Dear Friends:
It’s that time of year again when we need to ask your support for The Catholic Thing.
As in the past, I am going to assume we’re all adults here and don’t need lurid warnings of impending doom – the kind of thing you read in so many fundraising letters – to make the case for this work. If you read this page regularly, you know there are days when we’re all over the crises of our time – moral, social, political. We all know how dire the situation is and we’re not shy about suggesting ways those might be remedied.
But I wouldn’t ask you to support us only for that. We’re engaged with this time God has chosen to place us in, but our writers and readers reflect on it in a different way than most of our contemporaries. It’s been a central part of our mission since we started on June 2, 2008 to try to bring the deeper wealth of the Catholic tradition to bear on modern conditions so that the merely practical and utilitarian approaches don’t just lead to more of what we’ve already got – or into even worse troubles.
We’re planning on doing more than ever in 2012. As you may have noticed, we silently expanded to appearing seven days a week some months back – our writers were producing so much good commentary and our readers were asking for it, so we took the plunge.
In coming months, we will be launching a series of longer essays to appear on our related site Complete Catholicism. If you haven’t started looking at that page, which just opened last week, do yourself a favor. You’ll find more news and commentary there intended to provide an even fuller picture of the Church in the world today. But you’ll also see and hear some remarkable works of arts under True Beauty and will find a category we’re especially fond of: Sacred Spaces. Last week we had a virtual tour of the Baltimore Basilica, the first Catholic cathedral in America. This week we’re on to sacred sites in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
At CC this week you can also watch the Holy Father’s address to American bishops in Rome for ad limina visits, read the formidable Dorothy Sayers on the Trinitarian nature of all art. And under that venerable Latin title Absurdum, we’ll point out some of the more salient nonsense spoken about true faith and morals in our day. And much more.
This now means that you are reading about thirty articles a month in The Catholic Thing alone, the size of a solid magazine. And some very fresh and stimulating material in Complete Catholicism. People follow us in 140 countries and territories – Rome being just one place where careful attention is being paid. I know from personal conversations that several bishops read us religiously, so to speak, every morning.
And TCT has been appearing regularly in French, Italian, Slovak, and Spanish since the beginning of the year as well. Just click on one of those buttons under the banner and it will take you to our effort to reach people in their own languages. Portuguese and Chinese are next – when we have the resources.
These things are not easy or cheap to do. Consistently good material, the kind of thing you find every morning in The Catholic Thing, takes time and effort to produce – and financial support.
Can you give $35 in this Advent Season towards our work in 2012? If every reader did that, we could be sure to be able to bring you what we think the best Catholic commentary anywhere. Given the economy, not everyone can contribute, so could you share the burden of a fellow reader and send $70, $100, or more?
It’s easy enough. Just click the Donate button and follow the instructions. Or if you prefer, you can send a check to the Faith & Reason Institute, the parent organization of The Catholic Thing at the address indicated.
Our efforts depend on you as much as on writers and editors. We give it everything we’ve got, every morning of every day of the year to bring you The Catholic Thing – and now Complete Catholicism. Please do your part in this special work. Donate today.
Robert Royal
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The Catholic Thing is a forum for intelligent Catholic commentary. Opinions expressed by writers are solely their own.