This episode is for anyone who believes he is called to found a Catholic apostolate, or anyone who is overseeing one already. In this second part of a two-part interview, CatholicCulture.org founder Jeff Mirus shares more lessons from his decades of experience founding several Catholic organizations.
In the mid-80s he left Christendom College to start a publishing company. Then circumstances forced him to transition away from full-time apostolic work which, though painful at the time, providentially set the stage for him to return on more sustainable terms, leading to the present online apostolate.
Links
Part 1 of the Jeff Mirus interview https://www.catholicculture.org/podcast/index.cfm?id=9
Books mentioned
Fr. William Most, The Consciousness of Christ
Read online: https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/most/getwork.cfm?worknum=215
Buy used: https://amzn.to/2N3Kgsy
The Fr. William Most Collection https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/most/
Timothy T. O’Donnell, Heart of the Redeemer https://amzn.to/2zpGrMC
Warren H. Carroll, The Guillotine and the Cross https://amzn.to/2uiShSL
Jeffrey Mirus, Reasons for Hope https://amzn.to/2L0oaXs
Jeffrey Mirus, The Divine Courtship https://amzn.to/2zzsdsL
Dennis Larkin, A Walk to Rome https://amzn.to/2MXqkri
Review of St. Katharine Drexel biography https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/otc.cfm?id=1266
Show Notes:
Jeff Mirus interview
3:51
1:20 Summary of Part 1
3:50 Jeff leaves Christendom College to start a publishing company, Trinity Communications
5:54 Why Jeff doesn’t like looking backwards
8:49 Getting Trinity off the ground using Christendom’s mailing list
10:45 Jeff’s two books, Reasons for Hope and The Divine Courtship
11:34 Efficiency of running a small company without a board of trustees and political battles
12:50 Some of the best books Jeff published: Carroll’s The Guillotine and the Cross, Fr. Most’s The Consciousness of Christ, Larkin’s A Walk to Rome, O’Donnell’s Heart of the Redeemer
15:37 Failure of Trinity as a publisher in 1991, Jeff’s realization that he could not do apostolic work full-time
16:34 Jeff learns to program, begins computer consulting and online apostolate, Catholic Resource Network, work for EWTN
19:35 CatholicCulture.org’s predecessor, PetersNet, begins in 1996—funded by computer consulting business
21:24 Trinity does all the programing for Phil Lawler’s Catholic World News, then a separate company
23:16 Importance of making it so Jeff could be removed by other board members if he ever went against the Church
24:27 Why God forced Jeff away from full-time apostolic work in order to put him in a position where he could both support his family and serve the Church without overworking himself
25:33 Programming analogy: Elegant solutions to problems vs. using “brute force”; importance of standing back from problems and learning to delegate and work with a team
30:12 Differences between PetersNet and CatholicCulture.org
32:31 Ethos distinguishing CatholicCulture.org from other faithful Catholic websites when it started in 2003
35:56 Trinity buys Catholic World News in 2006; transition from funding via for-profit company to email-solicited donations just in time for 2008 financial crisis and dissolution of Trinity Consulting
43:19 CatholicCulture.org’s reciprocal model of support; depending on Divine Providence rather than being an institution that exists to perpetuate itself
48:03 Future of Trinity Communications and CatholicCulture.org: transitioning away from Jeff’s leadership
50:01 Final advice for those doing apostolic work: “Unless the LORD builds the house, he labors in vain who builds it.” (Psalm 127)
51:59 This week’s excerpt: St. Katharine Drexel
The Catholic Culture Podcast