I thought I'd share this quote from The Way of the Fathers:
He who sees any evil in his neighbor and keeps silent about it acts like the surgeon who looks at his friend's wound and will not cure it.
—Pope St. Gregory the Great
Quotes, Word, other Miscellaneous: August 2005 Archives
Try goat — very low in fat, low in cholesterol, and tasty!
Someday I will try it myself — probably at a local Indian restaurant I know serves it.
In an article about Hurricane Katrina hitting New Orleans (the most powerful in history), it was noted that "[Bryan Steven's] wife, wearing a Bourbon Street T-shirt with a lewd message, interjected: 'I just don't want to die in this shirt.'"
Well put, Mrs. Steven.
I got a fundraising letter from a Catholic apostolate a few weeks ago basically saying that they were in dire, dire straits and needed money pronto. You've seen the appeals before. I've heard rumors of financial mismanagement at this apostolate some years ago but it was hard to tell if they were justified (they came from a former employee so you can see how credible they were). But anyway, I had pity on them and sent them a donation double the size of what I would normally give at one time.
Today I get another letter from them. It's a copy of the first, plus a cover letter saying that they had reason to believe that their letters were not getting delivered, that people had told them they didn't get it, and would I please 1) Acknowledge that I got the original letter; 2) Help out with an emergency donation.
Well I had already given what I had chosen to give, and I had no intention of giving more. I despise it when someone asks for money twice. Parishes do this all the time when they give you extra envelopes for a "special monthly collection" or make up some excuse to get you to pony up some more. (I wouldn't object to an honest, "We still need more money, if you can, please give more.) Anyway there is more to it. It seems that there was no way to "acknowledge" receipt of the letter. Enclosed was the same form sent in the original letter designed to accompany and document a donation. Nothing at all that said "I acknowledge that I received the original letter". In fact, there would be no way they could distinguish responses from the first letter from responses to the second letter, hence no way to count acknowledgements. In other words, I suspect the whole "mail was lost, please acknowledge" schtick is a scam designed to get you to give more money.
I happen to know personally the person who runs this apostolate so I thought I'd send him a note. I wrote:
Dear XXXXXX,
I hope you are well (under the circumstances). Thank you for all the work you do for XXXXXX, all of it is much needed and worthy of support.
I got both copies of your letter you didn't want to write, the original one and the one about the mail problem. You asked for an acknowledgement but I was a bit confused as there is no form included to do so — just a copy of the original donation form. How will you distinguish acknowledgements that the first letter was received — replies to the second letter — from the replies to the first letter? I was therefore unsure how to respond, especially given that I made an extraordinary donation on receipt of the first letter and cannot include an additional gift with my acknowledgement. I felt funny sending in a blank form, or one with an explanation written on it which obviously cannot be your intention. So I guess you can consider this my acknowledgement. I hope though you can explain to me this curious arrangement that leaves me confused as to what I was to do.
May God bless abundantly the work of XXXXXX,
Eric
The response I got back was, "Thanks, Eric, both for the note and the donation. Yeah, I guess there was an imprecision in 'information transferral'!" That's it — not very substantial. Doesn't really resolve my doubts.
