By SHAUN KENNEY
One of the great things about Catholic culture — and concerning, if one takes into account what the counterculture and “reformers of the reform” have stolen from us — is the gold mine of Catholic thought surrounding us.
Sure some of it is hard to find. Yet we have all sorts of places where we can go to find and appreciate Catholic culture in a world that is readily starving for Christ.
Consider the following thought experiment, if you will. There are 75 million Catholics in the United States, give or take a few million. Of that, roughly two-fifths are practicing Catholics by the precepts of the Church — let us assume 32 million practicing Catholics in a sea of 320 million Americans.
Now let’s divide this into families — five persons per household, which gives us a grand total of 6.4 million households whose charitable giving could be boosted by $100 a month.
Assume your own household budget and consider a commitment to give $100 in nice bite sized parcels of $10 a month specifically for the purpose of advancing Catholic culture in the U.S. What would you give to and what would it accomplish?
Let’s start with our Catholic media, a place where the mainstream left has absolutely corroded the discourse and made Catholic sentiment in the public square practically absent, lest some California Senator sneer that the “dogma lives loudly within you.” I don’t know about you, but the dogma certainly lives loudly in me, as I’m sure it lives loudly for any practicing Catholic, our saints and heroes, and certainly for a Judean prophet who suffered death on the cross, rose again on the third day, ascended into Heaven and promised one day to come back in judgement.
Crazy stuff according to the world. Amazing stuff according to those of us whose faith need no explanations.
Publications such as The Wanderer have an amazing pedigree that is worthy of the patronage of 6.4 million Catholic households. Other publications such as National Catholic Register (not the fishwrap that claims to be Catholic out of Kansas City), LifeSiteNews, First Things, The New Oxford Review, and others are notably absent and certainly worthy of our direct support.
Pro-life organizations, you ask? Where to begin. My perennial favorite at American Life League continues to hold the lamp high, but others such as Students for Life of America, Live Action, and of course your local pregnancy resource center all are worthy of the $10 each that 6.4 million Catholic could provide every month.
How’s about Catholic watchdog groups? Surely organizations such as the Lepanto Institute — the sole crusading effort of Michael Hichborn — and Church Militant have paid their dues despite the rocks being hurled at them from the Catholic bureaucratic establishment driving the wedge between the bishops and the laity. What would $10 a month mean from 6.4 million faithful Catholic households?
Books — tons and tons of books. Ignatius Press, Sophia Institute Press, Loyola Press, Sapientia Press out of the Catholic University of America. All of these great warehouses of Catholic spirituality and theology are literally waiting to be scooped up for a little bit more than $10 a month, but for 6.4 million households? That’s quite a sponsorship.
Let’s not forget our monasteries and convents. We all know where they are, and a quick search online and a kind word to a local priest would uncover some of the neatest little places on the face of the earth you’d ever want to find. Many of them have monthly giving options… and $10 a month from 6.4 million households goes a long way.
Everyone knows of a local Catholic school struggling to make ends meet as public institutions and for-profit academies tear away at a parochial school system that now more than ever requires our help. $10 a month from 6.4 million Catholic households would instantly revive the fortunes of many struggling Catholic schools — and might even make the difference between the family that attends and the child that can’t afford the chance.
Everyone knows about St. Vincent de Paul Societies, right? They’re marvelous — not only do you get to swap out all your kids old clothes for someone else’s old clothes, the transaction itself helps the Vinnies do great work for families you will never know who deeply appreciate the help. Ten dollars a month from 6.4 million households? Does a lot more good than a government number and a handout.
I’m sure we could all think of many more examples of great Catholic charities, organizations, and schools out there. But really consider it — if each and every household sat down with $100 and voted as a family where to send $10 a month to 10 different Catholic organizations?
The math is incredible. Sixty-four million dollars a year in charitable giving and $768 million every year to resuscitate Catholic fortunes from the laity themselves.
The best part? If an institution begins to replace their humility and service to the Church with the pride one sees at Catholic Relief Services as they dispense abortifacients overseas, or with the Catholic Campaign for Human Development as they give the poor contraceptives rather than care? Cut them off.
Yet consider a national Catholic response to the culture of death that surrounds us. What would $768 million dollars do to finally destroy Planned Parenthood? What would that money do to rival the mainstream media and provide an authentic Catholic voice to a public starving for an alternative?
What would a fraction of this amazing potential actually do to help feed the poor, give drink to the thirsty, clothe the naked, shelter the homeless, visit those in prison, comfort the sick or bury the dead?
The real trick of it all is that the power to heal this great nation of ours really can be accomplished by selfless acts of charity done everyday — even small ones. When they band together, worlds change. When the Holy Spirit is behind that change, that’s the sort of culture shift that not only ends the culture of death — it’s the sort of revivification of our Catholic society that would truly usher in the New Evangelization.
All it takes is ten dollars.
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Of course, I am succeeding (but not replacing) the inestimable Mr. James K. Fitzpatrick for the First Teachers column. Please feel free to send any correspondence for First Teachers to Shaun Kenney, c/o First Teachers, 5289 Venable Road, Kents Store, Virginia 23084 — or if it is easier, simply send me an e-mail with First Teachers in the subject line to: svk2cr@virginia.edu
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