Scottish Catholic Observer

Catholics across Scotland are being asked to contribute towards making up a shortfall in covering the costs of last month’s visit of Pope Benedict XVI.

A pastoral letter will be read out at Masses asking parishioners to take part in a special collection to help raise the outstanding money.

Peter Kearney, director of the Scottish Catholic Media Office, said that congregations have already been advised that more money needs to be raised and the special collection could be followed by further fundraising efforts in coming months.

“A letter concerning the outstanding amount went out to parishes at the start of the month, asking for contributions,” Mr Kearney said.

“Another will be going out in the next week, and another before the end of the year.

“There’s no clock ticking or deadline looming. The reality is, once we’ve past an event, you don’t want to wait too long to raise money, as it becomes harder to do that as the event becomes more distant.”

He also added that the cash deficit had been anticipated with organisers having less than half the amount of preparation time for this visit than they had for the visit of Pope John Paul II in 1982.

“We knew that the costs of the pastoral visit would be high, and we knew some fund-raising would go on before and during the visit and some after it,” Mr Kearney said.

The government covered many of the Church’s contributions towards the Papal visit with the money expected to be repaid by the end of the financial year.

Pic: Paul McSherry