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Support and pray: The Church of Paris presents non-contact contributions
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© Eric Robert | A collection basket without contact in the church Saint-François de Molitor in Paris.

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The Catholic Church has become contactless in a parish in Paris: now you can simply tap your credit card to make a donation.
 church in date 16th sunday arrondissement of Paris launched a highly  new technology to transform the old wicker basket into a contactless payment terminal.

God left without contact in Paris.

Sophie Gorman  January  2018
Five new high-tech baskets debuted at 10:15 am The 500-seat church is very modern, rebuilt in 2005 to reflect a changing community. This Sunday morning was full of families, with children everywhere.

Mass was held as usual, with the entire congregation singing loudly until it reached the liturgy point for the collection. The celebrant, Father Didier Duverne, explained that there was a change this week, that people could choose to contribute in the traditional way with money or use one of the new cashless baskets.

The new digital basket retains the traditional look of a wicker basket. Under a hard plastic cover, there is a Vivopay machine connected to a Samsung mobile phone. There are holes cut in the plastic that expose their screens.

The phone asks how much you want to give, with options ranging from € 2 to € 10. You press the desired quantity, then scan your card on the Vivopay. A small beep sounds a second later and a message appears on the screen to thank you for your offer. It takes 24 hours to be charged to your account. There is no time (or paper) wasted with printed receipts; you can simply pass the basket to the next person.

In Saint-François de Molitor, after a small surge of excitement, the baskets circulated without much fuss and most people chose to donate with old-fashioned money.

"The collection was fast in this mass, there were many children in the congregation and they still do not have credit cards," said Father François Diacre, co-celebrant after Mass. "I think It's a good idea. People do not always have a loose change these days. "

Handmade digital baskets

This new system is very prototype. Only five baskets were made and they were assembled by hand. the project succeed , it will be deployed  more churches around Paris,

"We are going to test here for a few weeks or maybe months and then see the extension, and if it takes off, we will have to develop the equipment and mass production."

This contactless concept is not a mercenary to get more money from the parishioners. Instead, it's just about making it easier for people in a world that is increasingly free of money.

As one former parishioner said: "It's modernity. It is important that the church stays up to date. Young people do not always have coins in their pockets on Sunday mornings. And there are times when I realized that I did not have money on the way to Mass and that I had to run to the bank.

Card payments have exceeded cash payments in stores and now contactless payments are an important part of all purchases. But habits change and church contributions fall.

With 120 parishes, the Catholic Church of Paris is one of the largest dioceses in Europe. He became a pioneer in religious technology by introducing an app called La Quete for online collecting in eight parishes in October 2016. Nearly 4,000 donations have been made through the app over the last 14 months by over 300 parishioners , donating an average of € 5 each time.

According to Rousselot, there were two reasons why this particular parish in this wealthy and conservative area was chosen to test the digital baskets. "The physical form of the church was an important consideration: it is small and there is plenty of room for movement between the seats, which makes it very easy to move the different types of baskets, to offer a choice. the priest here, Father Duverne, was also ready to participate, and he knew that his congregation would be happy to be part of it.