The CatholiCity Message
Volume III, Number 26 – September 17, 1999
Dear CatholiCity Citizen,
Our second annual Tax Drive is a modest success! CatholiCity Lives. The first few items are the "final" results and comments on the Tax Drive, and then we have a few other nifty items...
1. GRATITUDE
On behalf of our staff and all those who visit and participate in this cyber-city, we want to personally and sincerely thank all the Citizens who contributed to this year's tax drive, all of you contributed prayers, and those of you who forwarded our appeal to their friends.
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS...
DID WE HAVE ENOUGH TAXPAYERS?
No. Roughly one thousand individuals and families contributed online or through the mail, including 251 who have promised to support us on a monthly basis for a total of (NUMBER NOT APPLICABLE) per month. Hundreds of others, unable to make a monetary gift, contributed with prayer.
HOW MUCH?
At this point, you have given us over (NUMBER NOT APPLICABLE) in one-time donations. If the 251 are able to honor their pledges for twelve months, we will receive an additional (NUMBER NOT APPLICABLE) before September of 2000. Over (NUMBER NOT APPLICABLE) total!
WHAT ABOUT NEXT YEAR?
CatholiCity will again be in danger of shut-down in September of 2000, but we're enthusiastic by the chance to give it a go!
DOES CATHOLICITY NEED ANYTHING MORE?
Frankly, we need one more full-time worker. If you were considering making a monthly pledge or a one-time gift, but were waiting to see if CatholiCity survived, now is the time to take action. As few as 100 more monthly taxpayers could allow us to hire a worker for one year. You can get directions for sending a check or make an online credit card donation here:
http://www.catholicity.com/support/donation.html
2. OUR FINAL TAX DRIVE COMMENTS
We purposely did not "push" you very hard during this year's tax drive. It's important that gifts be given freely. In our hearts of hearts, we believed that many thousands of the 15,000 of you reading this would be willing and able to make a contribution, and we will always wonder about the additional souls we would have reached if more of you had indeed stepped forward. We were wrong–no big surprise. We could put ten people to work full-time on CatholiCity in a matter of weeks. Same-hour email response, upgraded and expanded services–there is no limit to the soul-harvest online as millions of Catholics around the world continue to come onto the Internet, many of them "reverting" to their childhood faith and looking for human contact, for answers, for grace.
As we've read messages from those of you who did voluntarily make a donation, it's clear your gifts came out of a joyful gratitude, not a heavy sense of obligation. That's good. So many of you have been strengthened in your faith at CatholiCity, and mostly through interaction with other Citizens, through our free books, CDs, and tapes. With you, we're goners.
Lastly, if you couldn't make a donation or didn't want to make a donation, don't feel the least bit guilty or shy about using our services, enjoying this CatholiCity Message, etc. Free means free. It's okay with us.
3. THREE POINT PRAYER
Please join 15,000 others in three prayers.
"Dear Lord, please bring a peaceful and immediate end to the slaughter, bloodshed, and persecution of our Catholic brothers and sisters in East Timor. Saint Michael the Archangel, protect East Timor in the day of battle! Amen."
"Immaculate Mary, thank you for interceding on behalf of CatholiCity, and for helping to save the City so we can all be online missionaries for Christ. May we always honor and love you as Queen of CatholiCity and Queen of Our Hearts. Amen."
"Dear Father in Heaven, the blood of tens of millions of surgically and chemically aborted human beings cries out to you from the soil of the United States of America. Millions of women have been brutalized and dehumanized, almost always under the influence of the men they love and trust, by this silent scourge. We beg You to heal these women, and to heal this nation, so that once again we may be able to call it the greatest nation on earth. Amen."
4. LAST NOVENA OF THE MILLENNIUM
As many of you know, we sponsor several international 54 Day Rosary Novenas every year. Our favorite is the one that ends on December 8th, Feast of the Immaculate Conception. Last chance before 2000! It starts on October 16th, so mark your calendars...
http://www.catholicity.com/support/praywithus.html
JOKE OF THE WEEK
A little boy and girl were on the playground. The girl approaches the boy and asks, "Hey, Billy, wanna play house?" Billy says, "Sure! What do you want me to do?" The girl replies, "I want you to communicate your feelings." "Communicate my feelings?" asked the bewildered Billy. "I have no idea what that means."
"Good," said the girl. "You can be the husband."
QUOTES OF THE WEEK
"Money-giving is a very good criterion of a person's mental health. Generous people are rarely mentally ill."
Karl Menninger
"Never think badly of anyone, not even if the words or the conduct of the person in question give good ground for doing so."
Blessed Josemaria Escriva
"People say I'm strange, does that make me a stranger?
My best friend was born in a manger."
from the song Jesus Freak, by DC Talk
Thanks for hanging in there with us. Enjoy your weekend.
Yours in Christ,
Your Friends at CatholiCity
