Bless you for doing this!
I feel like the pay-per-play philosophy is essentially an admission of defeat. It means admitting that we expect to make no difference to the lives of the people who come through our churches and that the kids are never going to be worthwhile, contributing Catholics, so we might as well ding the families hard whenever they come through.
Lay people can Baptize but only in time of a person dying and no priest available. Its not something we can do to avoid going to the Church for Baptism. Like someone said before. Catholics used to offer a donation, now they get mad if one is suggested. Is that called selfish or what! We expect someone else to cover the costs of the parish needs. And maybe we toss a dollar in the basket ever so often but think nothing of going out to eat a $50 dinner or buy a $100 outfit to wear. and don’t forget the shoes! God Bless, Memaw
It does need to be explained early and often that in the case of the needy “using the envelope system” can just mean putting an empty envelope with one’s name on it in the collection basket to establish that one was in fact present at Mass.
In our parish the only people who are given envelopes are those who request them. We have over 400 families on our books and about 35 use envelopes regularly. Fewer than 100 use them at all. Why waste money and trees printing envelopes that will sit in a box somewhere in someone’s desk?
I have no idea how many use envelopes at the parish nearby me. I quit attending there. But sounds to me if your parish had the same requirements as the parish near me , unless your parishoners changed their envelope habits, only 35 - 100 of your over 400 families would not be turned away from Baptism. 300 or more families turned away just because they don’t drop an envelope in the basket would sadden me.
In a day when Catholic churches were bursting at the doors and baptisms were being done like cars being built on an assembly line at GM, pastors almost never relegated baptismal preparation to a “class”, and certainly never entertained charging for it.
Then they’re hardly thinking “What would Jesus do?”
It’s 6 mos in my geographical parish but well said.
I agree. But then I might never understand why some of these hoops to jump thru for Baptism seem to be as you said in your other post “rather peachy keen to an apparently large percentage of American Catholic parishes”. And then by association seemingly okay to their members. I just don’t recall all this when households were baptized in the Bible.
For what it’s worth, our parish doesn’t charge anything; our Deacon has a day job that pays quite well, and he pays for everything himself except for the candles, which are donated by a parishioner.
I expect that all here who are able do give a gift do. It’s a little gauche, but I wouldn’t object to mentioning that in the baptismal class (“We don’t have a fee for baptism, but it’s a nice thing to give Father Bob or Deacon Ed a small check to thank him and people often do.” “Small check” is going to vary a lot from family to family).
Also, come to think of it, well-catechized and conscientious Catholics will be consistently and generously supporting their parishes. If they’re like me and they hear about young parents getting charged $50 to baptize their babies, they’ll think, “Hey, I just sent a check to my parish for X dollars expressly to support the sacramental life of the parish. What’s going on?” Also, they may be thinking, “Hey, I’m giving my diocesan recommended 5% of income to my parish and 5% to other charities. How the heck am I supposed to raise a growing family on what’s left when every time I turn around, I’m getting hit for mandatory fees for stuff I thought I was already supporting? I guess I’d better reduce that monthly offering to offset costs.”
And yet, a Lutheran pastor baptized my daughter completely free of charge. And that particular Lutheran parish still has the water running and the lights on. And the pastor and his family have not starved to death. I wonder how they could afford that without charging for baptisms?
I bet waiters would disagree with you…I strongly suspect that there’s at least some correlation between good tipping and generosity to church.It’s been my observation working in parishes, that the people that gripe the most about the church being “money-hungry” are the people who never put a dime in the collection.
Less than 20% of the parishioners at most parishes carry the cost of running the parish and covering the charity that the church hands out to people who present themselves at the door, or Catholic Charities, not to mention the tax paid to the Diocese.
We NEVER turn away anyone who does not have the ability to pay for education, or anything else. These are services we offer. For free. We do not charge for Sacraments. But I have zero qualms about asking for a fee to defray costs for education, etc. People will tip a waiter a chunk, but they won’t support the church.
Some people pay their fair share, but the vast majority do not.