Vatican promotes 'smart rosary,' selling for $109

Vatican City, Oct 15, 2019 / 08:44 am

The Vatican promoted the launch of a 'smart rosary' bracelet Tuesday compatible with an iOS and Android app, which costs over $100.

"In a world of indifference and in the face of so many injustices, poverty, elementary rights denied, praying for peace in the world means reconciling ourselves in our daily relationships, with the poorest, with the stranger, with different cultures and spiritual and religious traditions, but also with our land, our forests, our rivers and oceans," Fr. Frédéric Fornos, SJ said in a press release sent by the Holy See Press Office Oct. 14.

"The rosary is a beautiful spiritual tradition for contemplating the Gospel with Mary, it is a simple and humble prayer," he said.

The "eRosary" bracelet is activated by making the sign of the cross, and is synced to an app, "Click to Pray eRosary" that tracks the user's progress and contains visual aids and audio reflections on the mysteries of the rosary.

The bluetooth and water-resistant digital rosary is currently available for pre-order sale on Amazon.it for 99 euros, roughly $109. It is sold by "Click to Pray" -- an initiative of the Pope's Worldwide Prayer Network.

Taiwan-based tech company GadgTek Inc (GTI) developed the "smart rosary" for the initiative.

Pope Francis launched the "Click to Pray" smartphone app in an Angelus address in January 2019, encouraging young people to download the app to pray the "Rosary of Peace."

Among the "exclusive images and personalized content about the praying of the Rosary" contained in the app is a "themed" rosary option. Themes will include Laudato Si, migrants and refugees, vocations, and young people.

"Aimed at the peripheral frontiers of the digital world where the young people dwell, the Click To Pray eRosary serves as a technology-based pedagogy to teach the young how to pray the Rosary, how to pray it for peace, how to contemplate the Gospel," the Click to Pray press release said.