compendium) as a web view display of the Catechism published on the Vatican web site. Internet connection required.
•  Liturgy of the Hours- includes text for all the hours for the day. NOTE: The English text is the British version, so it may not match up with texts of others if you are praying in a group.
• Traditional Roman Breviary (1960) with split screen Latin/English.
• New American Bible; NAB Bible when connected to internet only. It also offers Douay-Rheims Bible which is local so you don’t need to be connected to the internet. This makes for a large file, so they recommend moving the app to your phone’s SD card
• Complete library of all the modern era’s Church Documents including all the documents of Vatican II
• Confession app
• Pinch/Zoom capability
• Link to Vatican News (old Pope App)
• Rosary with a Podcast for Rosary and Stations of the Cross and Latin Rosary
• Chaplet of Divine Mercy (on Rosary screen)
• Stations of the Cross
• Confession (Sacrament of Reconciliation) preparation with examination of conscience
• Various prayers and prayers in Latin with English translation
• Daily Meditations.
• Podcasts of Daily Readings and meditations with ability to bookmark them
• Launcher for iCatholicRadio
• Ability to bookmark prayers and podcasts and create your own categorized prayers. Export/Import for prayers.

iPieta.($.99) Full version in Apple | Android version is split up into several lite apps. This major app is loaded with liturgical, catechetical and spiritual resources:

• Bibles: The Douay-Rheims and Latin Vulgate Bibles (searchable; highlight text;Bible commentary imbedded).
• Catechisms: Catechism of the Catholic Church is offered as a web view display of the Catechism published on the Vatican web site. Internet connection required. There are NO apps with the text of the CCC imbedded due to copyright/translation issues. This is the only way you can view it using an app.  [Kindle version via Amazon $9.95] Free on line in English here. Other catechisms available on this app are Baltimore Catechisms #1, #2, & #3; Catechism of Christian Doctrine; the Roman Catechism; Catechism of St. Thomas Aquinas
• Calendar for Ordinary Roman Calendar and Extraordinary Roman Calendar (1962) in English and Latin. Comes with Saint of the Day, Liturgical readings. Audio version of Gospel readings available.
• Numerous devotions and prayers including a version of the Little Office of Our Lady, the 33-Day Total Consecration Preparation, Novenas to the Holy Spirit and to the Divine Mercy, St. Alphonsus Stations of the Cross, and the St. Bridget 1-Year and 12-Year Prayers. Many prayers are available in audio format if you choose to download them. You can selectively download what you wish.
• Library of spiritual writings by St. Louis Marie de Montfort, St. Teresa of Jesus, St. John of the Cross, St. Catherine of Siena, the Summa Theologica by St. Thomas Aquinas, the Imitation of Christ, Introduction to Devout Life by St. Francis de Sales, selections by St. Jean-Marie Vianney, and the Treatise on Purgatory by St. Catherine of Genoa. The Summa (apart from the Supplement) is also in Latin.
• Butler’s Lives of the Saints (with optional audio included)
• Papal Encyclicals
• Ecumenical Council Documents
• Scriptural passages for meditating on the mysteries of the Holy Rosary
• Examination of Conscience in preparation for Sacrament of Reconcilliation (Confession)

Hallow Free download with access to a bunch of exquisite content. Subscription necessary to open access to full content–monthly $8.99; annually $69.99 Apple | GooglePlay

Developers say this is globally “the #1 Catholic prayer and meditation app.” It is so much more than that statement implies.

When is the last time you learned a new way of praying? It’s time to turn to prayer with intention. This serene, guided meditation app is all about you and your soul entering a blissful, meditative audio environment to help you pray. The goal? To slide you into a meaningful dialogue with God so you can nurture your relationship with him. The enormous catalog of content (prayer, meditations, scripture, reflections, bedtime Bible stories, etc.), utilizes peaceful, calming audio to stir your soul–from the velvety voices reading to you, to the soothing music/sounds in a variety of genres. Step by step, you will be led into prayerful, tranquil meditation like you may never have experienced in your life.

On the free side of this app you get

• meditations on the Daily Gospel (updated every day)
• audio Rosary
• the pandemic “Stuck at home” praylist
• Spiritual Communion
• Chaplet of Divine Mercy
• Examen (examination of conscience/preparation for confession)
• Spiritual Writing
• Christian Meditation sessions
• 14-day free trial of full version of the app

Each of these offerings comes with a choice of two voices as your guide, three length options, nine background music selections, a journal, prayer reminder options, goal setting and tracking. You also have access to all of the Guest Sessions, and Minute Meditation sessions. The free side also generously includes the Bible in a Year with Fr. Mike Schmitz.

To unlock the full version of this app to access all its content, you must subscribe (monthly $8.99; annually $69.99). Before you squawk at the price (which I sure did at first!), please consider what you pay for streaming media subscriptions. Content in THIS app can help save your soul (Can you say that about Hulu or Netflix?) because it’s focused on one thing: to help get you in a mindset to talk to God. That relationship is the most important relationship in your life. And if you are a nominal Catholic routinely going through the motions of your faith, begrudgingly going to Sunday Mass when prodded or not giving God much thought, it’s time to grow up, spiritually speaking. Let’s be honest. Hallow is so jam-packed with content (packaged in tasteful, minimalist design), it takes eight full minutes to run through everything this amazing app offers (complete with celebrities), as this video demonstrates:

English/Spanish (limited).

Amen App (Free) Apple | Android  by Augustine Institute

The Augustine Institute has been a distinguished leader in producing/publishing faithful Catholic catechetical materials in a variety of media formats for a number of years. Led by Dr. Timothy Gray, their impressive catalogue of resources unlocks for public consumption the rich array of Catholic thought and spirituality to help fuel the New Evangelization led by laity. You might be familiar with the Institute’s Lighthouse Catholic Media rack in the back of your church, or their amazing internet-based resource portal, Formed–which gathers together the best of Catholic entertainment, formation resources, educational series and more. Now, the Augustine Institute offers an app that utilizes much of the Institute’s content, but centered around one specific theme: To help you encounter God through meditative prayer from the time you wake up to the time you go to sleep.

Amen App joins Hallow in this category of apps based in a soothing meditative experience in prayer, complete with a variety of sleep aids designed to calm your mind and body. Like Hallow, Amen App is based primarily in audio format, so you can pray/meditate with your eyes closed. This includes audio meditations and bedtime stories read to you in a soothing delivery by a trained voice actor on a variety of topics with a selection of background music or sound effect options.

Amen App also comes packed with other valuable Catholic audio/text resources to help inspire “your daily conversation with God through faithful Christian meditation, nourishing Scriptures and relaxing sleep sounds,” according to developers. Among resources, you get audio/text versions of:

• Daily Mass readings and audio reflections
• Meditations/reflections on a variety of topics by top Catholic theologians and speakers (like Chris Stefanick and Dr. Tim Gray).
• Stories for children including Bible stories and the popular Brother Francis cartoon (just the audio, no video, unfortunately)
• Catholic devotions including a variety of audio rosaries
• Truth & Life Audio Bible: Enter into a fully dramatized reading of a new book from the New Testament each month.
• Read-the-Bible-in-a-year audio program
• Sermons by saints and Fathers of the Church
• Morning and Evening psalms/prayers
• Season-specific resources targeting Lent, Easter, Advent and Christmas
• Journal

Options include the ability to download resources for use offline and Spanish language.

Check out Amen App’s video tutorial to discover all this beautiful app offers:

However much Amen follows Hallow’s lead, it falls short of the Hallow App in some key areas:

• the sheer volume of resources compared to Hallow app which boasts of more than 1,000 files in its repertoire. We notice, for example, Hallow offers more children’s content, a larger selection of music and features like novenas, and tracks for preparation for confession.
• the quality of Hallow’s voice recordings are superior. Amen App’s audio consists of a mix bag of audio captured in a variety of sound settings compared to Hallow’s professional tracks. While the important meditative offerings are recorded by a trained voice actor in Amen App, here and there other readings are not. You will not be able to choose voices of readers either as you can in Hallow, nor will you be treated to “celebrity” voices featured in Hallow (Jonathan Roomie, Bishop Barron, Dr. Scott Hahn, Fr. Mike Schmitz, Jim Caviezel).

My Parish App (Free) Apple | Android  by Diocesan Publications. Active engagement with a parish is essential to living your Catholic faith fully. This app is designed for parishes that participate in this service. But even if your parish doesn’t participate, you can use My Parish App to access great resources during the week–it is open to anyone who downloads this free app. You would select a particular parish (preferably your own or one near you) and besides the specific parish resources, you’ll see an abundant selection of other valuable resources–yours for free!

Tap the Prayers icon to reveal a substantial listing of traditional Catholic prayers in several categories. You’ll appreciate the ability to set prayer reminders on your device. (Mine is set to 3:00PM each day). The audio rosary is enhanced with reflections by a priest who rather dramatically punctuates the heart of the mystery he helps you to explore. Personal faith formation covers the sacraments and other elements of our religion in short (“3-minute theology”) easy to understand presentations via text, audio or video–lots of interesting stuff you probably missed in catechism class dozens of years ago. Inspirational and helpful articles explore living our Catholic faith in a world which operates on principles so contrary to it. Little kids will enjoy Brother Francis songs, coloring print-outs and cartoons that grandma has on her phone!

My Parish App also concentrates on a specific arena of our faith life: Confession. This resource (important to your very salvation) includes a step-by-step guide, detailed examination of conscience based on the Ten Commandments, and the Act of Contrition prayer. But in addition, the app reminds you to go to Confession each time you open up to the main screen (you can set up a personalized schedule). If your parish participates, this is where you’ll see its posted Confession times.

If you’re traveling, My Parish App is a great resource to locate other participating parishes near you (if you choose location services at set-up). So in two clicks, you have the church, location, Mass times and its bulletin. If the list is inadequate, just click the Discover Mass icon which gives you immediate access to DiscoverMass.com where you can locate Catholic churches nearest to you and explore their web sites to get the info you need.

Other resources/features on My Parish App include:

• Messages – Favorite, share or reply to messages from your parish. Target specific groups. (Most of our prayer requests come from this source).
• Calendar – View or share time and location of upcoming parish events and RSVP when relevant or add to your phone’s calendar.
• Homilies – Listen to or read weekly homilies provided by your parish. (Our parish links to Bishop Barron homily videos and adds our own video homilies from our own historic occasions).
• News – The latest Catholic news from your parish or around the world (provided by the Catholic News Agency).
• Giving – Easily access your parish’s online giving.
• Mass Times – All Mass times for the week with MassMode™ time or location reminders to silence your phone before Mass. Discover.com Mass times is available if needed.
• Prayers – Full list of traditional Catholic prayers with the ability to set reminders for any of them or your own daily prayer time. Also submit prayer requests to your parish.
• Bulletins – View this week’s and past bulletins from your parish.

Catholic Mega App (Free) Apple | Android Imagine jotting down all the very basic apps and web sites and blogs and podcasts and liturgical books and Catholic apologetics and prayers that you would want on your mobile device. That list might well match the offerings in the appropriately-named Catholic Mega App which bundled all those items and even more into their product. And like Catholic Apptitude, they concentrated on linking only the very best resources out there for you. So, you don’t just get any old Liturgy of the Hours, for instance, you get the popular iBreviary and DivineOffice.org links. That is considerate, indeed. Let’s open up this free gift and see what’s inside: Order of Mass, daily readings, Breviary, reading reflections, interactive Rosary, Stations of the Cross, the Confession App [the same developer],  NABRE Catholic Bible, links to popular Catholic blogs and web sites, pro-life-resources, youth ministry resources, link to the Catechism of the Catholic Church and many prayers. Then it throws in a bunch of interactive social media options like a prayer wall, discussion board, a photo gallery input option, and links to Facebook and Twitter and Pinterest accounts of the Catholic celebrities–Pope Francis, US bishops and EWTN. Whew! And navigation is easily accomplished by holding your phone in one hand and using one thumb (Thumbs up to that!) The downside? Because most all of the resources are linked, you have to be connected to the internet to use most features of this app (other than the note pad). But for the price, this app is well worth the real estate it takes on your mobile device. Go ahead and consider it as the first all-in-one app you download IF your device is constantly connected to the internet.

Disclaimer… To avoid disappointment, we encourage you to visit the links provided to read up on the details of the apps you are interested in. We include apps in this site because they contain certain functions or elements worthy of consideration. But the individual apps may not exactly fit your needs. The more information you look up, the less likely you will be disappointed in your purchase.