Pokemon Go attracts crowds to church

Parishes act as great locations to "Catch 'em all"

Pikachu, the electric mouse Pokemon and international mascot. (Photo credits: etnyk via Flickr)

As the wildly popular app Pokemon Go prepares for international release, parishes may see an increase of visitors looking to snag their own pocket monsters.

The app involves travelling to real life locations to locate and capture virtual Pocket Monsters in order to achieve points, items and levels. Many real life locations are tagged as Pokestops, where users can gain experience points and more items for the game.

These locations are either famous landmarks, locations based on geo-tagged photos from Google, or user-submitted suggestions from a previous geolocation game called Ingress, also created by Niantic Labs, who designed the app. Of course, these locations include churches and parishes around the world.

Though the game has yet to be released outside of the United States and Australia, there are other methods to download the game in Canada. Individuals wandering the tall grass around parishes with their phones at the ready may be simply looking to catch some Pokemon.

For more information about Pokemon Go and its effects of parishes in the United States, click here.