RACINE, Wis. — The second largest Catholic membership organization in the United States is encouraging members to sign up for a consumer credit card that will pay parishes a portion of interest collected.

According to The Journal Times, Catholic Knights is telling its 70,000 members to "charge it" to raise parish funds as part of its "Shopping for God" fund-raising program.

For every 200 parishioners who sign on for the We Share Credit Card within 30 days and make an average of $4,000 in annual purchases, their parish or school could receive $10,000. Cardholders also could get savings through an optional buyers' rewards program.

"Charitable giving is down for the first time in a dozen years," said Allen Banoub, chief marketing officer for Catholic Knights. "We wanted to offer consumers a solution that would allow them to do what they always do, and still make a contribution to their parish or school."

The Visa card, administered by Milwaukee-based M&I Bank, allows shoppers to designate 1 percent of the interest paid to a parish, school or both. A $10 jump start for new card holders is provided by sponsoring companies if the card is used within the first 30 days. The other estimated $8,000 in donations would come from purchases by cardholders based on the national average of $4,000 each.

Typical cards are issued at a 5.9 percent or 7.9 percent interest rate, depending on qualification of the consumer, and jump to 9.9 percent or 11.9 percent after six months.

"Our parish is very interested in it," said Peter Habetler, director of administrative services for St. Richard Parish in Racine. "It's something we're going to introduce to our parishioners early next year. Our stewardship committee said this looks pretty good and we think it'll be something very attractive."

Some parishes declined participation in the plan because they didn't want to promote debt to their parishioners.