Exodus 90: the rules, the critiques, and whether it fits you

What Exodus 90 is

Exodus 90 is a spiritual exercise for Catholic men who want to break free from whatever holds them. The program names the usual suspects itself: alcohol, pornography, social media, sports, gambling, work. Its motto is Galatians 5:1, “For freedom Christ has set us free.” The name points to Israel’s escape from Egypt, and for ninety days the men read their way through the Book of Exodus. The ninety days lead up to Easter, and the app then continues with a program for the fifty days of the Easter season.

It began in the United States; the Austrian Catholic news agency Kathpress dates the start to 2011. Today a small Catholic company runs it through an app. The app is for men 18 and older. Non-Catholics are welcome, Exodus says, as long as they are at peace with being taught “from the fullness of the Catholic faith.”

The three pillars and the rules

Exodus 90 rests on prayer, asceticism and fraternity. Here are the rules as exodus90.com lists them.

Prayer. The daily reading and reflection in the app, a holy hour every day with at least twenty minutes of silent prayer, and Sunday kept as the Lord’s Day. Where an hour isn’t possible, Exodus asks for at least twenty minutes.

Asceticism. The list is meant to be hard:

• a full night’s sleep, 8+ hours
• cold showers
• exercise three times a week
• no unnecessary screen time (smartphone, computer, TV, video games, social media)
• no alcohol
• no soda or sweet drinks
• no snacking between meals
• no desserts or sweets
• only music that lifts the soul to God
• no unnecessary purchases
• fasting on Wednesdays and Fridays (one full meal and two smaller ones) and no meat on those days

These are rules you take on voluntarily with the program. They are not the Church’s general rules on fasting and abstinence, but the program’s own practice.

On Sundays and solemnities, Exodus encourages each man to relax one discipline so the feast is a real celebration.

Fraternity. A small group, five to eight men depending on which Exodus page you read, meets once a week for 30 to 60 minutes. Each man has an “anchor” from the group and checks in with him briefly every day.

Two lines from the Exodus help center put the list in context. It warns against quietly editing the list to suit yourself. It also warns against being a literalist: each man is to discern what God is asking of him. And if health, work or your stage of life makes a discipline unrealistic, Exodus says to set it aside and tell your fraternity.

What critics say

Exodus 90 has helped a lot of men, by their own account. There are also serious objections, and Exodus names some of them itself.

Effort over grace. Terence Sweeney, a professor at Villanova University, wrote in America magazine in 2024 that the program “risks a kind of semi-Pelagianism”: the idea that holiness is mainly our own achievement. He argued that it substitutes an exercise regimen for the liturgical year and sidelines almsgiving. He also called the Church to see it as “a partially flawed yet spiritually fruitful movement.” To be fair, the Lent program on exodus90.com now lists almsgiving explicitly. Exodus answers the charge in its own article: a daily holy hour and a brotherhood show that no one is meant to free himself by his own strength.

Harshness. Exodus doesn’t soften it: “This may be the hardest thing you’ve ever done.” A German priest doing Exodus 90 for the third time asked himself in Die Tagespost in 2023 whether it was all pointless self-punishment. His answer: it isn’t about who is the toughest man, but about becoming inwardly free to serve God and others.

Fear of failure and scrupulosity. For men trying to get free of porn, this matters most. An Exodus blog post names two pitfalls: pride, and the fear of “failing Exodus.” Its advice is remarkably honest. If the daily regimen fills you with anxiety, or you already struggle with scrupulosity, set Exodus 90 aside; it may not be for you in this season. If you are struggling with an addiction, talk to a therapist. And Exodus 90, the post says, “is not an addictions program.”

Streaks. The app tracks streaks of completed disciplines, and Exodus presents that as motivation. Many men like it. If you tend to condemn yourself over a broken streak, know that going in.

What the Church teaches about asceticism

Asceticism is not foreign to Catholic faith. The Catechism says: “There is no holiness without renunciation and spiritual battle” (CCC 2015). It names fasting, prayer and almsgiving as the three main forms of interior penance, expressing conversion toward oneself, toward God and toward others (CCC 1434). And it puts grace first: “the free and undeserved help that God gives us” (CCC 1996). On chastity it is sober: self-mastery “is a long and exacting work. One can never consider it acquired once and for all,” and chastity grows “through stages marked by imperfection and too often by sin” (CCC 2342–2343).

In the same paragraph the Catechism quotes St. Gregory of Nyssa: “He who climbs never stops going from beginning to beginning, through beginnings that have no end” (CCC 2015). My own reading of that: it is a good test for any program. It should help you begin again and again, not prove that this time you’ll finally tough it out.

How Consurgam differs, and where it fits alongside

Exodus 90 is a strong, shared ninety-day push with a clear rule. Consurgam is a companion for ordinary days, above all for the hard minutes and for the morning after a fall. The difference is less in the goal than in the form.

• Coming back, not white-knuckling. Consurgam counts days but never resets them to zero. A fall stays quietly visible on the calendar, and the path goes on. There are no streaks to break. After a fall, mercy comes first, then a plan for the next 24 hours. The app invites you to confession and never makes it a condition.
• Possible alone, not meant to stay alone. Exodus lives from the group. Consurgam works even if you don’t have anyone yet, and it points you toward one person you trust, whom you tell how it’s going in a partner check-in. No reports, no live feed.
• Two paths. Consurgam has a path rooted in Catholic faith and an equal path without religious language. Exodus 90 is fully Catholic.

The two don’t exclude each other. A man in an Exodus fraternity still needs something for the moment the urge hits and for the morning after, when shame says: hide it. For that, Consurgam has an emergency button that walks you through ninety seconds, and a plan for after a fall. The first cohort begins on Ash Wednesday, February 10, 2027.

An honest word to finish. If you have men around you who will walk with you, and a hard, clear program carries you, Exodus 90 can be a gift. If you are alone right now, prone to scruples, or have several all-or-nothing attempts behind you, start smaller. What to do after a fall is on the relapse page, and how Lent can help is on Lent without porn.