Where did this second collection come from?

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pianistclare said:
Same here. Its called “Retired Religious” and goes to a National fund for Priests and Nuns.

The Building Fund is only for those with a capital project either 1) needed or 2) not yet paid off in full. There are Building Fund envelops always available but those 2nd collections for that are only a scant few times a year, as the Bishop’s list of must-haves is pretty long, as I stated before.

For those who still can’t figure their parish finances out, simply have coffee with the Chairman of the Finance committee or volunteer to be a money counter. Then you will see the myriad places where various donations go.
Only Mass stipends go directly to the priest, but only after it has run through the Church account and he is written a monthly check, along with his grocery allowance.
Fun fact: The Parish priest only sees the bottom line. He’s not supposed to see what individuals give. With software packages, I’m sure they can peek, but all of the priests I have worked for make it a practice not to look. They don’t want to be influences by heavy givers or scant givers when decision making or ministering to people.
But the Archdiocese has lots of regulations for what you can collect, what they can tax, and what you can keep.
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Our bishop has decreed that Mass stipends are to be transferred to the general account each month and not paid to the priest. He’s taken into consideration what a priest would receive in stipends in an average month to determine the salary for the priests of our diocese.

When I worked at the office I had to believe that either nobody read the annual financial report or they read it, didn’t understand it and didn’t want to reveal that by asking questions because not once did anyone ask any questions even though they were invited to do so. Now that I’m on the finance council I’m more sure of it than ever.
 
Phemie said:
We have the regular second collections ordered by the CCCB: Holy Land; Missions; Needs of the Church in Canada; Development and Peace; Pope’s Pastoral Works; and then we have the diocesan collections: Good Shepherd Fund & Seminary Students Fund. In each case we have a second collection primarily to make sure we get all that loose change and dollar bills, because only a fraction of those who attend Mass use envelopes so we’d miss out on a lot of money if we didn’t do it that way.
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We have plenty of special collection envelopes in the pews so there is no reason someone cannot use them if they wanted to give to that special collection.
 
Phemie said:
Our bishop has decreed that Mass stipends are to be transferred to the general account each month and not paid to the priest. He’s taken into consideration what a priest would receive in stipends in an average month to determine the salary for the priests of our diocese.

When I worked at the office I had to believe that either nobody read the annual financial report or they read it, didn’t understand it and didn’t want to reveal that by asking questions because not once did anyone ask any questions even though they were invited to do so. Now that I’m on the finance council I’m more sure of it than ever.
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Amen! My new pastor also does not accept stipends. When people insist, he puts them in the offertory.
 
In my limited experience we only rarely have a second collection. It is always for some special purpose for instance priest’s retirement, a religious mission etc.

As a convert I was surprised when I first encountered a second collection. I had never seen such a thing before. If there was a special collection in my Protestant church it would replace the normal collection which was for the local church. I also thoroughly enjoy the collection basket rather than passing a plate. It seems so efficient.
 
Second collections have happened in most Catholic churches I’ve attended since I was a child. They used to be (and still are in some churches) taken up after communion. In recent years they are increasingly done right after the first collection at offertory. I assumed this was because a lot of people leave after communion without returning to their seat, and others who stay don’t want to be distracted with having to get money out again at that time.

Generally there will be an announcement beforehand as to what the second collection is for - a certain mission, Peter’s Pence, retired religious, a local Catholic charity, or a poorer parish that the wealthier one is helping to support regularly, that sort of thing.
 
In our diocese the second collection today was for the Apostolate of the Sea. They help seafarers practically and spiritually. As I usually give through standing order (gift aided so the Church can get 27p back of my tax money for each £1) I have envelopes for all of the second collections (except the odd emergency one) for the year. The envelopes say what each collection is for. Apart from one special collection, it is a busy time of year for them at the moment.

In our parish, the second collection happens after mass. As people leave they can put their donations in the baskets held by one or two people standing by the main exit with baskets in hand. For those of us who leave when the second collection is over, the envelopes are great as we can put it in the main collection knowing that the counters will put it under the right heading.
 
Our second collection today was for a visiting missionary priest. We seem to have a second collection on most Sundays of the year.
 
zab said:
We have plenty of special collection envelopes in the pews so there is no reason someone cannot use them if they wanted to give to that special collection.
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Other than what’s in our envelope packet (which fewer and fewer people bother to pick up) there are no spare envelopes for special collections except one for Development & Peace because D&P puts out a lot of campaign material to use all through Lent.
 
Wesrock said:
I’ve only ever seen a second collection immediately following the first. Usually every other week.
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Way back in the day (1950’s) when second collections were take up (for many of the same reasons posted above) they were always right after Communion (at least in the midwest US parish in which I grew up)
 
Where I live there have been second collections for as long as I can remember.
 
felsguy said:
Way back in the day (1950’s) when second collections were take up (for many of the same reasons posted above) they were always right after Communion (at least in the midwest US parish in which I grew up)
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Back in the 50s, and even into the early 60s, we always had 2 collections, the first to pay for our pew ($0.10-$0.25) and next the regular collection. Then on the odd occasion there was a 3rd “special” collection taken up, IIRC, at the end of Mass.
 
Looking through my envelope pack, I can see: Holy Places, Clergy Training Fund, World Communications, Peter’s Pence, Apostleship of the Sea, Home Mission Sunday, Cathedral, World Missions, Bamenda (A diocese in Africa which my diocese has links to), Clergy Assistance Fund. It always seems to be something.
 
Since the OP mentions having a “retiring” collection in his or her parish, I took that to be a second collection. I understood the OP to be asking about doing the second collection immediately after the first collection, as opposed to later in the Mass. As others have pointed out, that is a very common practice. I have been in parishes in various dioceses, and collection practice varies considerably, even within the same diocese. My own parish used to have the second collection after communion, but eventually switched to having it immediately after the first collection.
 
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