If I give little in the collection or in parish dues, am I a bad Catholic who can't receive the sacraments?

🔥The question: “Does the Church teach that a believer has to hand over exactly ten percent of their income?”

🛡️The Church's answer: The faithful have the duty of helping, according to their means, with what the Church needs for worship, for the works of the apostolate and of charity, and for the decent support of her ministers, and of helping the poor from their own resources. This is a share in the mission entrusted to the community, not a price paid for salvation or for the sacraments. Universal church law does not fix the same ten percent for every Catholic, and how it is done has to be worked out with the legitimate rules of the local church and the real circumstances of each person both in view.

An offering must never be taken by pressure and shame, and children in particular must never be made to give money behind their family's back or to bring their parents' property. Those who administer church goods use the offerings for the purposes assigned to them, and they answer for the records, the accounts, the oversight required by law, and their reporting to the faithful. The faithful, for their part, may rightly ask what a collection is for and how it is being managed.

🧐If they press further: “If I have no money, can I contribute nothing to the Church?” — no. Time and talent, prayer and care, are precious ways of taking part too. A financial contribution has to match what you can actually give, and no one may demand, as proof of faith, an amount that wrecks a poor person's livelihood, treatment, or education. Trading sacraments or blessings for money — simony — is against the teaching of the Church as well.

✨In one sentence: “Helping the Church financially is a responsibility for the shared mission and for the poor, not the price of the sacraments or of salvation. Share freely and honestly, in keeping with your means — and the Church has to manage it openly.”