When I opened the envelope, inside was a note from one of our readers: “Keep up the good work — you’re doing more good to help the Church than any other single entity anywhere.”
Can you imagine a bigger compliment?
Still another: “I love the work you do at 1P5, and the civility you do it with.”
Month after month, envelope after envelope, email after email, these notes pour in. Often, it takes weeks, if not months, to respond to everyone, though I do try. My lovely wife processes all of your incoming mail, including checks, and hands me the letters so I can reply to them. The current stack looks like this:
Your letters, your emails, your donations — these are the fuel that keep us going. And as we find ourselves again at mid-month, we are reaching out again: will you be a part of our mission to fight back against the forces of darkness that have infiltrated the Church?
Today we published an article entitled, “Official Persecution of Orthodoxy Within the Church Has Begun“. As you know, this persecution has really been with us for quite a while. But the person who made the statement is a Catholic university professor commenting on the tyrannical and unapologetic way Josef Seifert — a renowned Austrian philosopher and close friend of Pope John Paul II — was fired for simply asking a question about Amoris Laetitia.
1P5 exists to ask these questions without being so easily dismissed. 1P5 exists to take the fight straight to the enemy, leaving them with no defense but to answer, or to hide. We are not dependent upon our relationships with the bishops. We are not beholden to the interests of large donors. We answer only to our readers, who keep us funded and on the hunt for the errors that now permeate Holy Mother Church.
And that is why we need your tax-deductible contribution today.
One reader wrote us to talk about the profound change in their life that followed from their interaction with our apostolate. “Thank you so much for the work you do.” It read. “It was in large part due to your site that I found – and fell in love with – the Mass of the Ages. I’m the only one that I know who feels this way, so I appreciate having a place to go find kindred spirits. In a few weeks, I’ll take my children for their first TLM. My prayer is that someday we will be able to make the switch as a family.”
In the past week, we’ve logged 93,000 visitor sessions at our website. These are people just like you — reading articles, listening to podcasts, leaving comments, interacting with the 1P5 community. How many of them have their own stories about how this work made a difference in their lives? How many have found the courage to speak the truth to their circle of family and friends, or in their parish, because of the information we give them?
You know you read 1P5 every day because you trust us to give you the information that matters. You know that you read us because we not only inform, but inspire you to take action. What would the situation in the Church look like today if 1P5 hadn’t been there, every step of the way during this pontificate, shedding light on darkness, countering error with truth?
Please help us to continue our mission, this month and every month. We ask you in particular to consider making a recurring contribution, which allows you to automatically give each month without hassle, and gives us income we can count on to meet our expenses. We need your help getting off the roller coaster of uncertainty when it comes to our finances. Two months ago, we hit our goal. This month, we’re only 8% funded with just two weeks left in the month to go. To make an automatically recurring donation, all you have to do is select “Create Recurring Transaction” at checkout. You can cancel at any time.
We know how much you care. We know you wouldn’t be here if you didn’t.
Please prayerfully consider a gift in support of our fight today. No amount is too big or too small.
Thank you, and God bless you!
In Christ,
Steve Skojec
Publisher & Executive Director
OnePeterFive.com
Steve Skojec is the Founding Publisher of OnePeterFive.com. He received his BA in Communications and Theology from Franciscan University of Steubenville in 2001. His commentary has appeared in The New York Times, USA Today, The Washington Post, The Washington Times, Crisis Magazine, EWTN, Huffington Post Live, The Fox News Channel, Foreign Policy, and the BBC. Steve and his wife Jamie have eight children. You can find more of his writing at his Substack, The Skojec File.
The part where they said they were taking their children to their first TLM made me smile. I just woke my daughters up at 5:30 a.m. a few Sundays ago to take them to their very first TLM. We later bought them their very own chapel veils. I don’t know that this kind of thing would have happened if 1P5 hadn’t introduced me to (and put a friendly face on) Traddies.
After waking them up that early, I hope you bought them doughnuts too.
This reminds me of my own childhood, when I would force myself to stay up late on Saturday nights so that it would be difficult for me to wake up in time for church on Sundays. I figured if it was difficult enough, my family just wouldn’t go. It worked.
That was a Protestant church. I converted to Catholicism in 2003, because I recognized its truth by observing its beauty. Modernism seeks to obscure and ultimately destroy that beauty. False ecumenism seeks to hide that beauty. Why? To avoid making potential converts uncomfortable? Let that beauty make us uncomfortable. Let it consume us and enflame us with a love for truth. The discomfort will give way to awe and gratitude if we let it. If the beauty is simply allowed to shine, it will conquer whatever reservations we may have.
I too converted, in my case in 2007. You are absolutely right, modernism is diabolically designed to obscure and snuff out beauty. Our Lady is the beauty that points always to the Ultimate Beauty. And they try to sideline her too because she could be a ‘stumbling block’ to nervous protestants.
Well, I say let them be nervous…. and awe struck, converted and then held in their Mother’s arms.
Well, chocolate covered croissants anyway. Kids liked them, though.
Dear Everyone (including me who am near broke like many of you) let us sacrifice and do what we can to help. Right now, half way through the month, 1P5 is less than a 1/6 toward the monthly goal. I often forget that if I and everyone can send at least $10 per month to 1P5 they would meet their goal.
Steve wants to expand 1P5, but is limited by funding, I think that this apostolate is far more valuable than many of them that bring in Millions of dollars in revenue every year.
It is true that there are plenty of worthy causes begging for our hard earned dollars every month, but this venue does something that many of them don’t, it tells the hard truth about the state of the Church including the many and great troubles with Pope Francis. All the while 1P5 strives to bring us the authentic Catholic Faith, including the glory and beauty of TLM and all that goes with it.
I’m struggling myself as I help many people financially, including family. Yet I am sending a check tomorrow for $100 to 1P5, and I hope that many of you, my brothers and sisters in Christ will do the same.
May God bless us in our struggle for Holy Church. Amen.
I love all of you in Christ Jesus and pray for you, may you do the same for me.
Fr. RP
I second Fr. RP’s words here. Look, friends, things are very bleak now. Everywhere we turn we see virtue and rational thinking trashed, in the Church, in Washington, across Europe, at nearly all the universities, even in the formerly disciplined military. Do we really want to impoverish the public square even further? That’s exactly what will happen if conscientious Catholic journalism like what we find at 1P5 is silenced by fiscal restraints. But we can do something to make sure this never happens. Make a sacrifice this week, give up something you’re used to – a pizza, a movie, a drink with friends – and send the savings, however small, along to 1P5. I guarantee you’ll feel better for having joined the fight. And the next time you read one of those informative and reasoned essays by Maike or Steve, you can enjoy the satisfaction of knowing you helped make it possible.
$20K?!??!?! What is this used on? I’d love to see a budget breakdown or tax returns before any donation. That’s insane.
That’s the goal. We’ve only hit it one month. Other Catholic online publications bring in millions of dollars a year and use them to fund full staffs, travel, resources, etc.
Our present needs are much more modest than that, which is why until this year we targeted only $10K/month. If we’re ever going to grow, though, we need the capital to make that happen, so we’ve increased our target.
The majority of the income up until now has gone to pay the Executive Director (me), the only full-time employee. Although I’m paid as a 1099 contractor on an as-possible basis, which means I bear self-employment tax and healthcare costs because our revenue has traditionally been too unstable to plan out an actual salary. We’ve done better financially this year than in previous years, so that will likely change in 2018. We have begun paying support staff (editing, accounting, etc.) and are evaluating plans to compensate our top contributors as well. We also pay for hosting and bandwidth, various software used to produce our content on a monthly basis, office equipment and supplies, etc.
At only three years old, we’re essentially still a startup, and demand for our work (and the need to grow) has outpaced our ability to keep up.
I understand your concern, but that’s what I can tell you for now.
I’m from Brazil, I visit this website almost every day and this is a fantastic website, the articles are amazing with great information, for sure the best Catholic blog. I donate only $2 monthly, I know it’s not much, but if everyone donated $2, 1P5 would easily hit their $20000 goal.
Thanks, Fernando! You’re absolutely right.
Dear 1P5 – keep up the great work! The modernist ascendency in the Vatican undoubtedly hates you and they hate you even more because they cannot shut you down. Their best weapon is to ignore you but that won’t make you go away. 1P5 will still be standing when this fraudulent Pontificate falls and fades away into baneful memory.