The CatholiCity Message
Volume II, Number 7 – February 18, 1998
Dear CatholiCity Citizen,
Four big, big items this week! And we saved the best for last...
1. CITIZENS OF THE WORLD UNITE
As we promised last week, you can now download a scrappy, zippy, fresh "CatholiCity" logo and proudly display it on your personal or business homepages. Go for it. Even if you don't have a personal homepage, you might want to take a look-see:
http://www.catholicity.com/support/linktous.html
2. COINCIDENCE? MAYBE
One of our favorite parts of Envoy Magazine is the "What Would You Do?" section written by Envoy readers who try to give clear advice for difficult "real life" scenarios. The new February issue deals with the dilemma: "What would you do if your son's girlfriend asked him to become a Mormon as a precondition for marriage?" We're proud to say that four of the five reader "answers" are from CatholiCity Citizens! Congrats to Bob Mica, Grace Kneeshaw, Dave Milavickas, and Laura Novi (who had the temerity to suggest that the son should read the novel, Pierced by a Sword!). Coincidence? You tell us.
3. THE LEGENDARY DELIDUKA RETURNS
We've always believed in miracles, and this is a big one. We believe it happened because of your prayers, especially the 54 Day Rosary Novena many of your are making that ends on February 23. As most of you know, the fall of 1997 was a rocky one financially at CatholiCity. As part of a cost-cutting campaign to save money called Operation Treadwater, our legendary webmaster, Thomas Deliduka, left us to find a secular job. It was dark time for us; Thomas built most of CatholiCity brick-by-HTML-brick. Recently, after a series of "signal graces" from God, Thomas has decided to leave his secure worldly job to run his own web design company. It's a big gamble, because his company doesn't provide full-time work yet. As part of the plan, Thomas is coming back to work for CatholiCity for two days a week for the next six months.
Keep praying, beloved citizens, keep praying.
Finally, instead of a joke or quote, here are four items about the Catholic Church which reveal or hint at its divine nature:
- The Catholic Church is one of the few human institutions in existence today that was in existence 2000 years ago, and the only one of any kind of vigor or size. Seen any Hittites lately?
- In a famous university study in 1970's of the world's major corporations based on their efficiency, communications systems, resiliency, and scope, IBM was ranked #2. The Catholic Church, based purely on secular criteria, was ranked #1.
- Roughly 2 billion (one-third) of the world's inhabitants are Christians. Roughly 1.2 billion are Catholics, by far the largest "denomination," outnumbering all other sects combined. Less than 1 billion (one-sixth) are Muslim.
- A few years ago, in a comprehensive survey conducted by Gallup of U.S. Catholics, roughly 36% said they attend Mass on Sunday. Of these regular Mass-goers, 17% of the 36% claimed to live and believe the teachings of the Catholic Church as the Church itself teaches them. These facts may or may not surprise you. What surprised the folks at Gallup, however, was that this minority of devout Catholics was the most peaceful, happy, and satisfied group of people in the history of Gallup polling, including areas such as sexual satisfaction.
Please, don't email us asking for the sources. We "collected" these facts over the past fifteen years (the second one, for example, was taught in a business course), and with a little research, you could verify them.
Yours in Christ,
Your Friends at CatholiCity
