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Privacy Policy

Effective date: 2026-07-13

 

St. Raphael’s Catholic Church respects your privacy and is committed to protecting the personal information you share with us through our website, online forms, donations, newsletters, events, ministries, and other church-related communications. This Privacy Policy explains what information we collect, how we use it, how we protect it, and how you can contact us about your privacy rights.

This policy is intended to reflect good privacy practices for a church or charitable organization operating in Canada. It is provided for general informational purposes and should be reviewed by the church’s leadership and, where appropriate, legal counsel to ensure it fits the church’s actual practices and applicable laws.

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1. Information We Collect

We may collect personal information when you interact with our website or church community, including when you complete a contact form, register for an event, make a donation, subscribe to a newsletter, request prayer, volunteer, or communicate with us.

  • Contact information, such as your name, email address, phone number, and mailing address.

  • Donation information, such as donation amount, giving history, receipt details, and payment-related information processed by our payment service providers.

  • Event, ministry, or volunteer information, such as registration details, availability, ministry interests, dietary or accessibility needs you choose to provide, and emergency contact information where required.

  • Communication preferences, such as newsletter subscriptions, consent choices, and requests to receive or stop receiving certain communications.

  • Website usage information, such as IP address, browser type, device information, pages visited, and cookie or analytics data.

  • Information you voluntarily provide in messages, prayer requests, feedback forms, or other communications with us.

 
2. How We Use Personal Information

We use personal information only for purposes that are reasonable and connected to our church’s mission, operations, and legal obligations. These purposes may include:

  • Responding to inquiries, prayer requests, pastoral care requests, or other messages.

  • Processing donations, issuing charitable tax receipts, and maintaining required financial records.

  • Registering participants for worship services, events, groups, classes, ministries, camps, or volunteer opportunities.

  • Sending newsletters, announcements, ministry updates, event invitations, and other church communications where permitted by law and your consent preferences.

  • Coordinating volunteers, ministry teams, pastoral care, and community outreach.

  • Improving our website, communications, programs, and online services.

  • Protecting the security of our website, systems, staff, volunteers, congregation, and visitors.

  • Meeting legal, accounting, insurance, safeguarding, charitable, and regulatory requirements.

 
3. Consent

By providing personal information to us, you consent to our collection, use, and disclosure of that information for the purposes described in this policy or identified at the time of collection. You may withdraw your consent at any time, subject to legal, contractual, or operational requirements. If you withdraw consent, we may not be able to provide certain services, communications, receipts, or ministry-related support.

 
4. Donations and Payment Processing

If you make an online donation, payment information may be collected and processed by a third-party payment processor. We do not intentionally store complete credit card or banking details on our website unless required for a specific authorized purpose. Donation records are retained as needed for receipting, accounting, audit, charitable reporting, and legal requirements.

 
5. Newsletters and Electronic Communications

We may send electronic communications such as newsletters, church announcements, event reminders, fundraising updates, and ministry information. Where required, we will seek your consent before sending these messages. You may unsubscribe or update your communication preferences by using the unsubscribe option in our emails or by contacting us directly.

 
6. Cookies and Website Analytics

Our website may use cookies, analytics tools, or similar technologies to help the site function, understand how visitors use the site, improve content, and protect against misuse. Cookies are small files stored on your device. You can usually adjust your browser settings to refuse or delete cookies, but some website features may not work properly if cookies are disabled.

 
7. Sharing Personal Information

We do not sell, rent, or trade personal information. We may share personal information only when reasonably necessary for church operations, legal compliance, or the purposes described in this policy, including with:

  • Authorized church staff, clergy, board members, ministry leaders, or volunteers who need the information to carry out their responsibilities.

  • Service providers that support our website, email communications, donation processing, accounting, event registration, data storage, or security.

  • Government, law enforcement, regulatory, insurance, or legal authorities where required or permitted by law.

  • Other parties with your consent or as clearly identified at the time the information is collected.

 
8. Safeguarding Personal Information

We use reasonable administrative, technical, and physical safeguards to protect personal information against unauthorized access, loss, misuse, disclosure, alteration, or destruction. These safeguards may include limiting access to personal information, using password-protected systems, selecting reputable service providers, training staff and volunteers, and maintaining appropriate record-handling practices.

 
9. Retention of Personal Information

We keep personal information only as long as necessary for the purposes for which it was collected, or as required for legal, accounting, charitable, safeguarding, insurance, or operational reasons. When personal information is no longer needed, we will securely delete, anonymize, or destroy it in accordance with our record retention practices.

 
10. Children and Youth

We may collect information about children or youth for church programs, classes, events, camps, or safeguarding purposes. Where appropriate, we collect this information from a parent or guardian and use it only for the relevant program, safety, emergency, consent, or administrative purpose. We take special care to protect information about children and youth.

 
11. Your Privacy Rights

You may contact us to ask what personal information we hold about you, request a correction, update your communication preferences, withdraw consent, or ask a privacy-related question. We may need to verify your identity before responding to certain requests. We will respond within a reasonable time and in accordance with applicable privacy laws.

 
12. Links to Other Websites

Our website may contain links to third-party websites, platforms, donation tools, social media pages, or embedded content. We are not responsible for the privacy practices of those third parties. We encourage you to review their privacy policies before providing personal information.

 
13. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices, website, technology, or legal requirements. The updated version will be posted on our website with a revised effective date.

 
14. Contact Us

If you have questions, concerns, or requests about this Privacy Policy or our handling of personal information, please contact:

Privacy Contact: St. Raphael’s Catholic Church Administrator
Address: 19998 County Rd. 18, Williamstown ON. K0C2J0
Email: straphaelsparish1786@gmail.com

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