The CatholiCity Message
Urgent Update – September 3, 1998
Dear CatholiCity Citizen,
Where else but on the Internet can you get feedback so quickly? Last night, in desperation, we went to a 24 hour Eucharistic Adoration Chapel at 1 am and begged Jesus to inspire CatholiCity Citizens to save the City. Maybe it was our Guardian Angel, maybe it was Our Eucharistic Lord Himself, because we were, uh–how shall we describe it–well, we were prompted to give you this Special Report. This was NOT planned. Here goes...
The next 24 hours will make or break CatholiCity. Yesterday we sent you a CatholiCity Message asking you to save CatholiCity. By early this morning, CatholiCity was almost halfway to its revenue goal of $42,000! We've received hundreds of donations. Thank you!
Do we have enough to survive?
No. Absolutely not.
Do we have hope? Yes.
Maybe. After the initial surge, donations are steady but slowing down. We don't know. Read on...
In the comments that came in with the online donations, we also received the following excellent suggestions from your fellow Citizens to help you save the City:
1. BECOME A TAX COLLECTOR?!
Why not? That's how Saint Matthew got his start. Over the next 48 hours, we heartily encourage you to ask, beg, demand, and implore (in a spirit of charity, of course) your fellow Citizens to pay their City Taxes through email. Tell each other what CatholiCity means to you, to your family, to your friends. Ask each other what you're doing to help save CatholiCity. Share the friendships you've made, the vocations fostered, the souls returned to the sacraments! We've just read these kinds of testimonies from those who have just paid their taxes, and we want you to now share those stories with each other. Peer pressure, baby, peer pressure. Those of you have paid taxes have the moral high ground. We're not the only one who can ask for help.
2. WIDOWS MITE DONATIONS MAKE A BIG DIFFERENCE
One Citizen suggested that we point out that you can easily multiply "nominal" $1, $2, $3, $4, and $5 donations by checking off a little box on the online donation page authorizing us to deduct the same amount on a monthly basis. Over a year, these 'widows mite' gifts add up. If hundreds, even thousands of you donate your City Tax in this fashion, it will make a big, big difference and might put us over the top. "What's $1 or $2 extra on a Visa or Mastercard bill?" this citizen asked. Go to:
https://secure.catholicity.com/donation.html
3. MAYBE YOUR ISP CAN HELP THE CITY
The guy who designed the CatholiCity logo has an idea. He says that most ISPs (your local Internet Service Provider) will give you a $5 or more monthly discount if you prepay your yearly fee, instead of paying every month. He did this yesterday and then donated his $5 per month savings to the CatholiCity Tax Drive.
4. HELP US MEASURE THE MIRACLE
If you have sent or are planning to send us a donation via normal postal letter, email us with the amount. That way we can measure our progress and keep your fellow Citizens informed. Please put "DON QUIXOTE" in the subject field.
5. WORRIED ABOUT THROWING GOOD MONEY AFTER BAD
How about throwing good money after good money? A longtime Citizen pointed that in our over-the-top-style and enthusiasm, we might have inadvertently scared away some willing taxpayers with our descriptive (and still possible) scenario about "Error-message crows circling a dead carcass site." If any of you were hesitant about "wasting" a donation on a dying CatholiCity, please, reconsider based on the hopeful facts presented in this Special Report. Pray, then act quickly.
If just five or ten of you who can afford $2000 or $5000 donations were to "throw" a donation at CatholiCity in the next 24 hours, we could have the pleasure and thrill of announcing:
THE CITY LIVES! THE CITY LIVES! THE CITY LIVES!
How sweet these words would sound in the ears of our Citizens! How wonderful you would feel to know that you were the one chosen and inspired by Pure Grace to preserve a Catholic Oasis that could help Jesus and Mary bring grace to hundreds of thousands of Catholics over the coming months and years!
Just imagine the rare thrill of sitting down, taking your favorite pen in hand, asking yourself under your breath if you're crazy, then writing the Big Giant Check With Lots of Zeros. It might even beat that vacation in Florida you had planned. (Besides, the money won't be worth much in 15 months if all that stuff we hear about the Y2K computer bug is really true.). We know a few of you are getting itchy reading this. We were praying about you in front of the True Presence last night.
6. WHAT GOOD IS AN ADDRESS BOOK?
Plenty good. A few Citizens boldly copied our CatholiCity Message to dozens of friends and relatives using their email Address Books, and more than a few donations have come in from people who have never visited CatholiCity! Go for it. It'll take you just a few minutes.
7. GRATITUDE TO INTERNATIONAL CITIZENS
Our special thanks go to the hale and hearty Canadians, Brits, Aussies, and Irish who have donated despite brutal exchange rates. Good show! Erin go Bragh! Good-day Mate! and (singing) Oh Canada! And other threadbare cliches. CatholiCity is not just for Americans, and you are proving it. (Ahem, so far the Aussies and Canadians are "neck and neck" for bragging rights...)
8. READ WHAT YOUR FELLOW CITIZENS ARE SAYING
Our webmaster is hard at work finishing up a page with some of the inspirational comments that Citizens submitted with their online donations (we'll post the comments, but not your names for the sake of privacy). He has already posted yesterday's CatholiCity Message, a link to this Special Report, and a link to your fellow Citizen's Reactions on the CatholiCity homepage at:
(THIS PAGE NO LONGER ONLINE)
If you liked this Special Report and found it helpful, we'll do another in the next day or so. Hey, if we have to do tax-collecting (okay, fund-raising) once every seven years, we might well enjoy it! Remember, we're mostly just coffee drinkers here.
Yours with Immaculate Mary,
Your Beleaguered Yet Hopeful Friends at CatholiCity
P.S. One last thought inspired by a Citizen who sent an online gift and mentioned that she had only used our website one time in three months. We think we should address those of you–probably a few thousand souls–who really want to help us, but just... never... quite... get... around to it. You're the ones who only occasionally visit the City and scan our CatholiCity Messages for the Joke of the Week and that's all. This is probably because you're really, really busy all the time (like us). Or because your Catholic "social needs" are fulfilled outside of the Net. Nothing wrong with that. You're probably the healthiest Citizens we have–or the most blessed.
May we suggest that this is your opportunity to do something noble. Don't help us because you like us or our writing style or because you're enjoying this bizarre Don Quixote Tax Drive. Help us for the sake of the millions of "marginalized" souls who are destined to receive grace through CatholiCity in the coming years. Perhaps you don't really "need" CatholiCity, and that's okay, but please help us for the sake of the many, many lonely Catholics out there on the "margins" whose only contact with other faithful Catholics is through CatholiCity.
Help us for the folks who Yahoo in to CatholiCity then tell us the reason why they're signing up for the CatholiCity Message "because I've been away from the Church for years and want to meet some Catholics who are serious about their faith." Help save CatholiCity for the these "homeless" Catholics. If CatholiCity goes down, they'll likely become ensnared in a world wide web that can get pretty creepy. Most of these millions are not even online yet. But they will be coming online soon, looking for a place that says, "Welcome home. Welcome back. You're safe here. You'll be treated with kindness and respect here." Help us make sure there's a CatholiCity not just surviving, but THRIVING when they get here. Amen. Amen.
