Note: I’m very grateful to those of you who have responded – and some so very generously – to our fundraising appeal these past few days. Despite the holiday, we’re making good progress, and that’s encouraging to all of us at The Catholic Thing. But we need to get serious now, much more serious. We need to raise $50,000. We have $8,900. These are hard numbers and there’s no getting around them. The list of expenses is simple: editorial staff, writers, tech support, translators. And the list of donors is simple too: a few bigger donors – and you. There’s a tendency to think of whatever appears on the Web that’s not behind a firewall as free, like the sun and the rain. Some of it is and a good deal of it perhaps ought to be. But if you care about solid Catholic commentary – the kind that thoughtfully embraces the fullness of our tradition of Faith and Reason – it will not sprout up spontaneously, like mushrooms after a shower. It takes dedicated writers and readers. If you consider yourself one of the latter, then you have a role no less important than the people you come to read here every morning. The need is clear and the way well marked. If it’s not, for you, please read my letter here. And do your part for this work without delay. – Robert Royal