AUSTIN, Texas — Easter Sunday along with Christmas are the two days churches get their biggest donations, but without church in person on Easter, combined with people suffering from layoffs during the coronavirus pandemic, they might not see those donations.
Scott Whitaker, the director of stewardship and development for the Diocese of Austin, says that is true for it as well. He says since the stay-home order, they moved mass online, causing their weekly collections to drop by 40%.
"Without people actually sitting in the pews and not being able to make their contributions using their envelops, we have tried to push our online giving and the electronic giving at a lot of our parishes," said Whitaker. "There is a slight concern of however long this continues that we might have some of our churches that don't have the financial needs to take care of themselves, but that's the beauty of the Catholic Church – we all pitch in and we help each other."
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Donations are not the only thing COVID-19 has put on hold. Saturday night thousands are supposed to be accepted into the church during their Easter vigil, but since it will be held online, he says that won't happen.
"That's when a lot of people who have been studying to join the church and either get baptized or receive their first communion and fully join the church," said Whitaker. "So we're looking at how we can make sure we bring them fully into the church at a later time."
"We're going to get through this pandemic as we have done through every other issue or challenge or pandemic that the world has ever experienced," explained Whitaker.
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