Can Pastors decide on second collections?

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hwriggles4

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Fellow Catholics:

Quite a few parishes do second collections, and many dioceses (including mine) have a list of when second collections will be taken.

Here is my question:

Can the pastor make a decision NOT to participate in a second collection?

I ask this because collections for Catholic Relief Services, Catholic Campaign for Human Development, and even Catholic Charities have had many questions concerning where the money is being used. Personally, I put a handwritten note in the second collection of why I am withholding funds to go to Catholic Relief Services and the Catholic Campaign for Human Development.

I also understand that a priest takes a vow of obedience, and I can see a pastor who personally does not wish to participate in certain second collections, but does it because the diocese is participating, and the bishop has given the green light for these second collections.

By the same token, I could also see a pastor doing this: “oh, I’m sorry bishop (or even discussing with a coordinator at the diocesan office) we have had a really busy few weeks and I forgot to announce it from the pulpit, and I forgot to get the announcement into the bulletin on time.”

Don’t get me wrong - I do give money to some Catholic apostolates, and some to religious orders such as the C.P.M. and the Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist, as well as the Cardinal Newman Society and the Archdiocese for the Military Services (which receives NO government funding, and relies on donations - their priests are in the military and are “on loan” from U.S. dioceses and some are from religious orders). I also give to some pro-life groups (many are local), and I do tithe to my parish of course.

Feel free to discuss, since I would not be surprised if some pastors have chosen NOT to participate in a second collection that was on the diocesan list.
 
The Archdiocese gives us a list of what one they wish us to do.
There are a few “open” weekends that Father can insert for local things, altar flowers for Christmas etc.
 
OP - are you suggesting that your pastor shouldn’t take up 2nd collections because you don’t like them? You don’t have to put anything in it.
 
hwriggles4 said:
Fellow Catholics:

Quite a few parishes do second collections, and many dioceses (including mine) have a list of when second collections will be taken.

Here is my question:

Can the pastor make a decision NOT to participate in a second collection?

I ask this because collections for Catholic Relief Services, Catholic Campaign for Human Development, and even Catholic Charities have had many questions concerning where the money is being used. Personally, I put a handwritten note in the second collection of why I am withholding funds to go to Catholic Relief Services and the Catholic Campaign for Human Development.

I also understand that a priest takes a vow of obedience, and I can see a pastor who personally does not wish to participate in certain second collections, but does it because the diocese is participating, and the bishop has given the green light for these second collections.

By the same token, I could also see a pastor doing this: “oh, I’m sorry bishop (or even discussing with a coordinator at the diocesan office) we have had a really busy few weeks and I forgot to announce it from the pulpit, and I forgot to get the announcement into the bulletin on time.”

Don’t get me wrong - I do give money to some Catholic apostolates, and some to religious orders such as the C.P.M. and the Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist, as well as the Cardinal Newman Society and the Archdiocese for the Military Services (which receives NO government funding, and relies on donations - their priests are in the military and are “on loan” from U.S. dioceses and some are from religious orders). I also give to some pro-life groups (many are local), and I do tithe to my parish of course.

Feel free to discuss, since I would not be surprised if some pastors have chosen NOT to participate in a second collection that was on the diocesan list.
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So don’t give, or write your little protest note if you must. But don’t deny others the opportunity to give joyfully.🤷
 
Here, it operates as pianistclare describes. Each year we receive a list of second collections from the archdiocese. The pastor decides what we collect for on weekends not specified on the list.

You are free not to contribute and I understand your compulsion to explain non-participation, but it’s possible the beneficiaries of these collections never see such notes. Those who count the collection proceeds in this parish discard whatever is not money.
 
The question here raised is an interesting one, can a pastor refuse to do a second collection that the diocese has said should occur on a particular date? Is it optional or is it mandatory?
 
stinkcat_14 said:
The question here raised is an interesting one, can a pastor refuse to do a second collection that the diocese has said should occur on a particular date? Is it optional or is it mandatory?
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Probably depends on both the bishop & the parish. The mission parish my husband is administrator for rarely collects for special collections - there aren’t that many people & all are poor. We’re on our third bishop since he started working there & none fussed about it.
 
pianistclare said:
There are a few “open” weekends that Father can insert for local things, altar flowers for Christmas etc.
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In our parish there are special envelopes each month for those things - rarely do we have 2nd collections. At one parish the priest was “allergic” to 2nd collections, so he would announce that all cash would go to whatever the special collection was for.
 
No, we are not allowed to not take up a collection mandated by the diocesan bishop. One is given a date by which the proceeds of the collection are to be forwarded to the chancery. Certainly there are missions that are very small or very poor but a normally situated parish that failed to take up a collection would have an inquiry from the chancery.
 
We’ve never had a second collection for money and I’ve been here 20 years. We use special envelopes for special causes.

The only special collections have been for commitment cards when doing the parish budget and even that has been moved to special envelopes in the last 5 years.
 
We only have a second collection 2x a year–one for the missions and one for the religious retirement fund. We are a stewardship parish, so all other contributions to charities, such as St. Vincent DePaul, etc., are given as part of our parish tithe, and each week the charities we tithed to are listed in the bulletin.
 
We have several 2nd collections in our diocese, some which are national in scope and others which are diocesan.

I wonder if it’s problematic for some pastors when they see their bishop promoting a specific collection when other bishops are categorically refusing to do so. I’m thinking specifically here in Canada of “Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace” (usually referred to as simply the part in bold) and their huge “Share Lent” campaign. Some bishops have refused to support that one because some of the funds are used to support foreign groups which promote abortion.
 
Canon 1266:
In all churches and oratories which are, in fact, habitually open to the Christian faithful, including those which belong to religious institutes, the local ordinary can order the taking up of a special collection for specific parochial, diocesan, national, or universal projects; this collection must be diligently sent afterwards to the diocesan curia.
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If the local ordinary “orders” that a collection be taken up, then the pastor of the parish should do it. If a pastor had some objection to a particular collection, he should discuss the matter with the local ordinary who ordered the collection.

The people in the pews, for their part, are free to give or not.

Dan
 
My habit is to grab the envelop for the particular Sunday and sit down and write the check before we leave for church. This is what I did on the Sunday on which the second collection for the CHD was scheduled. Then Father announced that there would not be a second collection for CHD because of some of the organizations that they support. I had already written the check, so I dropped it in the basket anyway, and then emailed him a suggestion that further announcements of cancellations of second collections should be made before parish members have written their checks. Our parish has a Facebook page and a “Constant Contact” email listing, so that’s easy to do.
 
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