2,000 years of coins dropping into a wooden basket. A volunteer in a suit walks along the pews of the Basilica and brings over an electronic reader. The parishioner touches the screen, chooses the amount, and taps their card. Three seconds. Done.
The Vatican implemented POS terminals with contactless technology at its Masses, developed together with the company Numia, the Italian bank Banco BPM, and the Italian Episcopal Conference. The devices process credit cards, debit cards, Apple Pay, Google Pay, and smartwatches. The screen is multilingual and does not require any personal data.
The change went viral thanks to a video by Paraguayan journalist Mónica Fabiola Ayala, accredited to the Holy See. The debate on social media split in two: those who see necessary modernization and those who see a card reader where there should be only faith.