The Church and "Big Data"

By Jennifer Haselberger
Canonical Consultation
July 23, 2015

http://canonicalconsultation.com/blog.html

Parish business administrators throughout the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis have been receiving emails from the CSA Foundation (Catholic Services Appeal), requesting updated information on parishioners for the purpose of targeting donors. The emails, which are personalized only in the salutation, are as follows:

The Catholic Services Appeal Foundation is grateful for your assistance in updating our database in order that we use the most accurate information while addressing supporters. It is also important that we manage this information securely for the protection of parishes and donors. In order to provide a secure method for your parish to provide us with your data file, we are using a secure system called Sharefile. This will allow you to upload your file providing it to CSAF securely and without anyone else having the ability to access the data.

Uploading Your Parish File

In order to upload your parish data file, please follow these instructions:

1. Please name your parish data file with the following naming convention: Parish Name – City

(Example: Christ the King – Minneapolis)

2. Click the link below:

CLICK HERE TO UPLOAD YOUR PARISH FILE

3. When the Citrix ShareFile web page opens, drag and drop the parish data file into the box labeled "DRAG FILES HERE"

4. Click the green "Upload Files" button

5. When the "Files Uploaded Successfully" message displays close your internet browser window.

Should you need assistance, please call Dan Coonradt or Matt Mamura at 612-294-6622.

The information that we need you to provide in an electronic file (Excel or .csv) is as follows:

Parishioner ID Number:

Household ID & Individual ID if application (Envelope ID)

Parishioner Demographic Data:

Last, Name (Household or Individual)

First Name (Primary Record – Head of Household)

Date of Birth (If available)

Email

Last Name (Spouse, if applicable)

First Name (Spouse)

Date of Birth (if available)

Email

Address Fields: (Separately if possible)

Street Number and Name

City

State

Zip

Date Parishioner Registered (if available)

Contact Information:

Phone (Home-Primary)

Email (Head of Household)

Email (Spouse)

Please run this report in your parish census system and email to Dan Coonradt at coonradtd@csafspm.org. During this process you may be contacted by either Dan Coonradt, our IT Manager or Matt Mamura, our Development Manager. An Excel spreadsheet listing the fields is attached for your convenience. Thank you for your assistance and please let us know if we can assist further.

Kind regards,

Jennifer Beaudry

I am sure that many of you, like me, do not want your personal information (linked, as you can see, to your parish envelope contributions) shared with the CSA Foundation, which- as we have been told ad nauseam- is a completely separate organization from the Archdiocese and its parishes.

Wishing to forestall the sharing of my information, I checked to see what sort of limitations are placed on non-profits in regard to sharing personal data. In most cases, donors are advised to review the privacy policy of any organization prior to contributing (I couldn't find a privacy policy on the CSA website) and, in the absence of such a policy, to notify the organization that your gift is made with the expectation that your personal information will not be sold or shared nor will the organization send solicitations on behalf of other charities. Those concerned about their parish sharing their personal data may want to consider sending a similar notification to their church's business administrator.

And what of those parish employees? By and large, the law defers to the privacy policies established by the organization itself, which is interesting in light of the new Code of Conduct for Church Personnel and the standards of conduct outlined therein. Specifically, parish employees (including business administrators and other admin staff) are required to observe the following, according to Section 5: Records and Information (pg. 7).

5.1 All Chancery Corporation, parish, or Catholic school records are solely the property of the respective entity.

5.2 Records include all recorded information, documents, letters, maps, books, photographs, film, sound recordings, tapes, records generated in an electronic format, emails, and any other documentary material regardless of media format.

5.3 No records will be accessed, shared, removed, destroyed, stored, or transferred into another media format, or otherwise disposed of, except in compliance with archdiocesan, parish, or Catholic school policies.

5.4 Confidential records will be kept separate from public records for privacy purposes. Confidential records include sacramental records, clergy files, personnel files, and records of individual financial contributions to, as well as financial records of, the Archdiocese, parish, or Catholic school.

The acknowledgment form that parish employees must sign includes a warning that they 'may face consequences or discipline, up to and including termination' for violations of the Code. And, the same paragraphs on records are reproduced verbatim in the Code of Conduct for Clergy, binding upon all priests, including on the pastors of the parishes from which the records are being sought.

So, it seems to me that in making its request the CSA Foundation is placing parish employees and pastors in a terrible bind. Not only do they risk angering parishioners over the sharing of their personal data, but complying with the Foundation's request would mean violating the provisions of the Archdiocesan Codes of Conduct.

As if they didn't have enough to deal with already.