Venezuelan churches forced to accept plastic for donations
CARACAS: Venezuela's collapsing economy has forced churches and priests to get creative in order to keep their coffers full as four years of recession and a projected one million per cent inflation rate hit everyone hard.
Citizens are limited in the amount of cash - itself almost worthless - they can withdraw from banks each day and, given the minimum monthly salary worth around US$1.50 (S$2), it doesn't go very far.
Priests have had to adapt and start accepting donations by card payments rather than the traditional passing around of a wicker basket for churchgoers to drop in some coins, or even notes.
Before giving his blessings, Father Alirio Suarez reminds the faithful that they can make donations using a "point of sale", as locals call the payment terminal, which has become as essential in church as the crucifix, chalice and ciborium.
"The payment terminal has not saved us, but it's helped alleviate the situation. People are generous with the payment terminal, you can see the difference," Father Suarez from the El Paraiso parish in Caracas said.
On Sundays, when there are seven masses and many more worshippers in attendance, Father Suarez's San Alfonso church can collect four million bolivars in cash - less than one US dollar on the black market.
Card payments, however, can triple the amount of cash coming in, although the priest has to borrow the payment terminal from a charity.
"If it wasn't for the payment terminal, things would be going very badly," he said, acknowledging that many people cannot afford to donate anything.
The transaction itself takes place in the sacristy, affording parishioners privacy, and perhaps also easing embarrassment for the church.
Venezuela has been crippled by food and medicine shortages and failing public services such as water, electricity and transport.
It is not just bank card payments being accepted by churches, but also bank transfers.
At the Precious Blood church in an upmarket Caracas neighborhood, Juan Manuel Leon's congregation drop their bank transfer receipts in collection baskets to prove their generosity.
"Paper money is replaced by transfer receipts. That's how they're solving the problem," Mr Leon, 52, said. - AFP
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