A plastic fantastic way to scale stairway to heaven

IT’S an all too common scenario: kitted out in one’s Sunday best… and discovering – just as the church collection plate appears – that we’ve left all our change at home.

Now the Archdiocese of Dublin has come up with a solution after announcing a trial scheme to allow for contactless card donations in a handful of its churches.

The scheme will place standalone card machines in five Dublin churches to allow parishioners to make contactless contributions on their way in or out of the church. Speaking to RTÉ’s Six One News, Fr Liam Belton of Ballinteer parish said the move was ‘the way forward’. ‘People having less cash in their pockets, that is the experience of charities across Great Britain and other parts of Europe,’ he said. ‘When people come up to somebody on the street, they don’t have any cash on them. This is seen as the way forward.’

Financial contributions to the Catholic Church in Dublin have been in decline for several years, according to a spokesperson for the Archdiocese. Money to the Archdiocese from donations and legacies came to €2.4million in 2017, down from €3.1million raised in 2016. The new scheme does not mean an end to the traditional basket collections.