The CatholiCity Message
Volume III, Number 1 – January 13, 1999
Dear CatholiCity Citizen,
Welcome to 1999! Hope you had a Holy Christmas and a Blessed New Year. It's hard to believe this is the fourth year CatholiCity has been online, and the third year of this CatholiCity Message. Check out that "Volume III", baby. Back in 1996, it was hard to find a friend who had email. Now, it's like, What? You don't have email? We've got forty-seven items today, but in the interest of time, we'll leave out thirty-something of them...
1. PLUG FOR THE POPE
Feel the Energy! We normally don't plug other websites here, but who can resist plugging the Great One? Yes, here's the official website for the Holy Father's coming visit to Saint Louis. Accept no substitutes:
PAGE NO LONGER AVAILABLE
2. COLLEGE
Now there are only a handful of truly rockin' Catholic colleges in the U.S. (as in The Rock that Doesn't Roll). You know them by name: Franciscan University of Steubenville (OH), Saint Thomas Aquinas (CA) and Saint Thomas More (NH), and a few others. It's always news when a new one rises out of the muck of modern culture: Our Lady of Corpus Christi. OLCC features a classic liberal arts curriculum, and a daring new Catholic Entrepreneurship component. It's dirt cheap, cuz it's new, and if you're interested:
Watch out Notre Dame! Once again, CatholiCity Citizens are the first to know.
3. O CANADA
She's smart. She's pretty. She's tri-lingual. She's sweet. She's from a great Catholic family. She's Canadian. And she's all yours. Yes, our newest worker has begun her year-long volunteer internship. Much of her time will be spent on CatholiCity as a "flow" manager.
4. NOT TOO LATE...
to join the 1999 International 54 Day Rosary Novena which started on January 1st, ending on February 23rd. One Missus CatholiCity Citizen tells us her husband decided to become a Catholic on the eve of the Feast of the Immaculate Conception–and on her last day praying this powerful Novena. More info at:
http://www.catholicity.com/support/praywithus.html
5. TO PREPARE OR NOT TO PREPARE
We're often asked, by letter, phone, and email, about what kind of preparations we recommend to prepare for the Now Less Than 12 Months Away Y2K Problem. We can never give specifics because everyone's situation is different. We know the majority of you think Y2K is not going to be that big of a deal. Some of you are still investigating. It's your decision–and responsibility–to decide what to do.
6. WHILE WE'RE ON THE TOPIC
We have received criticism for bringing up Y2K in May of 1998. Seems like ages ago. We have no regrets. It's a computer issue, this is "computer" apostolate, and we were ahead of the curve. Y2K is now all over the Catholic print and online press. In December, the estimable Homiletic and Pastoral Review featured a hard-hitting article on Y2K and what pastors should do to prepare. Envoy Magazine, Crisis Magazine, National Catholic Register and others have also started spilling ink. Y2K is not going away. It will dominate the headlines in 1999. Just this week, the U.S. National Guard announced the largest peacetime "war game" ever in May, 1999. They're going to practice mustering all 480,000 guardsmen without using telephones, radio, or television. A spokesmen was quoted in the news as saying this is definitely driven by Y2K. No big deal? The National Guard doesn't think so.
7. SORRY
Late last year, after much hoopla, We promised to publish an economic forecast somewhere in CatholiCity. We just haven't had the time. Besides, we don't know what's going to happen. So we'll do a short version here, real quick-like. It wasn't going to be anything apocalyptic or even Y2K-oriented, as some anticipated. We were merely going to point out that there are serious deflationary trends in the world markets, especially out of Asia. This is deflating prices. We had quotes lined up from Forbes and other mainline U.S. business magazines. Eventually, this trend will effect the U.S. economy. That's it. We'll probably never bring up economics again.
HERE THEY COME, FAST AND FURIOUS...
"The easiest day of a diet is always the second day. By the second day, you're off it."
Jackie Gleason
"The most important thing in acting is honesty. Once you've learned to fake that, you're in."
Samuel Goldwyn
"We must love them both–those whose opinions we share and those whose opinions we reject. For both labored in the search for the truth, and helped us in the finding of it."
Saint Thomas Aquinas
"Hot! Hot! Hot!"
A boy toddler's first sentence, commenting on his thoughts after briefly touching a wood stove.
"History will be kind to me. For I intend to write it."
Winston Churchill
JOKES OF THE WEEK
Teacher: "We all know that proper English doesn't allow for double-negatives. It is also true that English doesn't allow for double-positives." Student: "Yeah, right."
Teacher: What is a bigger problem with students today, lack of knowledge or apathy? Student: I don't know and I don't care.
8. DID YOU KNOW?
The parable of the shepherd who seeks out the one lost sheep refers to the Brown Scapular. The shepherd is Jesus, Who is willing to go to great lengths to save a lost soul. The whole point of wearing a scapular is to aid in the salvation of lost souls. The word scapular means "shoulder garment." Scapulars are made out of wool. Sheep have woolen fleeces. The shepherd carries the lost sheep home...on his shoulders.
Yours with Mary,
Your Friends at CatholiCity
