21

Mary Zurko interviewed by Denis Mercier -14- 8/21/72
Tape 12-1

DM: Just straight money from the collection?
MZ: You know, your dues to the church, you pay in every month...
DM: Now, what do you mean, dues?
MZ: You know, a dollar a month you pay, to belong to the church. You know? They come around collecting it.
DM: They had that?
MZ: Oh, yes. And, you know, many Catholics were here then, you know. There wasn't too many Catholics towards last. It had to abolish, you know.
DM: Were the dues like pew rent, let's say?
MZ: A dollar a month we paid. And then, besides your collection, then you had a Christmas collection, you had an Easter collection, and you had your faith (?) collection, and whatever else...
DM: Were there ever special collections for, let's say, a family in town, or anything like that?
MZ: Oh, yes, they contributed. Yes, they did. Yes. Oh, yeah, they all did.
DM: But the dues. I'm not really familiar with dues. I've heard it called other things.
MZ: And then they'd have a collection for coal, you know. All communal. And it's just like it is today, you have to contribute to heat, you have to contribute to plate collection, you have to contribute to charity, you have to contribute to whatever else, you know. There's always something on your envelope.
DM: Yeah? Are each envelopes marked for what it is?
MZ: Yeah. Same way as it was years ago...
DM: Did you have envelopes like that? When this church was going?
MZ: No, no, they didn't have no envelopes. They just...
DM: They just announced what it was and...
MZ: Announced what it was and that was it, you know.
DM: Well, I think that's a little better than envelopes, except that, well, I don't know, what do you think of this? I don't know whether they do this at Saint Anne's or not, but - do they publish a financial statement every year?
MZ: Oh, yeah.
DM: To say who gave what, you know, in their envelopes?
MZ: Oh, yes, you get your statement in February.
DM: I was always amazed at how much my father gave. He and another man always used to support the church, practically.
MZ: Oh, well, there's a lot of people do now. He gets a marvelous collection. Now, Sunday, what did he make last Sunday? Wait 'til I see, I have a program around her. Last Sunday he made, his Sunday collection was four hundred and thirty dollars and forty-five cents.
DM: Wow! I'm not too impressed by ti - how big is the church up there? See, we, the one I go to isn't that big a church, we get something like seven or eight hundred dollars a week, and we're losing money. We can't pay the debt.
MZ: Well, that church is paid from Freeland.
DM: Oh, well that's why he's not worried then.
MZ: That church is paid for. But, you see, some people, in the improvement, there's an improvement fund there, too, you know. See, he did announce one time at the alter there, Father did, he says, don't think because that improvement fund, er, that church is paid for, that you don't have to contribute to the improvement fund, because the church still has to be kept up? You know? Well,that was three hundred and seventy-four dollars. And the holy day was three hundred and forty-five dollars. But he seems to be very much enthused about it. Father Carr had been asked on Saturday night, and he said Father appreciates for what we gave, you know, for the, each Sunday. Well, you see, you get how much from the improvement fund - well,