Privacy Policy

This policy explains what personal information the Parish collects through its website, parishioner portal, and mobile app, how that information is used, and the choices available to you. The Parish is the controller of this information. Disciple, the software platform that runs these services, processes it on the Parish's behalf.

Information collected

• Identity and profile. Name, preferred name, former or maiden name, title and suffix, date of birth, gender, marital status, and a profile photo if you provide one.
• Contact information. Mailing addresses, email addresses, phone numbers, and your preferred method of contact.
• Household information. Your family or household grouping and the relationships among its members.
• Demographic information. Occupation, employer, education level, school grade, and preferred languages.
• Religious and ethnicity information. Religious affiliation and ethnicity, where you or your household provide it.
• Sacramental records. Records of sacraments celebrated or recorded by the Parish.
• Giving records. Contribution history, pledges, and envelope assignment.
• Ministry and volunteer records. Ministry membership, volunteer roles and assignments, training completions, and -- for roles that require it -- the status and date of a background check.
• Faith formation records. Program enrollment and participation, including for children enrolled by a parent or guardian.
• Communications data. Your email and text message preferences by category, in-app inbox messages, chat messages you send through the platform, and records of whether a message was delivered and opened.
• Form and registration submissions. Information you enter into parish registration forms, event registrations, and other forms.
• Technical data. Sign-in records and basic usage information needed to operate and secure the services.

Sensitive information

Religious affiliation and ethnicity are treated as sensitive categories of personal information. The Parish collects them to serve its religious mission -- for example, to offer sacramental preparation, liturgies, and ministries in your language and tradition. Providing them is optional. This processing is carried out by a not-for-profit body with a religious aim, relates to members and regular contacts of that body, and the information is not disclosed outside the Parish without your consent.

Children's information

The Parish collects information about children in connection with faith formation, sacramental preparation, and youth ministry. That information is provided and managed by a parent or guardian, who may review or update it by contacting the parish office. The Parish does not knowingly allow children to create their own accounts without parental involvement.

Payment information

Online giving is processed by Stripe, a third-party payment processor. The Parish and the Disciple platform do not store your card or bank account numbers. The platform stores only a customer reference issued by Stripe and the record of your contribution. Stripe's handling of your payment details is governed by Stripe's own privacy policy.

Background checks

Where a ministry or volunteer role requires a background check, the check itself is performed by an outside screening provider. The Parish stores only the status and date of the check on this platform -- not the underlying report and not your Social Security number.

The parish directory

The parishioner directory is off by default for each piece of contact information. Your phone number, email address, and photo appear to other parishioners only if you turn each of those on. You may change these settings at any time in the portal or mobile app, or by contacting the parish office. Parish staff can always see your contact information in order to carry out parish business.

How information is used

To administer parish membership and household records; to prepare for and record sacraments; to run faith formation, ministries, and volunteer programs; to process and acknowledge contributions; to send parish communications you have opted into; to operate the directory according to your settings; to meet the Parish's obligations to its diocese and to civil and canon law; and to secure and support the services.

The Parish does not sell your personal information and does not share it for advertising purposes.

Who information is shared with

• Service providers that operate the platform on the Parish's behalf -- including hosting, email and text message delivery, and Stripe for payments -- each limited to what is needed to perform their function.
• The diocese or archdiocese, where required for reporting, sacramental records, or compliance.
• Other parishioners, only through the directory and only to the extent you have enabled.
• Civil or church authorities, where required by law or by an obligation the Parish must meet, including safe-environment and mandatory reporting duties.

Your communication choices

You control email by category and text messages as a whole, in the portal, the mobile app, or by using the unsubscribe link in any message. Some messages are required for parish administration and cannot be turned off; those are marked as required in your preferences. The in-app inbox always receives parish messages regardless of your email and text settings.

Retention

Membership, sacramental, and contribution records are retained on an ongoing basis as parish records, and sacramental records in particular are retained permanently as required by church law and diocesan policy. Other information is retained as long as needed for the purposes described above.

Your rights

Depending on where you live, you may have the right to request access to your personal information, to correct it, to request its deletion, to object to or restrict certain processing, or to receive a copy in a portable format. You may update much of your own profile directly in the portal or mobile app.

To make any other request, contact the parish office. The Parish will respond within the time required by applicable law. Some information -- notably sacramental records -- cannot be deleted, because the Parish is obliged to maintain it.

Security

The platform restricts access to parish information to authorized staff and volunteers based on their role, keeps each parish's information separated from every other parish's, and encrypts information in transit. No system can be guaranteed completely secure.

Changes to this policy

The Parish may update this policy. The effective date above reflects the current version. Material changes will be communicated through the usual parish channels.

Contact

Questions about this policy, or requests concerning your personal information, should be directed to the parish office.