In the cathedral of Reims, the quest and donations of the faithful are now done without contact

The payment terminal stands beside the candles. The principle is simple, you make your choice, and as in shops, you just have to pass your bank card, or its dematerialized version on a smartphone, over the reader to pay. Same thing if you want to donate. The faithful crusaders that day are rather receptive to this new device: “We are pushed to use the card more and it is true that we often find ourselves without cash“, notes a parishioner.”It’s true that we young people are not too used to having change with us, so it’s true that I like it“, added a young foreign visitor to Reims Cathedral.

Even the quest can be done digitally and the traditional shopping cart now houses a contactless payment terminal. A new way of supplying the denarius of worship which has already proved its worth in other parishes. “I know that members of the Council for Economic Affairs had seen this work elsewhere, and this is what steered us towards this possibility and towards its implementation.“, specifies Father Laurent, rector of the cathedral of Reims.

The cathedral had already set up a mobile application that also made it possible to make donations, but left out the older parishioners not equipped with smartphones, or unfamiliar with these new technologies. Seniors who, on the other hand, are increasingly using contactless card payment, driven by the Covid-19 epidemic. With this new device, the parish of Notre-Dame de Reims hopes to increase donations.