Pokemon Go made huge success in 2016, recording over 500 million downloads and generating over $2 billion in revenue worldwide.
Following the foot steps of Pokemon Go makers Niantic, the Catholic church has launched its own mobile game in which players are tasked with catching saints.
The game which goes by the name of "JC Go" is similar to Pokemon Go as it uses the same augmented reality used in the latter. However, users playing JC Go don't catch Pokemon but Saints instead.
"Never has the church had a project like this. This is the Catholic app with the most advanced technology there is," Ricardo Grzona, executive director of the Foundation Ramon Pane told Crux Now.
"Everything today, language and relations, among young people, go through smartphones. We wanted to be there and propose to them an educational video game, that is religious and interactive, and with which they can form evangelisation teams," Ricardo Grzona added.
Ricardo Grzona went on to add that though the Pope isn't "a very technological person," he however supported the idea of combining technology with evangelization.
Players in the game are tasked with forming an eTeam made up of friends, biblical characters, Saints, blesseds and Marian devotions.
"The eTeam will help you generate a collection of characters (virtual and real) that will accompany you in tour day and pilgrimage to the JMJ 2019 in Panama and other religious events in the world," the app description read in its Google Play Store page.
"We speak a lot about young people and technology, a more modern language. What young people want is to be active in taking the Gospel also to technology and have fun, learn and be evangelized through these channels,"The Independent quoted Honduran Cardinal Oscar Maradiaga, who serves as the president of the Foundation Ramon Pane.
The JC Go app can be downloaded in the Google Play Store.