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September
3, 2005, First Saturday
Feast of St. Gregory the Great
In this issue:
From
CPATS Webmaster and
Catholic Apologist, Mike Humphrey
Dear CPATS web
site visitor,
Along with my volunteer apologists, I want to wish you and your
family a happy and health "Back to School" season as the
temperature starts to fall and we head toward the winter season.
What's NEW
at CPATS?
o Our NEW Web address / URL.
We have added a web address that will be easier for
people to share and pronounce.
The main reason for this was because when pronouncing the name
of the web site over the phone, there were more then a few times when
they didn't understand what I said.....
C as in Carol, P as in Peter, A as in Apple, etc....
I expect that people will
easily understand: FAITHFUL
CHRISTIANS DOT NET
BOTH web addresses, CPATS.ORG and
FAITHFULCHRISTIANS.ORG go to the same home page.
So now you can reach us at:
http://www.cpats.org
OR
http://www.faithfulchristians.net
The same is
true with the other pages on the site.
e.g. For our knowledge base:
http://www.cpats.org/answers
OR
http://www.faithfulchristians.net/answers
AND Mission and Philosophy page
http://www.cpats.org/missionphilosophy_statement.cfm
OR
http://www.faithfulchristians.net/missionphilosophy_statement.cfm
Our previous temporary domain: faithfulcatholics.org has been
taken out of service.
o Our push to
advertise more.
 Over the past year we
have been looking for more low-cost, effective ways to advertise our web site.
If you can sponsor a link on your web site, or know someone who
would, it would be appreciated.
We have been on the web for about 9 plus years and I believe
we are the first lay Catholic apologetics support group in Massachusetts. Nevertheless, with a few
exceptions, not many bishops, priests or deacons seem interested in
Catholic Apologetics in the Boston
area, so getting the word out has been difficult. If you have other ideas for web
advertising please e-mail me. Your
feedback in this area is greatly appreciated.
The following
graphic can be used:
http://www.cpats.org/banners/cpats_logo_1.gif
In May 2005 we started
advertising on the Christianpost.com.
The numbers reflect a solid increase in NEW visitors. If you found our site through the
Christianpost.com, please send Michael Moon an e-mail thanking him
for allowing us to advertise our banner on his site. Being a volunteer apostolate that
receives no funding, the cost was hefty however; I believe, in the
long run, it will be worth the benefits. His e-mail is michael@christianpost.com.
With the
devastation caused by hurricane Katrina, these are rough times
economically and spiritually within our country. I encourage you first to give to a trusted
financial source like the Red Cross in order to help our neighbors down
South. In addition, for those
who have been financially blessed: Would you be interested in
supporting the financial necessities required to advertise on the
web? Although this is a
volunteer apostolate, you are encouraged to, but certainly under no obligation to, make a free will
offering for future advertising expenses. You can send your offering payable
to Michael Humphrey to:
Mike Humphrey
RE: CPATS.ORG Web Advertising Support
68 East Central Street
Apt 2
Natick, Massachusetts
01760
o New
Sets of Holy Quotes!
Since its
launch in July 2004, Holy
Quotes has been a very popular web application. As of August 20, 2005,
86 visitors have signed up
to receive “holy quotes” in their inbox on the delivery period of their choosing:
- daily
- every
2, 3, 4 or 5 days
- weekly,
every 2 or 3 weeks
- or
even monthly!
For those of
you unfamiliar with what “Holy
Quotes” is:
many who are not
Catholic have sometimes been misinformed about the origins of the
Church and have never been presented with the historical verbal evidence for the doctrines and
teachings of the Catholic faith. I thought that if we could show the
mind set of the Early Church Fathers and Christian Catholics in
100AD, 200AD, 300AD, 400AD, etc. this would cause our separated
brethren to re-thinking certain doctrines that they have had a hard
time accepting. I, myself, have found what these early Church
Christians have said very edifying and sometimes interesting. Weather
you are Catholic or not, I believe you will enjoy this new feature to
our site.
"Holy Quotes" will deliver 'holy quotes' from the Early
Church Fathers, saints and Popes throughout the age of our
Church to your inbox on a regular basis of YOUR choosing.
Since its launch we have added other topics that, though they are not strictly
Holy Quotes, will help the faithful Christian Catholic know and
defend the Faith founded by Jesus in 33AD. Our current set of Holy
Quotes include:
Quotes of the Early Fathers and Christians of the Church
(33AD to 750AD)
Saints throughout the Age of the Church
Holy Quotes from the Popes of the Church
Quotes on Mary, Our Blessed Mother: a Marian Potpourri
52 Practical/Scientific Reasons to go to Church...besides the obvious
ones.
The Holy Scriptures Verse-Finder for Catholic Doctrines
There are some e-mails that have a great deal of information. The only one right now that falls
in that category is: The Holy Scriptures
Verse-Finder for Catholic Doctrines. Still want the other Holy Quotes? Use
the “Send single E-mail” option to get them all in one e-mail sent to
you.
Now you can hear from the horses mouth:
St. Ignatius of Antioch
who lived around 50-107AD
St. Polycarp of Smyrma who lived around 69-165AD
Pope St. Clement I of Rome who lived around 60-99AD
St. Augustine of Hippo who lived around 354-430AD and
more!
Sign up today!
o More Catholic
answers to your questions!
Since we started advertising on the Christianpost.com questions have
picked up. Here is a history of postings since the knowledge base has
been on-line:
|
Posting
Date
|
Number
of Answers posted
|
|
August 2000
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91
|
|
November 2000
|
53
|
|
October 2002
|
54
|
|
December 2002
|
8
|
|
November 2003
|
56
|
|
December 2003
|
7
|
|
April 2005
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94
|
|
May/June 2005
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27
|
|
Total:
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390
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Although July
and August have been slow, we plan to post at least 10 more question
and answers. As always I would like to thank, my Catholic
apologists/colleagues for there help, especially the long-timers. Without their assistance,
this site would not have such a high ranking on Catholic Culture:
By PetersNet: First time: AAB, Second time: ABB
By CatholiCulture.com:
Fidelity: EXCELLENT || Resources: Good || Useability: Normal
First Evaluated: 06/18/99 Last Updated: January 21, 2005
The regular volunteer
apologists are:
- Eric Ewanco
- John
DiMascio
- Bob
Kirby
- Mary
Ann Parks
- occasionally
Richard Chonak
- and
Rob Coutinho: our web site grammarian.
Thanks guys!
If you haven't checked us out our knowledge base, take a look. Go to http://www.cpats.org/answers.
The YOU-Q's [(Yo)ur (U)nanswered
(Q)uestions] page has worked out well.
All but 2 questions
have been answered.
It is similar to our CPATS knowledge base: CAT-Q's: CPATS Answers To
your Questions, but will allow "YOU",
the practicing Catholic apologist, to share in our Internet ministry!
Priests and Religious loyal to the Magisterium are welcome to answer
any question(s) they believe they can help out on.
If you are a practicing Catholic apologist interested in helping us
out take a look at:
YOU-Q's: http://www.cpats.org/unanswered.
Kudos to Richard Chonak who
originally came up with the idea of a CPATS.ORG Knowledge base!
o Helpers of
the Holy Souls
Over the past 12
months, I've started a new apostolate with Brian Bagley.
The mission:
Our mission, one of mercy, is to relieve and gain release for the
suffering souls in  purgatory who can no longer help themselves. We
do this by holding monthly collections used solely to have Masses
said for the Holy Souls. We also fulfill our mission by holding a
Holy Hour for the Holy Souls every Tuesday night immediately
following the 7:00pm
Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. We share our mission by distributing complimentary
Prayer Packs (used at our Holy Hour or privately at one’s
convenience) to patrons of the Holy Souls. These Prayer Packs are a
gift of the Apostolate and no Mass money collected goes toward their
cost. All funds collected are used to place Masses for the Holy
Souls. We aim to have Masses, said by selected Priests, every day of
the year for the Holy souls. The Patron Saint of our Apostolate is
Saint Nicholas of Tolentino; known as one of the great apostles of
the souls in Purgatory.
For those interested in starting up your own Helpers of the Holy
Souls Prayer night, we have prayer packets on-line in English, French, Italian and German.
Of course, we
place all the efforts of our Apostolate into the Immaculate hands of
Our Blessed Mother.
Our apostolates motto:
There are no ungrateful hearts in Heaven.
God's Guests of tomorrow.
Heaven can't wait!
As with all new
apostolates, there are always certain needs. Brian and I are currently
in need of the following:
- Matt
Talbot, picture and Prayer to Matt Talbot
- Blessed
Mary of Providence, picture and Prayer to Blessed Mary of
Providence
- St.
Nicholas of Tolentino, picture and Prayer to St. Nicholas of
Tolentino
- St.
Catherine of Genoa, picture and
Prayer to St. Catherine of Genoa
- St.
John Massias, picture and Prayer to St. John Massias
- St.
Odilo, picture and Prayer to St. Odilo
We are also
looking for:
·
a way to take the content of our 'Helpers of the
Holy Souls' prayer packet and translate
it into Polish as well as
·
the Prayer
Manuel for the Society of the Helpers of the Holy Souls founded
by Blessed Mary of Providence
·
Call to priests or
religious on this list: If you know how we can obtain a relic of
Blessed Mary of Providence, it would be appreciated.
Visit us on the
web at: http://www.helpersoftheholysouls.com
Mike and Brian
Finally:
Content Purity
Is there Objectionable Content on your PC? Are you Sure? FREE SCAN
{ Testimonies
}
What's Needed?
o Thinking about a new look and feel for the web site.
Can you help?
If you have
done professional web design, development and graphics in a corporate environment,
I’d be interested in talking with you or communicating
with you via e-mail.
Although I design and
develop web sites for small businesses and non-profits in the Boston area, my
educational skills are not as up-to-date as they could be. I know the
basics, but I need some assistance on making the web site more usable
and friendlier with sharper graphics. If you could help OR if you have suggestions of
people and/or companies who specialize in doing religious web sites, your
feedback would be appreciated.
If you are a
skilled Cold Fusion Web developer
or well grounded in MS Access 2003 and would like
to volunteer a little time for occasional problems that arise, please
e-mail at mike.humphrey@rcn.com.
I'm also interested in people who have knowledge of on-line games,
tests and teaching tools that would be willing to assist me with new
ideas I have.
o Always looking for a backup Grammarian.
A special blessing our web
site has received is Rob Coutinho: Our resident Grammarian. Despite
Rob's battle with (CFS) Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, he has been able to
take time in his life to review many, if not all, the CPATS.ORG
questions and answers before posting. This has been extremely helpful
seeing that the Lord has not blessed some of us, especially me, with strong spelling and grammar skills.
There have been times though, where due to bad health, Rob is not
able to do the best job he wants to do for the site. With that in
mind, if there is anyone who is a practicing Catholic who would be
interested being a backup Grammarian to Rob, who could review
questions and answers before their posting on the web site, please
e-mail me. {Important Note: We DO NOT need a Catholic Apologist.
If you want to volunteer, your primary focus should be spelling and
grammar.} Special thanks go to Robert Coutinho who is always there to
assist in prove reading my commentaries and the CPATS questions and
answers before posting on the site.
Important second note: If
you know any doctor that specializes in (CFS) Chronic Fatigue
Syndrome, please e-mail me.
Please keep Rob, Mary Jo and the Coutinho family of Westboro, Massachusetts
in your prayers. Thanks Rob!
o Looking for beta tester for a new on-line game
There has been
an on-line game I’ve been working on for the past 2 years. I’m
currently looking for beta testers to test it out and report any bugs
they find. Please
e-mail me if you are interested. Seeing this program is in TEST
MODE it is not the type of
application that you share with everyone.... yet.
Any
feedback?
o Has our site helped any family and friends you know?
As an
encouragement to our team of volunteer apologists, we’d
like to hear back from you!
Has our site helped any family and friends you know? If so, how? To this date we have heard of at
least 3 people have entered the Church by the Lord working through
us.
Praise the Lord! Praise be Jesus!
o Feedback and new ideas.
New ideas for the site are in development but we are interested in
your ideas too! What you like to see on our site? What would help you
answer questions from others about the Catholic Faith? E-mail
us!
CPATS
Closing
Utilizing
all the resources from our site to make contacts
Due to the poor usability of our web site I wanted to encourage you to
use the means to:
- stay
in touch with us,
- make
new friends and
- develop new Catholic support groups loyal to
the Magisterium
o Our mailing list and Newsletter.
First making sure your
current e-mail is in our
mailing list.
Second, if you know friends who were on our
mailing list, but may have not updating their e-mail address with us,
forward them this newsletter and encourage them to update their
e-mail on our mailing
list.
Third, if you know OTHERS in your “circle of
friends” who might be interested in our web site:
Forward them this Newsletter!
We welcome those in, as well as outside, our Church with open arms!
o Interested in meeting other practicing Catholics?
Sometimes many people visit our site, but don't use all the needed
tools in order to meet like-minded practicing Catholics. For this
reason, I wanted to list "My 3 favorite support group
pages" and “My favorite pages” for the site:
1. COCFFr,
the Close
Orthodox Catholic Friend Finder Just go to the home page and
click on the graphic at the top of the page that reads:
"Interested in meeting like-minded Catholics near you?" It
may take from one to three weeks to be put in, but I will e-mail you
when you’re in. Side note: If you have submitted your name but don't
see it there you should within the next few weeks. IMPORTANT REMINDER: E-mail me
when you CHANGE your e-mail address. A new Catholic friend can't
contact you with an outdated e-mail address.
2. Also check out our "Starting your own CPATS" page at: http://www.cpats.org/starting_yourowncpats.cfm
3. and our Pizza member pages at: http://www.cpats.org/pizzamembers.cfm
o My favorite CPATS.ORG pages:
Thanks for
taking the time to read our newsletter,
Mike
Mike Humphrey, CPATS.ORG Webmaster
and Catholic apologist
E-mail: mike.humphrey@rcn.com
Christifideles Pizza and Theology Society, The
http://www.cpats.org alias http://www.faithfulchristians.net
"promoting Catholic
apologetic support groups loyal to the Magisterium"
End Note:
For those who know me: I still
haven’t been able to get back into the Hi-Tech field. I’ve been out
now for 5 years. At this
point, I may be forced back into retail sales on a permanent basis,
despite my BS in Computer Science and Certificate in Client / Server
Development. Your prayers for me would be appreciated. Mike
Web resume | Web plus Retail resume.
Looking for more
Catholic humor. When the numbers to our web site started to pick up in
October 2002, one the stats that surprised me was the THIRD most visited page on
our site: The Catholic Humor page.
After
reviewing what we currently have, I thought it would be refreshing to
get some new humor on the site. With that in mind, if you have any
stories, jokes, or whatever you think others would enjoy, please
e-mail them to me at mike.humphrey@rcn.com.
The only requirement: It
has to be funny and Catholic, or faith-related. Haven't seen the page
yet? Take a look at: http://www.cpats.org/catholichumor.cfm
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