Castlederg priest rules out contactless collection for congregations

A LOCAL priest says he does not anticipate that local parishes will be following those in Dublin, which have set up card machines to use for contactless church collections.

Fr Paul Fraser from Castlederg says when it comes to collections, “nothing beats the personal touch.”

In the Archdiocese of Dublin members of the clergy have just struck a deal with Californian paytech firm Clover to introduce ‘tap-and-donate’ devices. The machines will be installed in 200 parishes in Dublin and east of the country in an effort to combat plummeting collection plate income.

The Dublin Archdiocese is bigger than just the borders of Dublin county and it takes in churches in Wicklow, Kildare, Laois, Wexford and Carlow. It previously piloted contactless payment measures back in 2019.

“No, it’s certainly not something I would anticipate for here,” Fr Fraser said.

Traditionally, a collection basket or plate is passed during Mass allowing parishioners to donate to the church. However, with more and more people using debit cards instead of cash due to the rise of contactless payments during the pandemic, churches everywhere have had to come up with alternatives to the collection baskets.

“We’ve been taking more conventional approaches, like standing orders and there’s a donate button on the website,” Fr Fraser continued.

“Our parishioners too have been very good, they regularly bring their envelopes and so we’re happy with the way it’s going.

“(The contactless payments) are not something I would find particularly attractive. I’ve seen it in certain places in Europe, when there might be issues around currency and so on but it’s not something that we would be prioritising. Even the cost of setting something like that up could be significant. There’s nothing that beats the personal touch.”

He concluded, “I suppose for me at the minute, the standing orders are the best option because it’s a cashless transaction. People don’t have to the money to count and so on.”