By Delaney Newhouse | Focus Editor
The advertisement began simply.
A man dips his fingers in a pool of water, crosses himself and begins to pray. Then, a family joins together at the table. Next, a group of U.S. service members kneel.
For $8 million, the Hallow app paid for the images of prayer, ashes drawn on a man’s forehead and Mark Wahlberg’s endorsement to be broadcast into the homes of millions of Americans on Super Bowl Sunday.
Months later, it continues its campaign before YouTube videos and between Facebook posts. Celebrities like Chris Pratt, Jonathan Roumie and Gwen Stefani urge others to join them on the subscription-based prayer and meditation app, which includes a limited free option.
Hallow app founder Alex Jones left the Catholic Church in high school but told The Pillar, a Catholic news publication, that he returned to the Church after college through meditative and contemplative techniques. In April 2021, venture capital group General Catalyst poured $12 million into his idea for a Catholic version of the secular meditation apps he enjoyed in his early adulthood.
John Maxwell, director of campus ministry at Baylor’s St. Peter Catholic Student Center, uses the Hallow app two to three times a week. He said the Student Center was potentially working with the app’s team to bring a personalized version of Hallow to Baylor.
“Hallow has different church groups you can use,” Maxwell said. “It makes it that prayer requests can be communicated clearly, and that you can kind of have that feedback response and hear what people are praying for you.”
Maxwell said the last three popes had all encouraged the use of technology when it can deepen relationships. In declaring his prayer intentions for April, though, Pope Francis warned against the misuse of technology, saying that overuse of screens, no matter how, “makes us forget that there are real people behind it who breathe, laugh and cry.”
Flower Mound freshman Kira Hurley shared a more cautious perspective on the Hallow app, and said she felt the Student Center was well-connected enough with in-person activities, email and a GroupMe in which parishioners chat.
“I see how individual parishes could use a tool like that, but I also think we all still have websites,” she said.
Hurley emphasized the importance of free will, but said she wouldn’t encourage the use of the Hallow app, largely due to its cost.
“Not when there’s free resources out there,” she said.
Maxwell, on the other hand, said he didn’t feel that the Hallow app’s subscription model was contrary to its mission as a religiously affiliated app. He mentioned the discounted rate at which students could subscribe, and said the general costs were reasonable.
“I don’t see any issues with it,” he said. “I mean, they are doing good work, so giving money for them to continue doing good work is always a positive.”
