To our knowledge, the oldest “second collection” might be called Peter’s Pence, which began in Anglo-Saxon Britain about 1300 years ago. This voluntary collection of say a penny (or pence) a hearth (or home) was meant to support the Anglo-Saxon Catholic seminarians studying in Rome, and it was taken up on Lammas Day (the feast of St. Peter ad Vincula on the first of August) – thus “Peter’s Pence.” In time the collection was seen more as a gift to the Holy Father in Rome to help out with the ministry of the Vatican, and these days it is taken up on the Sunday nearest June 29th (the Solemnity of St. Peter and St. Paul, the patron saints of Rome). It is still called Peter’s Pence, and it goes to the successor of St. Peter, who is our Holy Father in Rome. You should know that the U.S. is the largest contributor annually to this ancient charity towards the work of the universal Church.
It is no longer, however, the only international second collection, because we also take up a collection for the Holy Land that goes to keep up the shrines and churches of the
Holy Land where local Christians are more and more leaving.
And then there are national second collections. Our U.S. bishops began taking up a national second collection for the Catholic University of America when it was set up as what was then the only place in the country where Catholics could get into doctoral programs. Catholics weren’t welcomed at exclusive Ivy League schools at the time, as they and other schools simply refused to take Catholics, believe it or not. So, this is an example of how these second collections can really change our society considerably.
Still in time, there began to be a preponderance of other second collections, and so now most of us feel like we have to help to keep up with them all. So what follows is a list of up-coming second collections. You will note that some of these are national collections by the U.S. Bishop’s Conference, and some of these are Archdiocesan, and some of these are our local St. Vincent de Paul Society’s collections (which go directly into the hands of the needy within our community), while still others are parochial. We will try to designate them as such. For the most part we attempt to honor the second collections on the dates wherein they have traditionally fallen here at OLM, so sometimes things get moved around to accommodate our local practices, but by and large we try to keep things in line with the rest of the Archdiocese.
LIST OF SECOND COLLECTIONS HERE FOLLOW: