Now available at a handful of Catholic churches in the country, the innovation takes the generations-familiar collection basket and adds a tap-to-pay terminal.
For years, Cory Howat pondered a mystery of the age: It’s easier to pay a modern vending machine than a Catholic parish.
“So you can get a Coke and a Snickers, but you can’t give to Jesus this way?” Howat, executive director of the Catholic Community Foundation of the Archdiocese of New Orleans, told the Register, referring to making credit card payments on the go. “The Church has to figure this out.”
Enter credit-card-tap collection baskets, now available at a handful of Catholic churches in the country. The innovation takes the generations-familiar collection basket and adds a tap-to-pay terminal for donations via credit card and debit card and even cellphone.
At Immaculate Conception Jesuit Church in downtown New Orleans, Howat said, collections are up $36,000 since the parish started using the baskets in December 2025.
Jesuit Father Anthony McGinn, the pastor, was skeptical at first.
“I thought it would be awkward. Some members of the parish council convinced me it was well worth taking a chance on,” Father McGinn told the Register.
Immaculate Conception Jesuit Church in
