Maureen Dowd's column today...

...is about confession, or more accurately, a new confession iPhone app. (I'm still not clear on what exactly an "app" is.)

["Confession: a Roman Catholic App" has] shot to global success, ranking No. 42 on the best-selling app list, according to iTunes.
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[The app] is not a session with a virtual priest who restores your virtue with a penance of three Hail Mary’s and three extra gigabytes of memory.

Rather, its developers say, it’s a “baby steps” program that walks you through the Ten Commandments, your examination of conscience and any “custom sins” you might have, then after confession (purportedly) wipes the slate clean so no one sees your transgressions.
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The app offers different questions depending on your age and gender.

For instance, if you sign in as a 15-year-old girl and look under the Sixth Commandment, one of the questions is: “Do I not treat my body or other people’s bodies with purity and respect?” If you sign in as a 33-year-old married man, that commandment offers this query: “Have I been guilty of masturbation?”

Children are asked if they pout or use bad language. Teenagers are asked if they are a tattletale or bully. Women are asked if they’ve had an abortion or encouraged anyone to have an abortion and if they’re chaste. Men are asked about the latter two, as well.
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Under the Sixth Commandment, men and women are asked: “Have I been guilty of any homosexual activity?” Priests, however, are not. They are asked if they flirt.
 
(That last one, especially, is a classic. Although the Catholic Church claims that it welcomes homosexuals, it still finds "homosexual activity" sinful. That's kind of like saying the Church welcomes left-handed people so long as they don't write with their left hands.)

And I guess my question is, do people still go to confession? Really?